Charles E. Burchfield (1893-1967)

At the “one-arm” – it is odd how in a place like this with its unlimited capacity for continual noise – the coming & going of customers with their conversation, the shouts of the countermen and the rattle of the dishwashers, there occur moments of profound silence as if everything had been suddenly frozen, or stricken lifeless as these old Pompeians were reported to have been; did something happen? No, a brief instant and all at once, as if by agreement, the whole hubbub commences again.