BACK TO BARBARISM

Evening Star, Issue 12625, 3 October 1905, Page 5

BACK TO BARBARISM

Writing in the ' •\mprican.' Mr Julian TTawthome -says :—"After only two weeks of torrid heat our stieo'-.a and hcovseo show sif.hts out of tlip ordinary. Conventional b'haviour is relaxed; uniu-'.iaJ measures arc ti.ken to mcot emergencies. The first instinct is to escape, but few havo means to do ito. A percentage altogether forsake the i ity : the roorer pay their nickel 1 * to swaivn to tho near-by beaches, where thty lie all n.iri-t in ma-oes on the shore, like the flain of anni-es. But the thousands without nickels Mow and fester in the shuns, with r.o oth-er nlief than a plongo into tho river from th<? docks or an occa s!onal opening of a. -hyiirajit ill the street. "Meanwhile the iron sinews of the great god Bu'iine.is irlax. He is Ices omnipotent than we thovght him. Mven Wall street falters; its fien/.v to m ike- soinething out of nothing is alnted under the menace of death. Trainmen, engineerc, machinists, ani elovator boys, on whose constancy de. p ml the niovenV:-ut and work of tho city, blench at the threat of heat-stroke ; salesgirls at 'lxy;i ccui't-ra turn pale with the nausea of exhaustion ; the policeman on ills beat hates his helmet and club. The briik 6tep oi the sticvt pedestrian slaekenn Lo a nerveless cnnvl ; he shuns tfio suouy side like a pestilence. Al ininds are preoecupied v.-ith their mere bodily distress, and become hourly rno.-e willing to adopt any means for rtTief. And this, after two weeks onlv! How, it tlic tliermometer were to *tand at lOOdez all summert—ail the vear? " Already we sea that every provision made by civilisation for onr comfort lias b'come doteMUtble. Windows gape wide, uncovering tlie diHintegi-ation of household economies'. Beds are drawn closa to the aperture for air; the n.,ai collapses in hi» cliair, half naked; tlio uoraan leans on tlie sill with bare breiuit and amis, careless cf esposoiro; infants, lie li iccid, and toward evening are borne in th.hr mothers' arms, unresponsive to their anxious glances. On doorsteps anil along the. curb crouch half lifeless L'roup«. The revolt against clothsa, beginning with tiio shirt-waist man on Broadway, b-ocomes all bet total in the n'ums ; decnev if. no longer a virtue in men and women, but an outrage on their suffering. Air, water, ice, green grass, and trees—with these at your command you mav buv human bodies and souls by the myriad." For these all higher and finer requirements of life are despised. Thus far, within two short weeks, has man receded toward the primitive. Alter fifty-two weeks where would' he bo?