Evening star., 1933-08-20

attitude In Wnlcn Cney SET ABOUT ".
There is comparatively little whining
over their situation, no heavy burden
of regret Because times are wrong"
they are assuming their share of re-
sponsibility for the chaotic conditions.
There is laughter to be heard among
them-and it is not the laughter that
comes from a gin bottle; it arises from
an unconquerable spirit of optimism.
NOR are these folks youths, among
whom cheerfulness might be nor
mally contagious even in the face OF
adversely As a whole they are in that
period of life called middle age" Some
are elderly. They should have come to
routine careers and not be uprooted
fugitives of fate.
Among the multitude overlook
Howard Moran, financially bankrupt
attorney at law. He was tramping an
Indiana highway when I stopped the
car to offer lift. He shifted clumsy
blanket roll from his shoulder to the
crotch between fender and hood, re-
tanning in hand battered brief case.
He was approximately so and obviously
unrural. His bruises, blisters and cal
louses were newly acquired. He was
companion for two hours through
sparsely settled region.
There is more pure romance in life
today than at any period since the Civil
War;" was his view of the predicament
in which he and millions of others find
themselves. More persons are living
the themes Of novels than are reading
them Life, now, is adventurous, haz-
ardous and bewildering. but it is replete
with surprise and variety
1.-The things have undergone would
have avoided like pestilence, but now
that am in the thick of them they are
stirring and stimulating Much Of the.
time am not making living, but each
day I am actually living beyond any
measure of comparison with my former
settled years"
A week or so later I fell into con-
versation with James Wiley, another
financially bankrupt attorney at law, on
a bench in Lake Shore Park, Chicago.
There has never been a period in
modern history when life was so sterile
and futile and without meaning as it is
today" said Wiley. Existence is barren,
hopeless and beyond alienation for
millions of people. 1t is a wasted effort
to survive. We are fools to struggle"
you do not, then, see romance as one
of the features of the upheaval?" asked,
oh rf,,1
With a sneering "Bah!" he scowled at
me and shuff1ed off into the Loop dis
trict, where, not long since, he had
maintained offices.
Moran and Wiley are real persons,
though the names given here are fic-
titious. The former, with his enthusiasm
in the face of hardship and depriva-
tion, is representative of those who have
the stamina to start afresh in new places.
The latter has the characteristics of
millions who hang about their old
haunts, detected and bewailing. Lawyer
Wiley will stand all day in bread line;
Moran will use the same physical energy
in exploration.
A FEW blocks from where I am now
writing, in small Northern Cali
fornia town, lives music teacher-he
may be so called because he has one
violin pupil. Two years ago he lived in
Hollywood, the former mecca for musi-
clans. He was a member of the Phil
harmonic Orchestra, was heard on the
radio and had surrounded himself with
many pupils. He accumulated $4,000,
but lost everything overnight, figura-
lively. To escape the stultifying effect
of charity he ran off to the country