Evening star., 1938-05-08

Orient as would surely make the bird
fall silent and the blossoms die il
birds and blossoms were aware OF
human folly. But birds and blossoms
have no brains And so they flourish
and are happy. Men have brains?
Well, it is all very puzzling, and what
is one to thing about it?
Well, what? In centuries past, in a
time which we now call the Dark Ages,
plaques ravaged the world, war was
everywhere, dictators existed not in.
twos and threes but in every prov
ince, town and village, water was not
guaranteed pure, and solitary women
did not sit at evenings to their work
with open windows and fine indif-
ference to locks. Less than 40 years
was the span of human life. the gall
lows tree was the common sentinel Of
hilltops. and death was the penalty
for stealing a poor sheep. Or for
thinking certain thoughts. Nor were
there vitamins in those benightcd
times. And the symphony did rot
come into plain mems homes over
| the loW-priced radio.
Surely the world has been worse Of
than it is today? Why. then, can our
editorial offices, air-cooled, produce
only such miniatory Lamentations
Can it be that today, people enjoy
reading history. but hate the making
| of it? Very calmly we follow the
account of Tamerlane's old conquest
in the East; without turning a hair
We go through the records of the
sack of Rome, the ravaging of cities
! by the Norsemen, the burning of the
Alexandrian Library, the winning Of
America from the cruel and treacher-
GUS Indians. Being literate, We know
complacently that this is History,
History with a capital H, safe now
on the shelves of free, air-conditioned
libraries for the edihcation of a gen.
Grafton of readers-ourselves. Oh It
happened OF course, we know it
happened. But. because it is His
tory with a capital H, it has lost
reality to us. We are literate and
| that means that we have learned to
read, and in the schools where they
taught us We somehow acquired the
belief that History happened in one
world while all were living in an
other.
| Alas. we stand on a base of his
! tory, as surely as a tree grows from
roots Our superior vantage point
today Con which We build our air
! cooled skyscrapers with their Offices
! for magazines is no more than the
IF bo act 1oI
the crater from which our own life
blazes briefly forth. The flavor of A
thousand civilizations is buried in the
heap, but one ingredient has been
common to them all. And that in
gredient is violence
Non -combatants have been done to
death in wars before today. if not by
bombs from the air. then by pike and
battleax. They have been driven from
their 'homes, too. not to shelter in
pitying neighbor countries las We
| have achieved in our goth century.
but sold into slavery literally by the
| cityful Our ancestors. who partook
in these doings. knew little or nothing
about History. Literacy was not COM
mon in their time; few of them could
read. They only made history. ac-
cording to the rules which occurred
to them. A city burned did not move
/ them to question. for they knew the
| answer aforetime. 1t was that their
own city might be destroyed on the
/ morrow.
| But we can read, and with, unique
| ly, knowledge of human inevitabilltles
in our possession, We still are surprised
at what We do. Our magazines cry
out against this conduct, not more
in protest than amazement. Can such
things be. they ask, when, plainly,
such things have always been. And
We can read And We have the rec
ords There is a hiatus somewhere
between the world and all these maya
zines It is very puzzling.
WELL since dogs at least are un-
troubled by events. it is gratify-
ing to learn that. come the next war.
some measures will be taken to protect
them too Ken, for instance, amid its
lamentations. announces that "a lava
tory to be used by dogs during air
raids has been provided in London
Luxury Funkhole' under Bentinck
Close, apartment house block on Ave-
nue. road. Regents Park. Rents aver
age $4,000 annually for an apartment.
The building is specially constructed
for air raid resistance, with floors con-
tanning a foot of solid concrete as
| breaker for the force of the bomb The
shelter is a cellar constructed by the
Carrier Engineering Co.. which owns
the British rights and patents on an
anti-gas air filtration device used in
the famous Maginot Line. In view of
the dog loving character of the British
upper classes, this part of the shelter
has been set aside with special chen-
cal detruction devices, so that DOGS
may carry on their natural functions
without molesting the human occu-
pants
~! Now, though that is gratifying, as
said, it is still quintessentially absurd.
Not that there is anything ridiculous
about supplying the dogs of the family
with due protection from mems folly
no. But that when We are so smart
! IIldl we can make dnll-gdS air llllId-
tions" and special chemical destruc-
ton devices" we can still build as our
chief works fortresses and weapons for
the assault of fortresses-and are
amazed that there are wars. Fitted out
with anti-gas filtration. a $3.000-a-year
apartment is nothing in the world but
the primitive cave den equipped with
modern refinements. And somehow 1T
seems great deal worse than the den.
too. For everybody knows that people
die. but this is like rouging a corpse to
prove that man is not mortal. This is
nasty-nice. This is degenerate, per-
verted.
But no-there may be sensible,
practical reason behind it. too. For the
master of the cave den. shutting him
self in for seige. could always kill off
and eat his pack Of hounds if the food
supply got low. Maybe this is what is
| in tho minds Of the anartment house