--The vault at Pfaffs where the drinkers and laughers meet to eat and drink and carouse
While on the walk immediately overhead pa** the myriad feet of Broadway
As the dead in their graves are underfoot hidden
And the living pa** over them, recking not of them,
Laugh on laughers!
Drink on drinkers!
Bandy the jest!
Toss the theme from one to another!
Beam up--Brighten up, bright eyes of beautiful young men!
Eat what you, having ordered, are pleased to see placed before you--after the work of the day, now, with appetite eat,
Drink wine--drink beer--raise your voice,
Behold! your friend, as he arrives--Welcome him, where, from the upper step, he looks down upon you with a cheerful look
Overhead rolls Broadway--the myriad rushing Broadway
The lamps are lit--the shops blaze--the fabrics vividly are seen through the plate gla** windows
The strong lights from above pour down upon them and are shed outside,
The thick crowds, well-dressed--the continual crowds as if they would never end
The curious appearance of the faces--the glimpse just caught of the eyes and expressions, as they flit along,
(You phantoms! oft I pause, yearning, to arrest some one of you!
Oft I doubt your reality--whether you are real--I suspect all is but a pageant.)
The lights beam in the first vault--but the other is entirely dark
In the first