"LUNACY, NOISE. AND UGLINESS."

Press, Volume LXIV, Issue 13159, 4 July 1908, Page 9

"LUNACY, NOISE. AND UGLINESS."

Elbert Hubbard, editor of the "Philistine," one of tho ablest and most original of American writers has the following vivid impression of New York in a magazine article:—A city of stone and iron and glass, of miles of dark dungeons that aro called underground railways, where the air is heavy with tho sickening stench of narrow streets, with buildings so high on eithei side that tho sun never strikes the pavement except at noon, where th« eensitivo pedestrian is gradually oveicome by the subtle horror ot momentarily experiencing the terrible fato of tho being in Edgar Allan Poo's tale, a city where noise is a god and ugliness a creed —is that a civilised city? Lunacy, noise, and ugliness—that is New York. People live »o fast in N.Y that they set fire to their clothes, and forget they are living, they aro so intoxicated with movement that they have forgotten all about direction. Motion is not progress. Four million people working day and night with fiendish energy constructing Duildinjj* almost as high as the Eiffel Tower, then tearing them down, digging hundreds of feet underground burrowing out their tunnels and holes beneath the beds of rivers like moles, workers making quick apoplectic motions to on« another that they call salutations, faces the colour of ashes in a fireless grate, with eyes that seem capable of boring a note'in a stone, eyes that see everything but the beauty of sunlight and starlight and the tender blue of heaven —do such people live, or are they anything more than corpses, with a galvanic battery in their spines? No, they do not live; they are morelv marionettes with a high fever. Observe from a central point of traffic in N.Y. city, and one sees what appears to bo an endless black vomit cominc out of what looks to be sowers. ■ If a city where beauty, art, culture, and leisure count for nothing alongside of the question, "How many dollars can I squeeze out of my heart and brain" is tho last word that civilisation has to utter, then civilisation is in no way superior to baibari&m. Civilisation means the experiencing of tho best of everything. It is a great refining process, a method by whicli tho dumb, brutish soul of the savage is changed into a being capable of mingling its inner self with all the choicest things in the material and immaterial universe. It quickens the apprehension of man's superiority to the brute, and lends to his nature the glamour of ideal aspiration. New York is but a shadow and a vain show. Her glitter is not a reflection from the undying flame that burns at tho core of the cTvilising instinct, hut is tho sinister aleam seen on the spider's weo. Tin closing, let mc say that I hvo in Now York but for the hto of mc I cant tell why.

NEW STAR BICYCLE FOR £8 lOe.

We are showing in our windows at 13S-140 Hkch 6treot, and IDS Colombo sfcrcot. the now model "Star" Bicycle, which wo.aro soiling at the ridiculously lov price of £8 10s. Of course it us ■wet known that Star Oyckw arc reliable as they hare been sold to the public for over 10 yea-rs. We are also selling pood seooml-hand bicyolre at £2 each. &m? our M-iiKlows. Just now we are giving away a good oil lamp to every ensh purchaser of one of our best tyres and fo~ our second quality tyres we nre givinp away a celluloid pump worth quito half-a-crown. Set- our windows. Adams, Ltd. 6