The Epic of New York City

by Edward Robb Ellis

  A writer and his wife stopped to watch. So did a Puerto Rican delivery boy and a father and mother with their two children. A young crew-cut man and a couple of girls who looked like coeds climbed out a window onto a nearby balcony for a better view. If the Negro lad noticed the spectators, he gave no sign of it. Solemn-eyed, he went about his business—which was to touch this world with beauty.

  The history of New York is the story of battles and riots, immortal men and great achievements, but the bubbleboy also was a part of that history. No yelping pack of reporters and photographers recorded the moment, for they concentrate on conflict, and this was serenity. Around the world had gone the word that New York seethed with danger, but in this autumn gloaming, one bubble after another swung gently toward heaven and then winked to extinction. And before each bubble burst, for a few gleaming seconds it reflected the city, its streets, trees, houses, and smiling faces.

  Perhaps those who watched might have agreed with Paul Morand, a French writer, who said of New York: “If the planet grows cold, this city will nevertheless have been mankind’s warmest moment.”

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