Every Month a Picture — Worry!

From the breadth of the noisy street — the greatest living human stage — Emily Nasrallah brings us every month, with a skillful pen and keen observation, a picture. What a lesson in every picture ... for whoever will take heed!

With lightning speed the taxicab was devouring the street, crowded as it was with the flow of people and the throng of cars... and she sat silent as the grave, unaware of what went on around her, holding her heart in her hands for fear... She does not fear death — but she does not wish it to be a violent death, and in the middle of the street...

Naturally, she had to listen to the radio, which never stopped for a moment; and "the radio" here is an alias for the honorable driver, who left no word in the dictionary of his vocabulary unused twice or three times over. And why should he not seize the opportunity, when this crowd around him makes up an audience of listeners, with someone at his side laughing and patting him on the back?...

He catches sight of a girl crossing the road in front of his car, and he sticks out his head, without shame, to blow a few of his choice words in her face; or one of his colleagues may beat him to it, and receive from the torrent of syllables a thorough washing. And the great calamity is

when our friend meets a bosom friend: he does not hesitate to stop in the middle of the street to ask the dear friend about his health, the family, and the sweet mustaches... without ever thinking that with him in the car is a clerk counting the seconds, and a workman for whom a delay of five minutes may mean dismissal...

It happened once that I boarded a car working along one of the electric tramway lines; I still remember, even now, the tightness that seized me when I heard the driver calling at the top of his voice: There's been a collision... dozens killed... the tram is stopped...

The collision, of course, was a creation of the driver's imagination; he was not ashamed to repeat this phrase the whole way, as though he were reciting a piece of verse or intoning a sweetly tuned anthem... And in my view this driver is not to be blamed more than the public that laughs and "pats him on the back" in contentment and approval...