Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1900-02-09

done in a manner BETTING the ancient city
or Bagdad. Seven different but not distinct
negro men come to my back gate, which Is
right under my study window, the moment
| nave settled down to earn my morning
living. They appear sequentially, one
starting off with "E-yah E-yah, E-yah."
IhfS he says nine minutes by the watch.
Ihen he rattles the gate Then 1 go to the
window with heavy paper weight and call
him epithetS for which all the churches
which pay no taxes. say 1 must answer at
the day of judgment. Be 1t so: but let me
not have my tophet before it is due, like my
fine upon my taxes!
The second ashman has been cunninely
trained by the devil. that if do not lose
my soul upon the first ashman it will go
for number two He starts in by hitting
bowling: Wash, yash! Yash. yash! o
ye! ye! Yash yash! Yash, yash"
Eleven to twelve minutes of this makes
up for all the contunacious decentralization
OF the tax office. I admit that 1 am at last
notified l go to the window and wiring my
hands and pray. The man with the falling
down horse and the slat-patched cart see
ing me. redoubles his slogan Of Wash.
my John Brown pike and my Nantucket
happoon. till he is really concerned, and
goes through the back alleys practicing on
poor folks his foghorn voice.
At the appearance of ashman number
three. who starts in with: "shese! sbese!
Shese! Shash-o,.. shash-o!'' put on my
hat and give up earning my living. When I
arrive home. no better for various nigh
course out of change. the united family
come to my place at the dinner table and
say. till bedtime. Forty cents for the ash
man" Not having the exact change. the
house this way."
Having no children at school, having but
ten policemen on Capitol Hill. having my
water tax and my gas bill to pay, extra, 1
think 80 a 10 fav hot
OF 1t 1 should be notified. and the ashman
taken or my spirits,
The gas bills, i may add, show the eff
cheney OF new laws in their reduction;
month on a small house where we burn
much oil and prove. the derided Standard
IN company our lady OF mercy. For about
% get a barrel of refined oil, which will
hight me entirely upffo nearly year.
do not refiset UPON individuals, but the
system. which confines all responsibility to
bne taxpayer and assumes none for the cor
poration. and thinks courteous notice and
language beneath its dignity. In not many
cases DO investors In property here realize
upon 1t. and the first duty of the corpora
ton. If such iezbe. fs to tighten the terms
OF living and increase the efficiency Of pub
The expense of car tickets in the city is
an important item. Few of the passengers
ride over mile, and between the main sys-
TENS Is no exchange Of tickets l am sure
that 1 pay Is cents a day for family car
tickets. which. If continuous. would be equal
to my taxes. or $50.
The cause of so little walking seems to
be the embarrassing or disagreeable inter-
walls In each general promenade, as where
Fiber creek and Rock creek. or the Baltimore
and Chic railroad, or the Mall are injected
across the routes. We ride first to find a
place to walk. For this the remedy is to
spend more Of the city money upon the
settled than the unsettled territory and
adorn the present Washington rather than
the future one
Trust no future. however pleasant"
G. A. T.