Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1903-06-20
WHEN THE BAND PLAYS
Scenes and Incidents in a
New York Park.
WO0ING AFTER DARK
WHERE AND HOW THE FLAT
JEWELLERS MAKE LOVE.
Doings of Family Parties That Add to
the Gaiety of the
Strollers.
Written for The Evening Star.

Written for The Evening Star.
AS the rain ceased it's gentle fall and
turned into slight drizzle, two hgures
emerged out of the darkness into the glow
of an electric light and walked along the
park path to a bench, whose background
was clump of fragrant Powered bushes.
Such a perfectly coy place." breathed
the young woman, as the man took hand
kerchief from pocket and carefully wiped
the water off two seats.
Then they sat down with contented signs;
and few minutes later, when the dwellers
of the neighborhood poured into the square
with the peeping out of the first star, they
were two souls with but single thought. y
Neither the constant shutting of feet on all
sides nor the varied procession before the
pair caused them to unlooSe interlocked
hands, or her to take her head from close
proximity to his shoulder. Their mutual
contemplation bespoke ignorance of the
presence of broadly smiling strangers.
1t is such scenes this that make the
small park of New York city on a summers
night an excellent chart of the human
heart and mind. Day in the average metro
politan park is tame and monotonous. Ev-
erybody is more or less conventional HUI
mainly is on its dignity. Even the few
children scattered about and the grown
idlerS on the benches play and doZe with a
restrained air. But with fall of night the
park becomes a board on which the gamut
OF human feelings is run: and much that
Is serious and tragic amusing and conf
cal and frivolous and inane is seen and
heard in and beyond the reach Of the yellow
lights.
When the Band Plays.
This is true of any night when the city
enc for hra, 1,
case when the band plays. Then the people
pour out in greater numbers Then, under
the spell of the rollicking notes of the lat
est ragtime, or the memory awakening
strains of MY Old Kentucky Home and
other old-time favorites, the converse lions
usually kept for family or friendly circles
take place with refreshing freedom in the
open. No one seems to give a thought to
the probability that the person seated next
on the bench is unwillingly being taken into
heart and home condolences
The small park of the metropolis on a
summer night is always the favorite tryst-
ing place of the lovers who live there
abouts. 1t is the only place left to them
where they can whisper their sweet moth
ings." a fat takes no thoughts of the hey
day of youth; the parlor and sitting room is
too often one. But when the bass drum
thunders and the trombone's sonorous
notes float over the benches the lovers are
legion. Young couples who are timid on
other nights and envious of the drawer
spirits across the path forget all about
their surroundings. lose their bashfuntss,
and tenderly clasp hands and draw closer
under the meliowing bars of Annie
Laurie"
This is the best of all times for the pho
tographer after studies to get in good work.
So intent will the lovers and the other peo-
pie be on their affairs that they will not
notice the camera pointed in their direction,
and when the fiashlight goes off they viii
i.~f1. f1aa foot fh.f how
have been taken holding hands wrapped
in reverie.
Where the Lovers Are Found.
The couples a-wooing are rot to be found
beneath the band pavilion. Thither flock
those who love music for the noise it makes
the small boy and his sister There, too,
are found the stad married couples and the
chldrens parents. that the favorite
place for the family party in the park is
marked and made interchangeable by the
youngsters.
The wooers are found on the outskirting
benches in company with solitary figures
who listen to the music for the thoughts it
brings up, and the AFOREMENTIONED work
ers, who pause for moment to catch
strain and then tramp on again.
Here, as the melodies sound softly from
the band stand such scraps of conversation
as these are borne on the air for all who
happen around to hear:
Al
seat along the walk underneath the big elm
tree.
Eyes, dearie," in aforementioned mas
culine voice.
'Ar-thur. do-do-oh. Arthur, do you
still-still love me, after
And a smacling sound tells the wide,
wide world that Arthur does.
The "Humph.'' of man in overalls, as
his pipe and music reverie is disturbed. and
the Gee, listen to the ijits!' of a rounder
on the same bench follow.
Whatever the comments of the outside
world, they seem to have no effect on the
lovers They are usually as oblivious to
tt EN- as a we'll dressed couple who had
come from a private house bordering the
square, were to an old woman who dropped
beside them for few minutes rest before
trudgfng on again with her laden basket
They did not loosen hands for minute
and the girl did not even turn around to
look at the woman as she seated herself.
Small wonder that the man who SquatS de-
iectedly at the parks fringe carries home
with him many lovers secret when he
would far rather go to bed comforted by
the knowledge that on the morrow he would
be at work again.
What the "Old Folks" Talk About.
But the lovers, naively needless of their
surroundings, are matched by the fathers
and mothers within the glare of the pa
vilion lights. Even he who walks afar off
cannot escape their frank remarks.
Johnny! Johnny Roberts, screams
a mother, holding a struggling child in her
arms. to a small boy fast making his way
into a crowd of youngsters farther in the
park. "If you don't come here this minute
I'll give you another whppin' like last
nights"
'Didn't tell you she treated her children
shameful?" triumphantly asks a woman,
evidently Johnny's mothers closest neigh
Dor. of her companion "She's the one that
deserves the lickingr"