THE OLD ORDER

It is an old sort of dream to wonder what would happen if great men of former times came back to look on the present. We have been told what Abraham Lincoln would have thought of the war; we have heard what opinion Louis XIV would have held of the initiative and referendum; it has even been suggested how Isaiah would have received Billy Sunday. Strangely, however, no one has ever informed us of Phillips Brooks' words, should he enter Phillips Brooks House. For the Bishop was an inveterate smoker. He purchased a brand of long, black cigars, which were not labeled Colorado Claro, and these he did not use sparingly. But think of the utter chaos which would result from Phillips Brooks lighting a cheroot in Phillips Brooks House in the year 1917. No mild reproval or honey-worded request would be tendered him. Forcible ejection would be the only method of treatment. Tobacco is now taboo in Phillips Brooks, and it would be so even in the case of the Bishop. Time doth work many marvellous changes indeed.