Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-02-12

of for the worse" Phyllis answered. 1T
seeing the crime and horror OF the
world can't terrify us into being good.
should think seeing our own careers
as others see them-wouldl"
Men can't be scared into being good, "
said Relief Brainard sapiently and quite
unaware of humor. Men become good
when they are shown that they are bet-
ter than they think they are"
How the world loved to make phrases.
And rules! Prescriptions, recipes,
formulea, for and about living! How
men could tell each other how!
But one thing was gradually i'm
pressed upon Phyllis-a thing she had
heard phrased in one way or another
a thousand times, but thing that had
to be seen to be understood. The mass
of the people, sometimes seeming whole
like the body of living crea-
like a sensitive and impulsive child.
Quick in its affections, as sudden in its
resentment. unbound by obligations un-
won by favors, highly sensitive to
| wrongs, worshiping heroes, furious at
being crossed, gullible in trifies but
with tremendous instinct against being
ultimately befooled! The crowd-like
an overgrown, unruly boy-governed
against its own vain self-assertion by its
simplest emotions, unaware of its own
strength, blind to its own interests. led
by glitter, stumbling with its own clum-
siness. capable beyond its widest
dreams
But the question kept coming back,
and coming back-the question she had
asked herself that memorable night at
the Swan: Who is the crowd? And
| why does each forever think it is some
| one else? Why do we stand apart and
say, There it is, the crowd?" Why is
| it so seldom Here We are, the crowd?"
| What is it gives men power? Some
| trick that beStows on them a whip for
the mob? Or is it the principle of
ruthlessness in using advantage that
comes once to every man-advantage
that slips from the hands of the weak
and grasps the prizes for the strong!
No, no, not that!-or men would never
have needed a capital to identity the
Inquisition-nor have made a common
noun of waterloo! What truly makes
a man stand forever out from men?
His sense OF oneness with them?
But as days and more days went
by the girl came to feel that the peo-
pies mood was like so much scattered
powder lying open to spark. What
was it to them?-fear of the whip?
Passions reused, damned pent? The
blind, gathering menace of a misdi-
rected force? Whatever 1t was, every
where hung a sultry atmosphere
charged with storm. She felt it as
one feels the oppression of the rising
thunder cloud while the sun still shines.
On night it broke. Some one came
! to the house at midnight. Phyllis,
wakeful, had yet heard no alarm till
the bell of the front house door rang
and rang again, unanswered, and with
that persistence that soon constitutes
alarm. The silence of the great house
unresponsive to that inSistent summons
drove her from her bed.
She had known that none of the
others was at home when sc had gone
to her room. Now as she ran through
the upper hall the emptiness of her
home about her was like the chill hol-
low of some great crypt. white-walied
with terror. Father and mother alb
sent-in the still night! And John!
Servants gone! She was alone! And
here was some dire thing-some cruel
event reaching in here out of the far