THE conclusion of the whole matter, then, would fairly seem to be, first that the unfavorable predictions of a year ago missed certain underlying influences whose continued operation in 1926 made the expected trade reaction unnecessary. Next, it would appear to follow, so far as can be seen Inferences to-day, that these essential influences as to the will continue to shape the financial hisComing tory of 1927. But third, their indefinite Year continuance cannot yet, in the light of longer experience, be assumed with en tire confidence. Any summary of American economic achievement during the twelvemonth past will describe as the key to the year's undisturbed prosperity its maintenance of high consumption, as a result of widely diffused well-being, good wages, and full employment in the face of gradually declining prices, and its maintenance of profitable production and distribution through great economy in manufacture, efficiency in transportation, and avoidance of speculative buying. In some respects these phenomena have been the cause for the money market's stability, in other respects the consequence. To predict that the scope and activity of trade will encounter no relaxation in the coming year would be rash prophecy; temporary halts or setbacks of the sort have occurred in some of our industries during 1926; they were witnessed at times even in 1925. But a sweeping and radical change in the general situation would apparently have to be foreshadowed well in advance by signs that these basic influences were themselves changing. The 45th Milestone IN th N the years-now 45 years since the Investment House of S. W. STRAUS & CO. was founded in 1882 Hundreds of millions of dollars of safe Straus Bonds have been underwritten and sold to tens of thousands of satisfied investors, all over the United States and in many foreign lands. Morethan $200,000,000 in interest and principal of Straus Bonds have come due and been paid. No investor has ever had to wait for payment of either bonds or coupons. This record should warrant your confidence. We suggest that you write for literature describing safe Straus Bonds for January investment, yielding 5.75 to 6.25%. Ask for BOOKLET A-1710 In writing to advertisers please mention SCRIBNER'S MAGAZINE 63 GUARANTEED Principal and Interest on First Mortgages back of Titles on mortgaged property are fully insured by These bonds are guaranteed by the United States Mortgage Bond Co., Ltd., with resources of over $13,000,000. Although every dollar of principal and interest has always been paid on United Bonds immediately when due, here is added protection-recognized as the strongest and safest obtainable. Write for more information UNITED STATES MORTGAGE BOND CO., LTD. 314 U. S. Mortgage Building, Detroit, Mich. 64 in 1927? What's ahead for investors in 1927? Practical trends in bonds, stocks, and money rates will be helpfully discussed in our Analy. sis soon to appear. May we assist you to enter 1927 clearly and fully informed on fundamental opportunities for investors? Babson's Reports Div. 77-91 Babson Park, Mass. Reserve for me and send gratis, when issued, your Analysis of Investment Conditions in 1927. Name. Street.. City. State.. Pay $750 per month and get $50000 when your stock in this government supervised Building and Loan Association matures in 4 years and 9 months. 7% has been paid since 1910 Savings have always been subject to withdrawal at any time Write for full details and other plans of safe investment. ROSELAND HOME BUILDING ASSOCIATION 11328 MICHIGAN AVENUE, CHICAGO Under Supervision of Auditor of Public Accounts, State of Illinois In writing to advertisers please mention SCRIBNER'S MAGAZINE SCRIBNER'S MAGAZINE VOL. LXXXI FEBRUARY, 1927 When the Turtles Sing BY DON MARQUIS Author of "The Old Soak," "Sonnets to a Red-Haired Lady," etc. NO. 2 "The time of the singing of birds is come, and the voice of the turtle is heard in our land." HIS world," said the Old Soak, "would be a good deal better place if the days and ways of them old-time peetryarchs the Good Book speaks of was to come again." And yet Mr. Hawley did not appear wholly displeased with this world; he spoke with the air of one who has been thinking profoundly, but not bitterly, of humankind. He was in his favorite seat on the veranda of Jake Smith's Palace Hotel, at the shady end. His feet were on the railing. His corn-cob pipe was purring sweetly. Outside him and round about him were the drowsy, pleasant life of the little town and the shimmer and shadow of a perfect summer day. Inside him was a golden warmth induced by a sample of one of Jake Smith's more successful importations which had boasted on its label that it came from the land of Burns. Poetry was in the Old Soak's eye, poetry and benevolence and the promise of narration. I put my feet beside his on the railing and prepared to assimilate wisdom. "If I was to wake up to-morrow morning with a crown onto my head and a skepter in my hand and find myself the Umpire of the entire human universe," said Mr. Hawley, "my first commandment would be for everybody to go right back to the early days of the world. Them old peetryarchs was big and liberal in their elements and idears. They fig -The Song of Solomon, 2:12. gered that life was too short to waste it all in work. Just because Methuzalem lived a thousand years was no sign that everybody else would. Eat, drink, and be merry, says they, for in five or six hundred years mebby we're gonna die. We're here to-day, they says, and gone in a few centuries; let's whoop her up while the whoopin's good! "One of them peetryarchs would set up on his ivory throne with his flocks and herds around him, and his men-servants and maid-servants and oxen and asses and camels even to the third and fourth generation of posterity, and his wives and children and captives and conqueredbines, and all the in-laws and outlaws that went for to make up a tribe of them Bible beegats, and pass out judgments for an hour or so every Monday morning, just to get business out of the way for the week. And him and his soothsayers and inter-rupters of dreams and medicine-men would pull wise cracks on each other and proverbs and ketch-questions and riddles for another hour, mebby. And by noon on Monday he would be tired of it and say: 'Well, that's that! Is anybody gonna be five hundred years old this week? If there is we'll pull a feastivity that will last a month and crack every welkin 'twixt Dan and Burrsheba!' And usually there was somebody at least a hundred that week, but if nobody was he would ask: 'Can anybody think of some other good reason to have a barbecue?' Mostly they could, but if they couldn't he would say: 'Just for the sake of argument, Copyrighted in 1927 in United States, Canada, and Great Britain by Charles Scribner's Sons. VOL. LXXXI.-9 113 |