Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1895-05-10
Won TOPICS TRAGEDY.
He Describes the Destruction of a
Happy Home.


Il witnessed a tragedy, up the street to-
day. said Won Tope at the club the other
night. He was in his postical mood by this
time. AT a certain stage in the evening
Won Tope grows romantic and tenderly re-
mniscent; he is generous. chivalrous and
fairly seething with the milk of human
kindness. The speh usually wears Off,
however before bedtime, and by the time
he gets home he is Won Tope again. 2Lts 4
pity that Mrs. Won Tope and the little Won
Topes cannot catch him when he feels like
and insists up &c standing treat to all COM
erS.
Whea Won Tope is in his mood he sees
visions, and views them through rose-col-
cred glasses. He can puff an Havana, and
as he blows the blue smoke lazily into the
air will draw you picture of far-away
Cuba, where the weed came from; of the
broad, sunny tobacco field, where the at
nosphere is tremulous with the heat at
midday and all nature is taking a siesta;
of the dark-eyed Cuban girl who swings
indoiently IN her hammock and blows rings
from her cigarette to the air. Honestly,
he will almost make you believe you see 1t
yourself. That's Won Tope.
Il was standing on the corner watching
the mar euverirg of couple of sparrows."
said Won Tope. They had apparently just
gone to housekeeping for the spring, and
were seemingly conGratulatlnS each other
house. They had constructed their shanty
inside the glass globe of electric light
on the corner, one of these arc lights, and
l could see the nest they had made. Such
chattering they kept up while putting the
| finishing touches to the nest. l could i'm
agine Mr.. Sparrow looking out of the
globe and saying: Why, this is great; you
can sit here and see all the fights going on
among the other sparrows without climb
ing out of The nest Yes replied Mrs.
Sparrow, ana that cab stand over there is
awfully handy, when the horses eat their
oats they always spill some from their
nose-bags and VIC won't have to go far for
dinner
Just then along came the electric light
| man to put some fresh carbon sticks into
the burner. He climbed up the pole, and
at his approach the sparrows flew out of
| the globe. If that electric light man had
possessed the heart of a father and a hus-
band he would not have torn out the nest
but he wasn't that kind of man. He just
| grabbed that nest and threw it out in a
jiffy. and, not content with that, he tore it
| to pieces, scattering the straw and things
| to the winds. You'd ought to have heard
| the indignant chatter those sparrows set
! up then. l reckon if that language could
| have been translated it would be seen that
| they used some choice profanity, but the
electric light man never minded it, and
after he put in his carbons he went away.
The two sparrows few down into the
street and gazed ruefully upon the wreck
! of their home. They hoped around among
! the scattered straws, ard very likely Mrs.
| Sparrow shed Copious tears after her kind
| Then what did Mr.. Sparrow do? Did he
| 81 oil anu get uTuHk just because ne haQ
! met with hard luck2 Not much; he was
not a man. He excused himself to Mrs
Sparrow and flew up under the caves of the
| Ebbitt House. lodging in and out of the
| cornice work. Directly he came down
| again and communicated something to Mrs.
| Sparrow. and she went up to look at the
rev house 1t was, all right, and they
forthwith set to work again carrying their
| straw and things up under the roof. They
| We're now as cheerfuIlast ever and roped in
| another sparrow to come to the barn rails
| ing. He went to work. too. and when 1
left they were in a fair way 20 getting into
| their new house by nighttime. / tell you,
| there are some people who could get lots
of straight tips from the sparrows."