The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1903-08-02
SUMMER IN WASHINGTON.
Sights and Sounds in the Streets Near
the Capitol.

Sights and Sounds in the Streets Near
the Capitol.
What debt of gratitude Washing
ton owes to the summer girl. Without;
her the city would seem seething
stagnation, but with her-Ged bless
her-life assumes a gayer aspect. You
see her everywhere. sans hat, sans
gloves. sans restriction. Dressed in the.
most diaphanous of frocks. with her
I bare neck and arms. cleaning under the
electric lights, and her fluffy hair blown
all about her face, you find trolley car
loads Of her every night. on pleasure
bent away from the heat and the heart
of the city. out to the show places,
Cabin Johns bridge, Glen Echo or
Chevy Chase lake.
These are some of the summer sights.
Now for a few of the sounds While
you sit at your ease under the shade
Of your own vine and fig tree. softly,
sWeet1y, from way down yonder,
floats the sound of banjo and jews
harp. and nearer acquaintance proves
the music to come from a quartette'
of colored boys-two instrumentalists
and two vocalists. They wander aim
lessly, singing as they go, until larger
than ordinary assemblage of front door
step1sts would seem to make stoppage
pecuniarily advantageous. They will
entertain you for as long a time as you
| wish for a ridiculously small sum, con-
sfdering the real excellence of the en-
tertainment.
Or. again, it is small Senegambian
| who will accost you with: "Say, mars
| ter. will you give Joe a nickel If he rec
| itations in hawg Latin for you?" An
| affirmative reply will call forth grin,
revealing double row of worries, and,
| with a. rolling Of eyes that make one
| think of two small huckleberries swim
| ming in two pans of milk, Joe begins
| and assails the ears with such a flow
of gibberish that no doubt as to the
certainty of the Darwinian theory is
tenable. at least as far as Joe is con-
cerned.
| Again it is another species of small
boy. who, equally eager to see the color
! of your money. desires to do a stunt for
you, said stunt consisting of facial
eentertions and pedal gyrations that
are little short of wonderful. Nor does
| this exhaust the divers darky ways
of winning the white mans money. A
loud. but nevertheless irsinuating voice
will assure you. Here's cool air, cool
air. Shoals of it for only 5 cents. This
! is George Washington Henry Clay
Leadbeater, vender OF palm leaf fans.
! The popcorn man makes more show
and less noise than any of the timer
ant merchants of Washington, but he
is the idol of the small boy, and his
patronage is extensive. He pops the
corn to order in a glass case. over an
oil flame. and then pours over it hot
melted butter and salt. After nickel
has changed hands the popcorn and the
experience are yours, the collateral his.
and who can say the exchange is not a
fair one?
i Old Uncle Tom-a live crab vender-
4 when he finds himself outside the re-
gion of possible purchasers, covers over
his squirming. unsightIy cargo, which
/ he hauls in a ereaky, tumbledown
handcart and thus accests the benevo-
| lent looking passerby. The darky is
no slight student Of human nature. and
| seldom draws a zero.
II begs you pahdon, safl but may !
| Intercept you fob a moment? Old I'M
Gle is nigh on to a hundred years old,
and fore Gawd he wants chaw of
| baccy that bad he jist naturally can't
see straight, and that's the truf." The
purchase money is all the more readi-
| ly forthcoming, as the crabs have taken
advantage of the old mans preoccupa-
ton to crawl all over the walk. and
show disposition to pull your leg less
pleasantly than Uncle Tom has just
| done-Brooklyh Eagle.