A man or
woman who went singing for pleasure through the streets--like a crazy
Neopolitan--would have been stopped, and belike locked up; for Freedom
does not mean that a citizen is allowed to do every outrageous thing
that comes into his head. The streets were dangerous enough, in all
conscience, without any singing! and the Motor Federation issued
public warnings declaring that the pedestrian's life was in his own
hands, and giving directions how to proceed with the least peril.
However, Bibbs Sheridan had no desire to sing in the streets, or
anywhere. He had gone to his work with an energy that, for the start,
at least, was bitter, and there was no song left in him.
He began to know his active fellow-citizens. Here and there among
them he found a leisurely, kind soul, a relic of the old period
of neighborliness, "pioneer stock," usually; and there were men
--particularly among the merchants and manufacturers--"so honest
they leaned backward"; reputations sometimes attested by stories
of heroic sacrifices to honor; nor were there lacking some instances
of generosity even nobler. Here and there, too, were book-men,
in their little leisure; and, among the Germans, music-men.
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