Reverie in a governor's study

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Part of The American Chamber of Commerce Journal

Title: Reverie in a governor's study
Language: English
Source: The American Chamber of Commerce Journal Volume 9 (No. 12) December 1929
Year: 1929
Rights
Fulltext: December, 1929 Reverie in a Governor’s Study Stuffy in here, but at least a fellow can loosen his collar.— The same old routine, dinner over and another half-night’s work ahead. Whew, what a mess of work! The clerk is so nonchalant about it, piles it a yard high, as though he were dusting off or readying up, as though it were something to put on his time card—then hurries off to his university lectures, his stunt done for the day !—Is it passing the buck? Anyway, there’s a lot of buck-passing in this stack of bills.—Oh, well. . . It’s buck the line, a fellow must suppose—play the game. Does that calendar lie? No? November’s gone, then. November! If a fellow were home there’d be something to do, some thing besides unvarying routine. Fall’s well advanced; gone, The American Chamber of Gommerce OF THE Philippine Islands (Member Chamber of Commerce of the United States) DIRECTORS AND OFFICERS P. A. Meyer, President H. M. Cavender, Vice-President John W. Haussermann, Vice-President John L. Headington, Treasurer H. L. Heath W. L. Applegate J. C. Rockwell Kenneth B. Day ALTERNATE DIRECTORS J. L. Headington A. B. Cresap Wm. H. Rennolds EXECUTIVE P. A. Meyer, CAairman H. M. Cavender H. L. Heath COMMITTEES FINANCE W.H. Rennolds, Chairma E. M. Gross O. M. Schuman John R. Wilson, Secretary E. E. Selph, General Counsel RECEPTION AND ENTERTAINMENT RELIEF W. J. Odom, Chairman Carl Hess John Gordon MANUFACTURING P. A. Meyer, Chairman Alf. Welhaven E. A. Seidenspinner LEGISLATIVE P. A. Meyer, Chairman Frank B. Ingersoll J. R. Wilson FOREIGN TRADE H. B. Pond, Chairman L. L. Spellman M. M. Saleeby PUBLICATIONS P. A. Meyer, Chairman Roy C. Bennett BANKING AND CURRENCY Stanley Williams, Chair man W. J. Shaw J. L. Headington, ChairF. W. Butler J. R. Wilson HOUSE --------------------, Chairman J. R. Wilson LIBRARY John Gordon, Chairman SHIPPING H. M. Cavender, Chairman G. P. Bradford L. E. Nantz INVESTMENTS P. A. Meyer, Chairman H. M. Cavender in fact. Maybe there was snow on Thanksgiving. Even here in the subtropics there is a grateful change—nights are cool. But home! Crisp mornings, bracing days, real winter on the night and a sharp ring in the air. Snow, brushed off the streets by day, is back again the next morning—with motors crunching through it, trams shrieking on the rails, sounds rollicking out to great distances. Windows, curtained in frost, are pretty of an evening, red beacons casting fanlike glows upon the outside bleakness, garden and sidewalk vistas, etchings in black and white. Winter’s on the land, battling with the cities, conquering the countrysides. The folks are joyous, friendly; they’ve holed-in, as it were, like squirrels in their hollow-tree pantries, awaiting spring. Only the people aren’t hibernating. They’re out against the storm. Great! It’s stuffy in here. Guess a fellow might as well turn on the fan. Must be careful, though, not to catch cold. Varsity days these, at home. Looking upon the young folks at play gives the old a perennial delusion of youth; their sallowing cheeks burn red with the cold, they step quick to the tunes the radio and the talkies bring into their parlors. Winter in America—winter at home! Varsity days—football. One’s own college, Harvard, off to New Haven to best Old Eli—the fellows getting roudy, maybe, as they did last year, and yanking up Yale’s goalposts. Then the big dinner, old times recalled by the friends with whom one sits. It’s winter in Washington, too; it’s the season there. Drifts in the Potomac woods, ice on the river, the chances are—at least by Christmas. Social luxury and brilliance all about one ... the architectural beauty, the grand manner, the life of one’s own country’s capital, taking on the fame of a fine city. Not Paris. . . well, she doesn’t have to be—just let her be what she is, Washington, distinctive and distinguish ed in her own right. Gee, four years there! Baltimore near by, and Philadelphia—often a chance, too, to get to New York for a round of the shows. Even the routine of Washington not at all bad—grand soirees, colorful receptions, genteel dowagers, some of ’em really expert with their affairs; younger mesdames, the season’s debutantes, and men who have to be honored to keep up, and other men whom honoring can’t keep down. Anyway, lions among them, and as a whole a Ford Prices Reduced! Effective November 11, 1929 Ford again passes on to you the saving in manufacturing cost made possibly by high efficiency and tremendous production. Look over the new list—decide to buy a New Ford now! Easy Terms May Be Arranged “After We Sell, We Serve” MANILA TRADING & SUPPLY COMPANY Manila — Iloilo — Cebu ■— Bacolod Phaeton............ Pl,550.00 Tudor Sedan.. . 1,875.00 Sport Coupe. . . 1,920.00 Fordor Sedan.... Roadster.......... Pl,540.00 Business Coupe 1,800.00 Standard Coupe 1.865.00 ............ P2.090.00 l'/2-Ton Truck Chassis with front bumper and extra wheel................................. Pl,575.00 IN RESPONDING TO ADVERTISEMENTS PLEASE MENTION THE AMERICAN CHAMBER OF COMMERCE JOURNAL 4 THE AMERICAN CHAMBER OF COMMERCE JOURNAL December, 1929 moving, fascinating scene always, this Washington. No dull hours; on the contrary, many vitally interesting things to do and frequent nation-wide notices of a fellow’s work—the fourth estate manned by the best men in it. Winter days—varsity days. Political days. . . Washington in winter. A nice billet, accessible to places. With the boy in Harvard, a fellow could be up there now and then. It’s nice to visit boys in college; they lay it on naively thick, advertise the fact they’re proud of you. Yes, America is wintered-in now; it has buttoned up its overcoat and gone to shiver in the stadiums and cheer the lads at their jousting; and it is having evenings at the shows, and open ing its comfortable homes to friends. Friends. . . once it had less of an acade mic significance, this word friends. Well, a chap can have friends: a few do no harm. Oh, hum! what a mess of work! Bills, bills, bills—new embryonic laws, nearly two hundred of the pesky things! The crop of ’em this year is unusually heavy, they say, but maybe it’s just soso in quality. A fellow has to see; and it’s all dumped on him late, very late, when he has only a few days in which to dispose of it, and while he’s still new and it’s a lot of Greek to him in lots of cases. Almost, they seem to have said, “Let him work late, every night. Let him drudge like a stodge. We’re through!” Well, he does it—drudges like a stodge every night. So he does tonight. So he is doing right now, trying to find head and tail to nine score new laws, mostly the prodigious output of a style com mittee after the session was over. A new game, a ticklish new game; a fellow must dig in and learn the rules of playing it. And it’s winter, varsity days at home. . . the boy’s in school, up at Harvard. And Washington, one of the world’s best shows. Raucous some times, gentle sometimes, but ever fas cinating. Prairie senators, industrial senators, the whick-whack of parlous debate. . . . and little parlors, and big salons, with large interest in parleurs and public affairs. Friends. . . What? Midnight? Well, it’s time to knock off, laws or no laws. . . . Why, out here on the verandah it’s even starlight! This verandah is all right, big, quiet and cool, here by the river—if a fellow had time to enjoy it. Ugh! those bills! The moral of that episode—Don’t turn back for cigarettes on a work-piled desk! The bills are waiting, and they’ll be waiting tomorrow night, too. Any way, it’s downright lovely out here—-the moonlight, the nearing stars, the river. A stately river, this old Pasig. If there were friends. . .if— Boats go nuzzling by, there’s a bit of traffic all night. A fellow might think, if he were tired, that the boats were bringing ghosts to this echoing old barn, and taking them away again— sated with the wine of weariness; sated at one’s very veins. He might imagine them annoying him with welcomes, interrupting him with their departures. Bienvenidas, despedidas! If a fellow dwelt on these things very much, he’d be overwrought. It’s just a ghostly lonesome hour, that’s all. Let ’em come, let ’em go. It’s time to knock off and get some sleep. Down the river there, through the shadows, on the island midstream,- is the Hospicio de San Jose. They used to use it for political purposes, sometimes; they kept a governor general there five years, once—in oldtime Spanish days. Well, at least they called him a prisoner: he knew his status. The leg-irons of the office are upon one, and the search light of international scrutiny. It is news if one’s lamp burns late—news if it is turned out early. News hounds one—“the little lions of the press,” Taft said—ready to bare its teeth. “Why did you do that?” “When will you do this?” “Or will you do it at all?” “Ifnot.why1” Constant searching about, ceaseless importunities; little news, pue rile news, but pricking, persistent, vig ilant news—dogging news! But it’s quiet now, maybe a fellow can get some sleep. There’ll be no news till morning. Waning November. . . winter time at home, varsity days—the old folks watch ing the young grow up, and learn the rules of the game. Maybe there was snow on Thanksgiving, maybe Washing ton will have a white Christmas! A fellow ’ll just have to cable the boy, and grab something in the stores and get it off in the mail to him, probably late. Well, it’s all he can do. Those bills! embryonic new laws by scores! Days given to babbling conferences, evenings just so long. Oh, well—it’s all in a life-time: a fellow has to play the game. He’ll get through somehow, get through or break. . . Anyway, he’d like to see the boy.—W. R. Written on Thanksgiving, ’29, in appreciation of the splendid spirit of self-effacement in which His Excellency, Governor General Dwight F. Davis, is conducting his administration, and at a time when he had about two weeks, in cluding his Thanksgiving holidays, in which to study and dispose of the nine score measures passed by the legislature, some of which had not reached him yet and most of which had reached him after half his time, thirty days from the close of the session, for considering them had elapsed. Though Governor Davis never suggests in manner nor word any thing other than official alertness and eagerness over his exalted duties and unceasing obligations, still even public men have their personal side and are in fee to natural human emotions. The Journal is sure that everyone in these islands hopes Governor Davis’s first Christmas here will be a very happy one— compensatory to him as a man, our neighbor on calle Aviles. 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