. Our Philadelphia. delphia which an in-telligent Editor asked me to write was my introduction toJ. The town that we both love first brought us to-gether, as it now brings us back to it together after themany years that have passed since it laid the foundationof our long partnership. I would say nothing about the article at this late datehad it not added so materially to my life and to my knowl-edge of Philadelphia. I am not proud of it as a piece ofliterary work. But it seems, as I recall the days of myapprenticeship, to mark the turning of the ways, to pointto the new road I was destined to
. Our Philadelphia. delphia which an in-telligent Editor asked me to write was my introduction toJ. The town that we both love first brought us to-gether, as it now brings us back to it together after themany years that have passed since it laid the foundationof our long partnership. I would say nothing about the article at this late datehad it not added so materially to my life and to my knowl-edge of Philadelphia. I am not proud of it as a piece ofliterary work. But it seems, as I recall the days of myapprenticeship, to mark the turning of the ways, to pointto the new road I was destined to take. I got it out theother day, the first time in over a quarter of a century,proposing to reprint it, thinking the contrast between myimpressions of Philadelphia thirty years ago and my im-pressions of Philadelphia to-day might be amusing. Inmemory, it had remained a brilliant performance, one anyeditor would be pleased to jump at, and I was astonished tofind it youthful and crude, inarticulate, inadequate not 268. THE CHERRY STREET STAIRS NEAR THE RIVER THE ROMANCE OF WORK 271 only to the subject itself but to my appreciation of thesubject which at the time was unbounded. I do not knowwhether to be more amazed at my failure in it to say whatI wanted to say, or at the Editors amiability in publish-ing it. The article may not have lost all its eloquence forme, since between the halting lines I can read the storyI did not know how to tell, but for others it would provea dull affair and it is best left where it is, forgotten in theold files of a popular magazine. The story I read is one of a series of discoveries witha romance in each. The way the article came about wasthat J. had made etchings of Philadelphia, and theEditor, who had wisely arranged to use them, thought theycould not be published without accompanying text. Whenhe asked me, as a young Philadelphian just beginning towrite, to supply this text, he advised me to consult withJ., whom I did not know and whose studio a
Size: 1354px × 1845px
Photo credit: © Reading Room 2020 / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1910, bookidcu3192403249, bookyear1914
