Explore "Those Times and These" by Irvin S. Cobb on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
FROM all the windows of Coloured Odd Fellows' Hall, on the upper floor / of the two-story building at the corner of Oak and Tennessee Streets, / streamed Jacob's ladders of radiance, which slanted outward and downward / into the wet night. Along with these crossbarred shafts of lights, / sounds as of singing and jubilation percolated through the blurry panes. / It was not yet eleven o'clock, the date being December thirty-first; but / the New Year's watch service, held under the auspices of Castle Camp, / Number 1008, Afro-American Order of Supreme Kings of the Universe, had / been going on quite some time and was going stronger every minute.
Odd Fellows' Hall had been especially engaged and partially decorated / for this occasion. Already it was nearly filled; but between now and / midnight it would be fuller, and at a still later time would doubtlessly / attain the superlatively impossible by being fuller than fullest.