Montgomery County sentinel. [volume] (Rockville, Md.) 1855-1974, 1932-05-06
ser heavy children was dragging her

ner heaVy children was dragging hen
Agure into sway-back lines.
Even the old struggle for compo-
sl.ioh was gone. With the enforced
sale OF his piano, he had for few
months locked himself up evenings to
try and strum for melody on a bat
tered guitar. That woke the babies.
Inc SLOW eorrodlng processes OF frus-
trauon began to eat into the heart Of
Leonard. 8A 49, ~
At forty, gray and with stoop, he
was any morning the strap-hanger
caught In the obscene shambles Of the
subway eight o'clock rush; he was any
nat dweller, turning his pasty face
homeward at six o'clock, once more
wedged sardine in the evening sub
way rush; qualified member of the
routlnlzed world of the flat, the shop,
the daily grind, "
sunday mornings he wheeled out his
babies, cleaned out his pipes, tlnkered
with homemade radio, buried his
face under sheets Of the Sunday pa
pers to escape the perpetual wanglings
f1of Hesper, who wore dust caps and
her SKIRTS pulled up around her hips
while she did homework. ~ rs
Sunday afternoons, particularly as
his boys began to grow up, he walked
with them to the ZOOS of the public
parks or occasionally took them skiff
riding on the small lakes. His neck
had grown thin, his arms had grown
more gangling, his eyes had grown to
look like glass that had been breathed
on.
Yet withal, the man out OF whom
had Powered the mystic sweetness Of
the dream waltz, moved ahead In the
trance Of his life. Husband of a wife.
Father of children. Head Of a house
hold. Taxpayer on tiny scale. Sub
scrlber to morning newspaper. Tlnk-
erer with his radio. Absorber Of the
ready-made propaganda of the polltI-
cal and social world in which he lived.
Any man on Any street In Any town.
Middle man. Average man. Man in
the street.
His twins grew older and more de-
handing and more critical of the par
ent who had thus thrust them into
ways of medlocrlty, when at school
there were children who came from
larger flats, and wore better frocks.
His boys grew older, and in many re-
spects, terrifyingly wise In city ways.
His wife grew DINNER and more the
scOld.
And yet, to all intents and purposes,
the little family in the usual little fiat.
in the usual medlocrlty Of its middle
class routine, was fulfilling its destiny.
Hesper, the mother, who had given
Of her body and her vitality that there
might be life. Leonard, the provider,
who sought to nstlll within his family,
right doing and living. Yearllngs,
growing into their maturity under the
family roof.
Straw-foot, hay-foot Routine. Medi-
ocrity. Standardization.
At fifty, Leonard, with the unfin-
ished melodies dormant Wltnln MN,
was reconciled to all this. SO, In her
way, was the queruous Hesper.
And then one night something hap
pened which changed the complexion
Of life for Leonard to such an extent,
that he could never again feel drab
and hopeless and trapped by the ma
chlnery Of his life small, almost
infniteslmal thing happened, filling his
cup to overlooking; making the fu-
ture something to care about; some
thing to dream about.
His eldest boy, slender, rather SEN
sltlye.faced youngster brought him
drawing he had made on sheet Of
paper. A precoclous, really extraor-
binary portrait Of young girl, ex-
ecuted with vitality, imagination and
beauty.
Captured into that face on the pa
per, laid in cunning gifted stroke, line
by line, was all the quality that
eighteen years before Leonard in an
other way had poured into the dream
waltz. Life was not donel