Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1897-11-20

the sun has grown wan and chm again.
This year his chant seems a bit more in
sistent and persuasive than ever before: IN
has something of an oratorical quality
with the sing-song peroration and period
employed by tie camp meeting preacher
AS TO the outcrying characters of the
capitafs streets. however, none Of them
Is to be c. impaired from a musical point
whose one refrain consists In the three
words, Umbrellas to mendr' This man.
VINO Is living representation of Cruik-
shanks drawings OF Samivcl Weller has
a voice or such a pure tenor quality that
ms really sweet and musical utteranc. of
his three-word refrain has occasionally
excited The curiosity of musical people
as TO whether he is not really a Jean de
Reszke in embryo. He pervades the town
when the skies are overcast looking like
bit of England when George the Fourth
was king. and his clear call is as efiec-
tive as the singing of colored lads on iI.e
nights. Some impressario with an ear
to genius may bring this umbrella man
out some day.
Gets Along Nicely.
The legless colored boothack whose sta
tion is near 9Th street and the avenue
Is another street character OF Washing
ton who was polishing shoes on no legs.
at the time OF the grand review OF the
army. He gets along very comfortably
win no legs, apparently. and being as
black a man as lives within sight of the
dome, his perpetual grin is as infectious
as MS teeth are white. In his shoulders
ne mas the strength of Hercules. and he
mas an art.in putting glitter on shoes that
the wanton. needless rising generation of
oootblacks wot not OF. His horizon has
put one cloud the Italian boothlack. who
rs JUST beginning TO insert his wedge in
washington. He diStrusts the Sicilian
Dey ahn't wife folks an dey ahn't mig
guns, an An cahn't mex 'em out" Is the
iegies bootblack's comment on the Italian
bootblacks.
The one-lersed. rniddle-aged man on
clutches who alternates his stand from
10Th TO 18th and f streets. extending his
pencils to passing shoppers with no word
OF pleading, has been in Washington for
many years Not many months ago the
TACT was quite accidentally revealed that
this crippled man. himself dependent upon
the wnims and thoughts of passcrs-by for
subsistence. had a couple Of years ago
taken boy waif Of the streets to his own
humble shelter. and has been providing for
him and educating him ever since. Since
the story came out, Washington men ard
women who Else would perhaps pass the
one-legged pencil purNeyor by now halt
ana tumble in change-pocket or pt rse as
they draw nigh the point where he has
his station. The frightfully twisted and
deformed man who sells pencils from the
park curb near 12th street md the ave-
nue. has also been a familiar figure upon
the streets of Washington for many years.
New Corners.
Or the comparative newcomers-the street
Characters who have only made their ap-
pearance in Washington within the past
year or two-the mulatto writer of visiting
cards who varies the station of his table
in front of whatever vacant building in
process of repair he may find along th,,
north side of Pennsylvania avenue is nota-
bic on account of the immense degree of
interest and admiration he excites among
people OF his own race. who form his
clientele almost exclusively. They herd
around his card-writiag Ia BILE with wonder
ing eyes. watching the fiourishy movements
OF his pen, and they descant upon his genius
in audible whispers.
''Smaht.' saws one of them .E,f All wub
ez smaht eZ dat yalluh nigguh All wouldn't
he a-sittin' at no table on de street: hid
hev uh desk. wit nigguhs { ansuh NAH
beii, IN one o desc yeah wife gubmen'
buidin's.'
The nice-looking young man with no
arms, who whistled on the streets of WASH
ington last autumn and winter. made his
temperance here quite recently WASH
ingtonians who went to Atlantic City last
summer saw him down there. whistling on
the board walk. Both of his arms are re-
moved close to the. shoulders. He is
Smooth-faced and need and
can hardly be more than twenty-five years
Old He dresses himself with the utmost
neatness- His whistling Is remarkable He
iorpears from -nficting the outworn coon
songs and beery ballads of the day upon
promenaders, but takes higher flight and
arouses the interest of the best class of
passers-by by whistling the melodious arias
of the best-known Italian operas. Nor is
there any. sloveniness or evasion i'm his
manner or rendering them He whistles
like man who might perhaps have been
able to bring effective music forth from
some instrument before he lost his arms
His backsheesh Genes mostly from the
women shoppers, whose vicinages he most
ly affects.
The blind man with the fiddle mot yiolin)
at the corner of Sth street and Market
space has held that stand for more than a
year. Criticism of a blind mans perform
ance on a fiddle mot yiolin) is something
81