Evening star., 1898-05-14

cuStOmed to attend 1t. Although she had
access TO all the fine displays in Paris and
Europe, she preferred to see the poor lit
tie celebration at home. Realizing that
her heart " as so fixed upon it. her husband
was forced to relinquish the allurements of
the gay French capital and take her back
to the squalid surroundings of Guatemala"
X &
The hand street sweepers," remarked a
philosophic visitor from the south, serve
purpose that was probably not contem-
plated by the authorities of your city.
They are found scattered pretty well
throughout the city and keep busily at
work during each day, and in this way con-
tempiatlye citizens who are fond of seeing
other people labor can enjoy that privilege
without going far from home. Such citi-
zens are also not subject to the fatigue of
standing around. as they can either sit at
the windows of their houses or bring chairs
out on the front steps and enjoy the spec
tacie- There Is no recreation that Is quite
so lasting and SO generally appreciated as
watching how others perform manual la
Dor. and from this point of view the mu-
nicipal authorities of Washington are pub
lie benefactors.''
X X x
1t seems queer that the people Of this
Countrywide educated people, am speak
ing Of particularly-shoulde exhibit so much
irdefiniteness they do in addressing
by mail their relatives and friends who are
soldiers in the field sailors on the sea-
said postal official in the railway mail
service There has already been a huge
amount of trouble in handling the letters
and papers thus Indefinitely forwarded to
the soldiers, and the general mix-up Of
the mails at Chickamauga, for example,
has been something extraordinary, and
yet natural enough, considering the way
most of the pieces of mail matter arriv-
ing at that military rendezvous have been
a rsN.af ~it
letters that have been sent from all parts
of the country to the young men now
under arms down at Chickamauga Park
have been absolutely lacking in any in
formation en- the envelopes that could aid
the postal clerks in locating the address,
es without very great deal of trouble.
The letters have nearly all been of the
John Smith, Chickamauga,' sort; and
when you come to reflect how many thouS-
ands of soldiers there are down there, and
the great numbers of duplicate names, you
can figure out how much difficulty the post
office people have in properly asserting and
delivering the mail. 1t does not seem to
occur to many of the people who write to
soldiers in the field to name the outfits on
the envelopes to which the addresses be-
long. II they were to dc this there would
be little or no trouble in distributing the
mails at the military centers. For exam
pie. instead Of plain John Smith, Chicka-
mauga,' the address, with a few more
strokes of the pen, could be made to read.
Corporal John Smith, Battery G, Ith Ar
tilley. U. S. A. Chickamauga,' and thus
Corporal Smith would not have to nang
around the post office with a wistful eye
for days at a time, awaiting that letter
from his timorous sweetheart.
The friends and relatives of man-o'-
wars men, addressing the latter by MAIL
even In times or peace, cause considerable
delays in the delivery of their epistles by
too much indefiniteness in addressing the
mail. Instead of addressing their letters
directly to the ships upon which the ad-
n fnr IL. L q
ward Robinson, U. s. s. Brooklyn, u s.
Navy. which insures the forwarding of the
letter by the postal authorities to the navy
pay office of the station to which the
Brooklyn is attached. the addressors as a
rule. simply write. Edward Robinson u
s. Navy Aside from the great probability
of there being duplicate names for many
letters thus addressed all such letters have
to go first TO the Navy Department, where.
by reference to muster rolls. they are as
serted. and, after considerable delay, re-
addressed to the men for whom they are
intended
Until we began to get into hot water
with Spain, said a naval officer 1.-The ia
yorite game of men forward on American
warships was Spanish pool. which is
game of checkers of a peculiarly intricate
sort-so intricate that, after twelve years in
the service, and mich careful watching of
the game while officer of the deck, /
couldn't play a game of 1t now to save my
soul. The enlisted men all played it, how
ever. and greatly preferred it to the ordi-
nary game of checkers. for it seems that
Spanish pool is game wherein you get
quicker action for your brains in maneu-
vering than you do in checkers. But l will
venture to say that there has not been a
single game of Spanish pool played in the
United States navy since The Maine disas-
ter. l was attached to ship on the Pa
cific home station when the news was re-
ceived aboard that the Maine had gone up
in the air. After knockout work had been
piped mat day, the Spanish pool fends
broke out their oilcloth Spanish pool
boards and rubber checkers as usual and
watched them curiously to if they
would play Spanish pool. They didn't.
Without saying d word as to their reason
for the switch. they all plunged into the
game of ordinary checkers. This struck
ME as being pretty significant at the time.
as evidencing the opinion of the men for
ward in our navy as to the cause of the
Maine disaster"
"A few weeks ago." said a Washington
man who travels good deal. Il was cross
ing from New York to Brooklyn on the
Fulton ferry 1 stood on the forward deck
of the ferry boat to get a breath of air.
Standing alongside of me was a ragged
Eewsboy. industrously munching some hot
peanuts that he had gotten at the ferry en-
trance. On :he other side of the peanut
eating newsboy was fine-looking elderly
man, of decidedly military appearance.
I his military looking man was to the wind
ward of the boy with the peanuts, and he
began to sniff hungrily. as / noticed. as he
lc Cked at the urchin beside him. He watch
ed the boy munching his peanuts until tn !,
ferry boat was half way across the East
river. Then he held out the open palms of
both of his hands to the lad, saying, For
heavens sake, boy, give me some peanuts,
quick" The boy, wto knew his gait all
right. grinned and dumped half the con-
tents Of his bag of peanuts into the elder
ly mans hands. The latter ate those pea
! nuts voracicusly for the remainder of the
trip across. ard when he disembarked he
led the newsboy up to a peanut stand and
bought him a whole armful of 'em. The
elderly. military looking man was Maj.
Gen. Wesley Merritt who's now going out
, see, TO help George Dewey run that new
acquisition of ours, the Philippine Islands"
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