Our Philadelphia . diness. Ill The people, their manners, their life,—everythingseemed to me to have been caught in this mad whirlwindof change and haste. The crowds in the street were notthe same, had forgotten the meaning of repose and leisure-liness; had at last given in to the American habit ofleaving everything until the last moment and then rushingwhen there was no occasion for rush, and pretending tohustle so that not one man or woman I met could havespared a second to say Your are welcome for any-bodys Thank you, or, for that matter, to provide theinformation for anybodys thanks;—indee
Our Philadelphia . diness. Ill The people, their manners, their life,—everythingseemed to me to have been caught in this mad whirlwindof change and haste. The crowds in the street were notthe same, had forgotten the meaning of repose and leisure-liness; had at last given in to the American habit ofleaving everything until the last moment and then rushingwhen there was no occasion for rush, and pretending tohustle so that not one man or woman I met could havespared a second to say Your are welcome for any-bodys Thank you, or, for that matter, to provide theinformation for anybodys thanks;—indeed, these crowdsseemed to me to have mastered their new role with suchthoroughness that to-day the visitor from abroad will carryaway the same idea of Philadelphia as Arnold Bennett,who, during liis sojourn there, never ceased to marvel at itsliveliness. And the croAvds have migrated from the old haunts—every sign of life now gone from Third Street and roundabout the Stock Exchange, where nobody now is ever in. THE PARKWAY PERGOLAS AFTER A QUARTER OF A CENTURY 489 a hurry—carts and cars going at snails pace, the wholeplace looking as if time did not count—the old town busi-ness quarter deserted for JNIarket Street and Broad Streetround the City Hall. And the crowds do not get about in the same way—no slow, leisurely ride in the horse-car to a Depot in thewilds of Frankford, or at Ninth and Green, on the wayto the suburbs, but a leap on a trolley, or a rush throughthronged streets to the Terminal at Twelfth and jNIarket,to the Station at Broad and Market. And it was anothersign of how Philadelphia had moved since the old dayswhen, in place of the old horse-car, which I could rely uponto go in a straight line from one end of the long street tothe other, I took the new trolley and it twisted and turnedwith me until the exception was to arrive just where Iexpected to, or, if I only stayed in it long enough, not tobe landed in some remote country town where I had nointent
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1910, booksubjectlithographyamerican
