The Washington times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1902-1939, 1937-09-27

BOake Carter
Contrasts in Faces
Americas Eternal Youth
An Omen of Hope
NOV and then you see some
~ thing which gives you a great

sense OF eXIllldTdLlOu
Wandering through the streets
and hotels of New York last
week 1 saw:
Men having an uproariously
good time; bands playing on
half a dozen streets at once;
sidewalks ankle deep in paper in
some spots; cannons popping; a
motorcyclist riding round hotel
lobby; a good-natured mass of
humanity damned like sardineS
in a tin in Times Square; a
thousand practical jokes; noise,
noise and more noise; Fifth
Avenue shop fronts boarded up;
streams of people walking un-
concernedly down the middle Of
metropolitan streets and every
where, laughter and laughter
again.
-
MY MIND mirrored another
AVA picture-picture of peoples
in an Old World, a picture Of
pinched faces, an indescribable
look of dread expectancy, an
atmosphere of lifelessness and
futility; countenances tired and
jaded.
The reflection vanished as I
looked at these faces in New
York. The contrast came al
most as a physical shock. Here
were faces that hailed from
four corners of a vast, far-flung
country. They glowed with
some strange spirit. Their eyes
sparkled. The tans Of the suns
of West and South, the winds
of the Northwest mingled with
the paler, but just as vivacious,
faces of the East.
All the more remarkable was
it, for these faces belonged to
men of middle age - 40 and
beyond. Paunches, STOPPING
shoulders, CRAVING hairs, aching
feet made no difference. The
whoopla, the capers and the
pranks shook the tall buildings
of the most blase city in the
world and thereby bewildered it
strangely.
For the American Legion was
at play. But play though it
was, it gave me thrill I shall
not forget.
In America no one seems to
grow old. 1t is Americas secret.
HERE were these middle-aged
IA men from the plains, the
prairies, the plantations and the
industrial world cutting up like
madcap children. Civic order,
rules and regulations had van
ished temporarily, but their van
ishment was gloriously good
natured.
Horseplay? Certainly, but
horseplay the wholesomenesS Of
which, devoid so utterly of all
righteousness, is worth it's
weight in gold. It is a whole
some horseplay which reveals
the basic worth of America and
the youngness of its spirit I'M
furnished by Old World cyni-
cismS and fears, unafraid Of
life.
\ X X
IT is a spirit Of eternal youth
= where men may grow old in
years, but seemingly never grow
old in spirit. They fling them
selves SOU and body into playing
for a week and then go back
to their jobs. It is a great and
invaluable gift. 1t is the spirit
which sends the American dash
ing to fire, crowding round an
automobile accident, staring at
out-of-townerS-always vital in
tereSt which keeps America so
much alive.
That is why this column says
over and over again that there
is inherent in the United States
an inner spirit of youth that no
other nation on earth possesses
nor even comprehends.
That is why this column has
so much faith in fundamental
America and its writer continu-
ally pleads that America. where
none seem to grow old, does not
let that spirit be destroyed by
interests or statesmen who, with
their faces to the past rather
than the future, would hitch
Americas star to the hearse Of
Europe's lost causes.
LegionnaireS may have cut
capers in New York. but they in
ndunrt nrotln rnunnlnd AlA olL l..