Evening star., 1932-07-02
ASSEMBLY Scene
ALWELy TAPESTRY
Writer EnvisionS a Curtain OF
Pink Woven With Myriad
White Patches.
BY WILLIAM ALLEN WHITE.

when the gavel of the chairman Of the
Democratic National Convention should
have clicked, waiting for hole IN the
radio time wherein we may enter.
Only 10000 may see this gorgeous
spectacle. Millions will listen to 1t, and
they cannot listen until all the soap,
toothpaste, nickel cigars and other
necessary Junk whose names were never
in the dictionary 100 years ago are
cleared from the radio dial.
So before the stadium comes to the
listeners-in, we, the 10000, sit cozily
around the little pit where 1,500 dele-
gates and alternates are hudoled,
Snugly seated in comfort and ISOLATION.
We 10000 may look at the machinery,
the mechanics of this modern mob.
1t is lovely in the blending Oh lts
colors. Hats are off and skln-plnk pre-
walls. In a foot ball stadium the nat
gives the color to the great smears OF
human faces. There the prevailing
fashions in reds, or blues, or green, or
pravs with black, give the foot ball
stadium the effect of an immeasureaole
rug.
A Lively Tapestry.
But this scene is different. 1t is a
lively tapestry, curtain OF pink woven
with innumerable white patches where
mems Summer suits CLEAN and women,S
clothes dapple every few feet with red,
or green. or blue, or the shades be-
tween the dark shades which come from
human hair. The stretches marking
the pit, the loges, the mezzanine ana
the gallery above are barred with long
streaks of bunting, lining out the varl-
Gus divisions in the upward rise OF the
picture made by humanity upon the
walls of the stadium.
The band is playing with faint little
squawks. like mouse singing In
wardrobe. But when the organ rolls
out il carries in some way the souno
of the band farther than the band
would 90 itself. The organ muitlplies
the music, if one may call this rhythm
and thunder music, one hunoreo 1olo:
Occasionally the crowd sings, nut ltS
singing, unguided by the organ, soon
gets out of time and becomes merely
lumbled jangling cadences without
rhythm. The mechanics of the organ
are necessary for this simplest OF hu-
man functions.
THE great lights, the last wink OF
science. introducing artificial sunlight,
are trained upon the speakers STAND
or upon some delegation When great
man arises, when some notable orator
is shouting The lights Hash upon MN
for a minute or two while some parade
The Lights Must Rest.
The lights burn briefly, for they can
only burn 10 minutes, and then must
rest, or they are destroyed by their own
f7erceness, A moving picture cannot be
made in a continuance reel Of the con-
yention. The lights must rest.
In conventions in the old days, while
the delegates and their guests waited
for committee to report, orators names
were called from the floor speakers ana
the waiting hours were filed with ora
tory. That custom has passed. Tne
orators can get no radio time, ano
without radio time the program Wits. !
Here comes the permanent chairman.
The big lights flash on him for mo-
ment. Beside him is a tail, handsome |
woman, and the little lights OF the pho
tographers are seen twinkling about |
them as Photographic reports snap tne |
two.
These little lights twinkle all over |
the hall from time to time as reporters |
are running hither and yon locating |
local celebrities and photographing |
them.
A new bulb has been discovered since |
the convention four years ago which |
makes these photographs easy without |
noise or smoke or confusion. They are |
pretty sights, these fickering stars |
running like firehies across the con-
vention. To our grandfathers they |
would be unbelievable miracles.
For some reason a delegate from one |
of the sagebrush States is trying TO
address the chair.
.sFor what purpose does the dele
gate address the chair?" cries CHAIR |
man walsh, and the delegate, however !
great or small he may be, glares up at
Chairman walsh with indignation that |
a chairman should ask statesman why
he dares to address the chair
The delegate turns to l2-year-olo
boy. He bends over the boy as i in
PRAYER and breathes words into little
round disc on the pages coat lapel. |
1t is the new mic-ophone, no larger
than a half dollar, and the delegates
words go roaring up wire and down
the loud speaker to the chairmanS
platform. They reVerberate over the
hall.
The Evolutionary Plan.
It would be impossible for any chair
man to hear any delegate in this glor1-
fed barn of the stadium without that |
little round disc. AS we learn how to
stretch 1.-the light ribs of steel across !
wide spaces, we also must learn how to
multiply the human voice as we have |
lengthened steel The whole mechani- |
cal plan is evolutionary. Without one |
steu we cannot take the other, and we
never can take step back.
The hour has come, the hole In the |
radio program is made, and here We 60 |
During the 12-hour wait since the |
close of the greatest poker game IN |
history at dawn the hotels along Michi- |
gan avenue have been filled with wish, |
full prophecies. Statesmen believed |
what they hoped News gatherers |
learned many weird things, no two Of
which could be true, for they all were
in conflict.
1t was said Roosevelt deal was
made with Garner, McAdoo and Hearst
CHearst holding the mortgage on the
Garner -McAdoo stock in Texas and
California;. The deal, according to
those who retold 1t, was to make Gar.
ner Vice President for the votes OF
California and Texas, which would put |
over the nomination of Roosevelt. Then |
we were told positively that Garner
would not take as a gift the vice presi-
dental nomination.
Just before dawn the Roosevelt man
ayers went over to the Maryland dele-
cation and tried to make oicker.
Come on" they said. I'VE can make |
Ritchie Vice President. We have got /
Ohio and MiSsnr=i. and we want Ritchie |
Will US Lie hdEylhIlOTtst ISHie
hard-boiled, replied in scorn: "Ha, hat
II you have Ohio and Missouri, you /
don't need US. We will stick" And the /
Roosevelt workers went away sadly, |
and Ohio did not come through.
The letter 20" was too far down the |
alphabet to make the letter IN" safe. |
The long night was filed with that |
sort Of bluflng around the poker table I
as the poker game ground inexorably |
along until far past dawn.
Now one gigantic ghost Is stalking |
across the hall. II one could open the /
heads of these 1,l00 delegates, one |
would see rising UP from all their con- |
sciousness one cramping fear-the fear |
of the deadlock. These delegates know |