|
The excerpt represents the core issue or deciding factor on which you must meditate, and is drawn from Emma McChesney & Co. by Edna Ferber: debrutalized, welded into a weird choirlike chant first high,
then low, rising, swelling, dying away, rising again to a dull
roar, with now and then vast undertones like the rumbling of a
cathedral pipe-organ. Emma knew that the high, clear tenor note
was the shrill cry of the lame "newsie" at the corner of Sixth
Avenue and Twenty-sixth Street. Those deep, thunderous bass
notes were the combined reverberation of nearby "L" trains,
distant subway and clanging surface cars. That sharp staccato
was a motorman clanging his bell of warning. These things she
knew. But she liked, nevertheless, to shut her eyes for a moment
in the midst of her busy day and listen to the chant of the city
 Emma McChesney & Co. |