Carolina watchman. [volume] (Salisbury, N.C.) 1871-1937, 1932-08-26
NINTH INSTALLMENT

impose your ideas upon human be-
ings, you show them how to Law a
thousand bricks where formerly they
only placed half as many in the same
space of time. You develop systems
of efficiency and mass production,
but none of you has the slightest
conception of the underlying pro-
blerns of human life. Does life be-
com more bearble Or more produc-
tive of happiness? By heaven, we
know more about teaching in the
Kindergarten than we do in the
schools of applied science. Science
"a great word, John, a word to con-
jure with, especially when applied.
The rigorous application of science
to life. All, this would lead" Har-
board stopped and looked closely at
John. The face of the student was
white, drawn.
What would it lead to-"John
was eager.
ITO Christianity, John. To toler-
ance."
When Harboard left, John
thought long and earnestly upon the
things the older man had critized.
Mentally he was far less able than
when he entered the schools of high
er learning.
Midnight came and John still sat
dull-eyed. His pipe had gone out
and he neglected his books. The task
before him doomed like a mountain
of lead.
Of a sudden John Breen lost his
hold on the job ahead. He tore off
his green shade, slipped on his coat,
caught his cap and started out of the
door, walking down the stairs as if
in a trance.
Out through the black wicket of
the dorms, down the long, wet Black
paved avenue, below the naked, wind
swept arches of the great cathedral
rising gaunt and massive against the
dull orange of the midnight sky, lit
by a billion distant city lamps, re-
pected downward from the cloudy
vault. 1t was raining, and this SEEM
ed to fit his mood. On, and on, a.
way from books, away from tasks
and rask-nnasrers, and away from his
drudging, grinding self, he trudged.
He turned down Fifth Avenue, and
ran easily on the hard gravel, close
to the low coping of granite. AT
Forty-ninth Street he turned east to
Third Avenue, and still d%ogtrotted
on toward the south. Policemen
battened in doorways, took him for
a home-bound Waterman or night
worker. running to escape the rain.
As he neared the Bowery, a strange
fatigue came over him. He slowed
to a walk. Chills seized his frame.
His teeth chartered. He began to
run again; pain in his joints filled
him with torture. He continued his
pace, doggedly, passing below the
deep shadow of Cooper, Union, where
he had spent such marvellous nights
where his soul had glimpsed the big
ness of the universe. FOR a while he
forgot the shooting pains and rushed
ahead, wild with sudden desire.
1t was after one-thirty when he
passed the Clothing Emporium. He
searched for the name of LIPVITCH
in faded letters. He thought of
knocking at the door, stopped for a
moment, and then in new git letters
he saw the words, Aaron Levy, Sue
cessor, beneath the old sign of the
Emporium-New and Second Hand.
His bearings were gone. Where was
Channon Lipvitch? Where. was he?
Now the city was driving him back
again to the Shiny waters of the har-
Dor. The whole world began to tot
ter; the dark span of the Brooklyn
Bridge lowered like a massive threat,
magnifed by the wet mist as he had
seen it. once before. Cars changed,
vessels bulked high above HIM. He
walked across the wide river-front.
He was playing a game with himself,
and in it he forgot his misery.
Suddenly John Breen stumbled.
His hands hot out before him as he
fell, something yielded, and in an a
gony of realization he clutched des-
peraterly as he plunged head foremost
through the door of a night-owl
lunch car, backed against the head
of a slip. Light instead Of darkness,
warmth, and the steaming aroma of
a coffee urn, not the slime and cold
of the river! With a bound his senses
came to him. A look of terror froze
upon his face.
"Wodelyouhave?" The sleepy lunch
car watcher reused himself sudden
ly and removed a pair of brogans
from the ounter He eyed John
suspiciously.
Coffee" John uttered the word in
1-11.-- - IL, l,oI fo1+ 1,,aer