compacted in a small space. One might see in
it ancient Jerusalem, Syria, Persia, Rome and modern Babylon--with
something still peculiar and unclassifiable that one would at length
have to call New York. And to make it more absorbing, the figures were
always moving. Where so many were pressed together each was weighted by
a thousand others--the rich not less than the poor; each was stirred to
quick life and each was being visibly worn down by the ceaseless
friction.

When he had walked the streets for a week, he saw the city as a huge
machine, a machine to which one might not even deliver a message without
becoming a part of it--a wheel of it. It was a machine always
readjusting, always perfecting, always repairing itself--casting out
worn or weak parts and taking in others--ever replacing old wheels with
new ones, and never disdaining any new wheel that found its place--that
could give its cogs to the general efficiency, consenting to be worn
down by the unceasing friction.

Looking down Broadway early one evening--a shining avenue of joy--he
thought of the times when he had gazed across a certain valley of his
West and dreamed of bringing a message to this spot.

Against the sky many electric signs flamed garishly. Beneath them were
the little grinding wheels of the machine--satisfied, joyous, wisely
sufficient unto themselves, needing no message--least of all the simple
old truth he had to give. He tried to picture his message blazing
against the sky among the other legends: from where he stood the three
most salient were the names of a popular pugilist, a malt beverage and a
theatre. The need of another message was not apparent.

So he laughed at himself and went down into the crowd foregathered in
ways of pleasure, and there he drank of the beer whose name was flaunted
to the simple stars. Truly a message to this people must be put into a
sign of electric bulbs; into a phonograph to be listened to for a coin,
with an automatic banjo accompaniment; or it must be put upon the stage
to be acted or sung or danced! Otherwise he would be a wheel rejected--a
wheel ground up in striving to become a part of the machine at a place
where no wheel was needed.

For another experience cooling to his once warm hopes, the second day of
his visit Allan had taken him to his weekly Ministers' Meeting--an
affair less formidable than its title might imply.

A dozen or so good fellows of the cloth had luncheon together each
Tues