Darrow and his companion were
seeing humanity disjointed from its accustomed habit, as one looks on a
stage full of men hypnotized into belief of an absurdity.
Where the blotting out of electricity had been tragic, this, as soon as
its utter harmlessness was realized, became comic. All about through the
park men were meeting the situation according to the limited ideas
developed by a crustacean life of absolute dependence on the shell of
artificial environment. A considerable number of all sorts had fallen on
their knees and were praying. One fat man in evening dress, with a silk
hat and a large diamond stud showing between the lapels of a fur-lined
coat, was particularly fervent. By force of habit Darrow remarked on this
individual.
"I'll bet he hasn't been to church since he was a kid," he observed, of
course inaudibly.
The policeman caught the direction of his look, however, and grinned with
understanding.
Some stood frozen to one spot, their faces agonized, as a man would stand
still were the earth likely to yawn anywhere. Darrow would have liked to
reassure these, for their eyes expressed a frantic terror. One red-faced
individual with white side-whiskers, looking exactly like the comic-paper
caricatures of the trusts, had evidently refused to accept any arbitrary
dictates of natural forces. Probably he had never accepted any dictates of
any kind. He was going from one taxicab to another, trying to command a
driver to take him somewhere, talking vehemently and authoritatively, his
face getting more and more purple with anger.
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