PAN IN WALL STREET
Reading edition
A.D. 1867
EDMUND CLARENCE STEDMAN
Just where the Treasury's marble front Looks over Wall Street's mingled nations; Where Jews and Gentiles most are wont To throng for trade and last quotations; Where, hour by hour, the rates of gold Outrival, in the ears of people, The quarter-chimes, serenely tolled From Trinity's undaunted steeple,— Even there I heard a strange, wild strain Sound high above the modern clamor, Above the cries of greed and gain, The curbstone war, the auction's hammer; And swift, on Music's misty ways, It led, from all this strife for millions. To ancient, sweet-do-nothing days Among the kirtle-robed Sicilians. And as it stilled the multitude, And yet more joyous rose, and shriller, I saw the minstrel where he stood At ease against a Doric pillar: One hand a droning organ played, The other held a Pan's-pipe (fashioned Like those of old) to lips that made The reeds give out that strain impassioned. 'Twas Pan himself had wandered here A-strolling through this sordid city, And piping to the civic ear The prelude of some pastoral ditty! The demigod had crossed the seas,— From haunts of shepherd, nymph, and satyr, And Syracusan times,—to these Far shores and twenty centuries later. A ragged cap was on his head; But—hidden thus—there was no doubting That, all with crispy locks o'erspread, His gnarlèd horns were somewhere sprouting; His club-feet, cased in rusty shoes, Were crossed, as on some frieze you see them, And trousers, patched of divers hues, Concealed his crooked shanks beneath them. He filled the quivering reeds with sound, And o'er his mouth their changes shifted, And with his goat's-eyes looked around Where'er the passing current drifted; And soon, as on Trinacrian hills The nymphs and herdsmen ran to hear him, Even now the tradesmen from their tills, With clerks and porters, crowded near him. The bulls and bears together drew From Jauncey Court and New Street Alley, As erst, if pastorals be true, Came beasts from every wooded valley; And random passers stayed to list,— A boxer Ægon, rough and merry, A Broadway Daphnis, on his tryst With Nais at the Brooklyn Ferry. A one-eyed Cyclops halted long In tattered cloak of army pattern, And Galatea joined the throng,— A blowsy apple-vending slattern; While old Silenus staggered out From some new-fangled lunch-house handy, And bade the piper, with a shout, To strike up Yankee Doodle Dandy! A newsboy and a peanut-girl Like little Fauns began to caper; His hair was all in tangled curl, Her tawny legs were bare and taper; And still the gathering larger grew, And gave its pence and crowded nigher, While aye the shepherd-minstrel blew His pipe, and struck the gamut higher. O heart of Nature, beating still With throbs her vernal passion taught her,— Even here, as on the vine-clad hill, Or by the Arethusan water! New forms may fold the speech, new lands Arise within these ocean-portals, But Music waves eternal wands,— Enchantress of the souls of mortals! So thought I,—but among us trod A man in blue, with legal baton, And scoffed the vagrant demigod, And pushed him from the step I sat on. Doubting I mused upon the cry, "Great Pan is dead!"—and all the people Went on their ways:—and clear and high The quarter sounded from the steeple.
NOTES
Wall Street:—An old street in New York faced by the Stock Exchange and the offices of the wealthiest bankers and brokers.
the Treasury:—The Sub-Treasury Building.
last quotations:—The latest information on stock values given out before the Stock Exchange closes.
Trinity:—The famous old church that stands at the head of Wall Street.
curbstone war:—The clamorous quoting, auctioning, and bidding of stock out on the street curb, where the "curb brokers"—brokers who do not have seats on the Stock Exchange—do business.
sweet-do-nothing:—A translation of an Italian expression, dolce far niente.
Sicilians:—Theocritus (3rd century before Christ), the Greek pastoral poet, wrote of the happy life of the shepherds and shepherdesses in Sicily.
Doric pillar:—A heavy marble pillar, such as was used in the architecture of the Dorians in Greece.
