FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   23   24   25   26   27   28   29   30   31   32   33   34   35   36   37   38   39   40   41   42   43   44   45   46   47  
48   49   50   51   52   53   54   55   56   57   58   59   60   61   62   63   64   65   66   67   68   69   70   >>  
ourney, I put my feet upon a sofa and awaited their intelligent questions. I spoke to three women and one man. The women asked me if I did not think they were advancing rapidly as a nation; I answered that no doubt interest in international politics was making them less provincial, and with their vitality, intelligence, and resources, their country was bound to exercise enormous political influence in the future, if it was not already doing so. I observed the male reporter demurred to this; he said that the men of ideas and captains of industry were fighting each other all the time, and that the American press pandered to the public taste by keeping them in ignorance of the truth. The ladies challenged this and, addressing him as "Bruce," asked if he thought they did not revere their great men and all that was worth while; adding that they were a young and free nation and, if anything, going far too fast. Appealing to me, I felt obliged to say I thought they were the most genuine and hospitable of people, but that in spite of being always in a hurry I had found them slow; nor could I honestly say I thought them a free nation. I was heartily supported by the solitary man, who asked the ladies where they had observed either the great men, or the reverence; he said that materialism was sapping the soul of America, that their men of intellect were choked out, and in an aside to me in French, while the photographers were taking flash-lights, begged me to let him stay on after the ladies had departed. I assented, and when the oft repeated enquiry as to what I thought of "flappers" came up, I listened with absent mind and without committing myself to a subject that, while disturbing to the morals of the female questioners, bores me to such an extent that I almost scream when it is mentioned. After the ladies had gone Mr. Horton returned with "Bruce." He was the most interesting reporter that I have met up till now. He said he did not know what had happened to the spirit of his fellow-countrymen. Whether it was from temporary restlessness--following the chaos of present conditions--or from a native and ingrained lack of reflection, but that jazz, hustle and headlines were killing the soul of the American people. "There is a perpetual antagonism between the machine, the press, the money makers, and those who are groping in the darkness to be free. When they see the Light, and know the Truth, it will be as bad over here
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   23   24   25   26   27   28   29   30   31   32   33   34   35   36   37   38   39   40   41   42   43   44   45   46   47  
48   49   50   51   52   53   54   55   56   57   58   59   60   61   62   63   64   65   66   67   68   69   70   >>  



Top keywords:

ladies

 

thought

 

nation

 

observed

 

reporter

 
American
 

people

 

groping

 

absent

 
listened

darkness

 

committing

 
morals
 

female

 

questioners

 

disturbing

 

subject

 

flappers

 

begged

 
lights

photographers

 

taking

 

repeated

 

enquiry

 

assented

 

departed

 

extent

 
French
 

reflection

 

ingrained


spirit

 

happened

 

native

 

temporary

 
Whether
 

countrymen

 

conditions

 

fellow

 
present
 
antagonism

mentioned

 

machine

 

scream

 

makers

 

perpetual

 

interesting

 

headlines

 
hustle
 

killing

 

returned