Page:Thea von Harbou Metropolis eng 1927.pdf/14

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METROPOLIS gates the roaring voice was silent at last. And the never ceasing, throbbing hum of the great Metropolis became perceptible again, producing the effect of silence, a deep relief. The man who was the great brain in the brain-pan of Metropolis had ceased to press his nngers on the blue metal plate. In ten hours he would let the machine brute roar anew. And in another ten hours, again. And always the same. and always the same, without ever loosening the ten-hour clamp. Meb'opolis did not know what Sunday was. Metropolis knew neither high days nor holidays. Metropolis had the most saintly cathedral in the world, richly adorned with Gothic decoration. In times of which only the chronicles could tell, the star-crowned Virgin on its tower used to smile, as a mother, from out her golden mantle, deep, deep down upon tIte pious red roaves and the only companions of her graciousness were the doves which used to nest in the gargoyles of the water~spouts and the bells which were called after the four archangels and of which Saint Michael was the most magnificent. It was said that the Master who cast it turned villain for its sake, for he stole consecrated and unconsecrated silver, like a raven, casl'ing it into the metal body of the bell. As a reward for his deed he suffered, on the place of execution, the dreadful death on the wheel. But, it was said, he died exceedingly happy, for the Archangel Michael rang him on his way to death so wonderfully, touchingly, that all agreed the saints must have forgiven the sinner ah'eady, to ring the heavenly bells, thus, to receive him. The bells still rang with their old, ore voices but when Metropolis roared, then Saint Michael itself was hoarse. The New Tower of Babel and its fellow houses stretched their sombre heights high above the cathedral spire, that the young girls in the work-rooms and wireless stations gazed down just as deep from the thirtieth story windows on the star-crowned virgin as she, in earlier days, had looked down on the pious red rooves. In place of doves, Hying machines swarmed over the cathedral roof and over the city, resting on the rooves, from which, at night glaring pillars and circles indicated the course of Hight and landing points.

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