Pan's pipe:—Pan was the Greek god of shepherds, and patron of fishing and hunting. He is represented as having the head and body of a man, with the legs, horns, and tail of a goat. It was said that he invented the shepherd's pipe or flute, which he made from reeds plucked on the bank of a stream.
pastoral ditty:—A poem about shepherds and the happy outdoor life. The word pastoral comes from the Latin pastor, shepherd.
Syracusan times:—Syracuse was an important city in Sicily. See the note on Sicilians, above.
Trinacrian hills:—Trinacria is an old name for Sicily.
bulls and bears:—A bull, on the Stock Exchange, is one who operates in expectation of a rise in stocks; a bear is a person who sells stocks in expectation of a fall in the market.
Jauncey Court:—The Jauncey family were prominent in the early New York days. This court was probably named after them.
Ægon:—Usually spelled Ægaeon; another name for Briareus, a monster with a hundred arms.
Daphnis:—In Greek myth, a shepherd who loved music.
Nais:—In Greek myth, a happy young girl, a nymph.
Cyclops:—One of a race of giants having but one eye—in the middle of the forehead. These giants helped Vulcan at his forge under Aetna.
Galatea:—A sea-nymph beloved by the Cyclops Polyphemus.
Silenus:—The foster-father and companion of Bacchus, god of wine. In pictures and sculpture Silenus is usually represented as intoxicated.
Fauns:—Fabled beings, half goat and half man.
Arethusan water:—Arethusa, in Greek myth, was a wood-nymph, who was pursued by the river Alpheus. She was changed into a fountain, and ran under the sea to Sicily, where she rose near the city of Syracuse. Shelley has a poem on Arethusa.
baton:—A rod or wand; here, of course, a policeman's club.
SUGGESTIONS FOR STUDY
The author sees an organ-grinder playing his gay tunes in Wall Street, New York, among the buildings where enormous financial transactions are carried on. He (the author) imagines this wandering minstrel to be Pan himself, assuming a modern form. Read the notes carefully for what is said about Pan. Notice, in the poem, how skillfully the author brings out the contrast between the easy-going days of ancient Greece and the busy, rushing times of modern America. Of what value is the word serenely in the first stanza? What is the "curbstone war"? Do you think the old-fashioned Pan's pipe is common now? Could a man play an organ and a pipe at the same time? Why is the city spoken of as "sordid"? What is the "civic ear"? In the description of the player, how is the idea of his being Pan emphasized? How was it that the bulls and bears drew together? In plain words who were the people whom the author describes under Greek names? Show how aptly the mythological characters are fitted to modern persons. Read carefully what is said about the power of music, in the stanza beginning "O heart of Nature." Who was the man in blue? Why did he interfere? Why is the organ-grinder called a "vagrant demigod"? What was it that the author doubted? What is meant here by "Great Pan is dead"? Does the author mean more than the mere words seem to express? Do you think that people are any happier in these commercial times than they were in ancient Greece? After you have studied the poem and mastered all the references, read the poem through, thinking of its meaning and its lively measure.
Read Mrs. Browning's poem, A Musical Instrument, which is about Pan and his pipe of reeds.
COLLATERAL READINGS
Nooks and Corners of Old New YorkCharles Hemstreet
In Old New YorkThomas A. Janvier
The Greatest Street in the World: BroadwayStephen Jenkins
The God of Music (poem)Edith M. Thomas
A Musical InstrumentElizabeth Barrett Browning
Classic Myths (See Index)C.M. Gayley
The Age of FableThomas Bulfinch
A Butterfly in Wall Street
(in Madrigals and Catches)Frank D. Sherman
Come Pan, and Pipe
(in Madrigals and Catches) " " "
Pan Learns Music (poem)Henry van Dyke
Peeps at Great Cities: New YorkHildegarde Hawthorne
Vignettes of ManhattanBrander Matthews
New York SocietyRalph Pulitzer
In the Cities (poem)R.W. Gilder
Up at a Villa—Down in the CityRobert Browning
The Faun in Wall Street[5](poem)John Myers O'Hara