SIDEWALKS 45

York ? What country is like unto America ?
Let this be considered by those who maintain that
New York is not an American city.

In his admirable book, The Epic of America^
Mr. James Truslow Adams tells us of a French-
man who said that what struck him most in New
York was " the way that everyone of every sort
looks you right in the eyes without a thought of
inequality." This is a highly appropriate remark
to make in the land of liberty. But my own
experience, when mingling with the crowd, is
quite different. Far from finding that everybody
looks me " right in the eye/' I find that nobody
looks at me at all, or seems to have the faintest
awareness of my existence except as a moving
object to be avoided if I happen to get in his way.
My relationships with the crowd and the crowd's
with me are on the level of things rather than
persons. Certainly there is " no thought of
inequality " in their bearing towards me, for the
simple reason that we all stand together on a level
where conscious inequalities can hardly arise, and
where the equality that exists, that of things, is
not thought of either, because equality on that
level is not worth thinking about. No doubt if I
were to stop one of these moving objects and ask
the way to Brooklyn Bridge he would look me
" right in the eyes " when giving his answer, but
not more directly than a Londoner under similar
conditions. He might even go farther and
address me in succession as " general/' " cap-