Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-08-11

out.
UEEELING bit ssedy. are you? Why don't
you get away somewhere? With your
typewriter, of course. Do your work in some
quiet place.
Godfrey had acted upon the suggestion in a
daZed way. He had packed suit case, gath
cred up his typewriter and fresh Quires Of paper,
and had fed from the heat of the city in July.
He Stunned the enticing shore places he was
familiar with Instead. he had gone to a town
on the edge of the suburban zone which the
editor had recommended. And he had quar-
tered himself In the first boarding house he
had found.
Immured in a second floor room, there had
issued therefrom, day after day, the unremittent
clack of Geoffreys typewriter. He emerged
only at meal times and at irregular moments
OF respite when he visited the town center to
purchase tobacco for his pipe and more aspirin
for his bedrugged head He made no effort to
get. acquainted with the other boardeTs. who
adiudged him a morose and unsociable person.
They could never have comprehended that this
thin, tired-looking young man was in reality
q part of a machne-a vast, pitiless machine
which had come to All all the universe and
which must 60 on revolving endlessly. They
too were q part Of that same super machine
even If they didn't have sense enough to
know It,
Three weeks dragged by. 1t seemed to Geof-
frey that he had lived for months In that
square, shabby room. His depression darkened
and deepened. His head felt queer and light,
and it frequently ached. The story went for
ward by sheer mechanical effort At times
he sat inactive and sloomed at the typewriter.
1t had become a symbol of that greater world
machine of which he was a helpless part.
Its swift response to his touch only irritated
him. Now, when the story stalled and words
refused to come it seemed to mock him. For
the first time he observed the entrails of its
mechanism He peered down into all the queer
jointed parts which he didn't understand, but
which miraculousy integrated into activity at
q mere touch upon the keys
And he had to keep nammering at those
keys, increasingly hammering at them. He was
no longer free man. but slave.
And now at last. in a swift instructive mo-
ment of rebellion. he had struck with liberia
ton. A queer sense of release Immediately
swept over him. He leaned back and
veyed the havoc he had wrought by a simple
inpulsive act. He laughed at the sight Of the
tangled, piled-up type bars. He had put an
end to the machines cursed domination
over him.
He got up from the chair and stretched his
arms. At last he was free man. What time
was it? Nearly s o'clock He put on his hat,
pulling it down to a challenging angle over
one eye-a gesture indicative of his new estate.
He observed the effect in the glass and laughed
again. Then he staggered blithely forth.
He walked several blocks in the glow of his
new-found liberation. It If he trod
on air-his feet felt as light his head. He
had struck at the Internal scheme of things
and found it surprisingly easy. Why didn't the
whole human race rise up and smash once
for all this intricate linkage of machine with
machine which held them enSlaved? He
couldn't feel really free until every one else
was free.
THE blast of whistle smoke his ears. He
looked up to take note of his surround
ings grimy brick walls, topped by smudgy
smokestacks, and white wisp of steam escap-
OF some sort. and this was the moment Of
machine! They had spread everywhere, even
to the outskirts of these suburban towns. The
great octopus of mechanical industry was in
sinuating its tentacles into every locality.
snatching more and more people into its NAV
Of Senseless, endless production.
Above the windows of the detached office
buildings large gilt words caught Geoffrey's
eyes: Comnendable Typewriter Co., Inc.
The letters seemed to dance before his
astonished gaze. His own machine, Com
mendable," had come from this very plant He
halted to stare at the gloomy buildings all
his anmoSty toward his own typewriter now
intensified and concentrated upon this place
where thousands of other typewriters just
like it had been manufactured All these men
and women who streamed forth from