A STRENUOUS HOLIDAY 



resources the fatuous Kaiser had let loose upon 

 himself in this far-off land. On other highways 

 the weapons and materials of war were converging 

 toward the great seaports in the same way. The 

 silent, grim, processions how impressive they 

 were! 



Pittsburgh is a city that sits with its feet in 

 or very near the lake of brimstone and fire, and 

 its head in the sweet country air of the hill-tops. 

 I think I got nearer the infernal regions there than 

 I ever did in any other city in this country. One 

 is fairly suffocated at times driving along the pub- 

 lic highway on a bright, breezy August day. It 

 might well be the devil's laboratory. Out of such 

 blackening and blasting fumes comes our civiliza- 

 tion. That weapons of war and of destructiveness 

 should come out of such pits and abysses of hell- 

 fire seemed fit and natural, but much more comes 

 out of them much that suggests the pond-lily 

 rising out of the black slime and muck of the lake 

 bottoms. 



We live in an age of iron and have all we can 

 do to keep the iron from entering our souls. Our 

 vast industries have their root in the geologic his- 

 tory of the globe as in no other past age. We delve 

 for our power, and it is all barbarous and unhand- 

 some. When the coal and oil are all gone and we 

 come to the surface and above the surface for the 

 white coal, for the smokeless oil, for the winds and 



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