Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1905-09-30
N DOWN-TOWNC AFE

Have a Nervous, Pallid, Undecided
Way About Them When
Getting Ready.
ION and on the Water wagon'-that'n
| be the name of the book that I'm going to
write some day when get out of this bust
! ness" observed the proprietor of a very
! welEknown downtown cafe. Or / might
/ call 1t Souseology, Periodical and Peren-
nial,' to give 1t a sort of scientific tone. I'd
devote most Of the narrative to what the
/ young doctors in charge OF the alcoholic
! wards call the dipsomanlacs-we've got It
whitfield down to dips I mean the pc
riodicals.
I'm acquainted with whole slew of the
periodicals, who. because this place Is sort
| of accessible and known around as
1 stamping ground for all hands. have the
habit of breaking out In here when they're
'tul.ed up for their toots,' as I've got into
| the habit of calling it. And. from long &C
quaintance with and knowledge or them
| I've got a pretty fair mental line as to
when they are scheduled to fall on the
! aQra vehicle.
when it comes to that. though. an ex-
+ perienced NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS. doesn't really
have to be personally acquainted with a
dipso periodical to know that he belongs
| to the periodical illuminating war-medi-
cine crowd. i never had any trouble spot
ting one Of 'em after half a minutes slz-
| int up.
ssTheres generally something nervous
pallid, undecided about the most of the
! periodicals when they're about to embark
upon a Whopper of tear, and haven't yet
taken the first gargie, that's quite unmis-
taxable to the man of experience.
''Only yesterday afternoon there was one
o. 'em In here.
He was scout, middle-aged well-dressed,
| a looker-a man of character and standing.
anybody could see.
He came In in slow, thoughtful kind
OF way, and then he strolled over to one
OF the front windows and gazed blankly out
uron the street, gnawing nervously on his
mustache and appearing to be in pro-
found quandary.
| II didn't have any trouble in perceiving
| that there hadn't been a trickling warmer
beneath that mans waistband for long
time. could sort of make out, too, that he
was the sort of man who, when he did go
up against 1t. got hurt, and hurt bad.
sell rum. But / don't mind saying that I'd
rather not see people like this start TO do
their pouring.
Edged Back and Forth.
Several times did this solid-looking man
edge in the direction of the bar. Then he'd
edge back sort O. slowly to his place In
front of the window and resume his gazing
out, with that thoughtful expression on his
face.
THAT mans making his little old rassle
with himself and cogitat!ng on the inevita-
bic gray aftermath said l to myself as
watched him.
.sThe old hankering finally won out. how
eyer-it's about a to l shot, according to
my experience, that the hankering gener-
| ally does win out with the periodicals when
| they allow themselves to think about it.
THE final time the man started to edge
fntuo rd tha
| He looked up at mel was on serving duty
| myself at the time-and said, with sort
OF pale, pleasant smile:
az think I'll try a gin cocktail
| I'm not slammer-in or anything like
| that. but felt confident that the gin cock
| tall and the whole lot of gin cocktails af-
| terward wouldn't be the thing for that
man. So, taking chance that he might
get sore and het up, so to speak, l leaned
| over to him.
Judge I said to him, dye think you d
| better? Hope you'll overlook my rubbering.
| but you seemed to be rejecting a hot upon
| it, and SO s'pose you finally. figured it out
| that one would probably mean good
( many Ell? No offense, sir. L hope
/ THE solid-looking man flushed bit at
| first Then he smiled and 1 knew that my
| words had sort of stuck.
| correct he said Whether or not to take
! the first one is a thing that's been perplex-
| ing me all the afternoon. And you're also
right in supposing that, with me, one means
/ great many-alInOuSn surely nope tttdl
/ my exterior doesn't placard that fact, as 1t
seems to have done SO far as You, at any
rate, are concerned haven't had drink
| in more than year. | was wondering, as
| you observed. whether I'd better eat or take
| a drink. If I drink, won't want to eat
perhaps for some time. II / eat. I won't
want that drink.
| Judge I said to him then. at SIS,
and named a restaurant down the street,
they've got some bluefsh today that 'ud
make a seagulrs teeth leak.
Looked Contented ALI Over.
| lis that So? he inquired, Frightening
up. Well, 1 believe I'll run down there
and get some of that bluefish. Thanks,
and out he went, and, stepping to the door,
| saw him go into the restaurant. About
half or three-quarters of an hour later
saw him come out of there. munching
| toothpiek and looking contented all over.
! Dye know that it sort o. pleases me to
know I steered that solid-looking man away
| from a whirl that might. perhaps. have
wound up with the purple cobraS?-for he
was the periodical all over, both IN looks
and manner.
However, it's mighty rare thing that
I gong In that way, for I'm here TO pur-
yey goods and not to keep patients out of
the see-'em wards where the green-and-yel-
| low bugs walk with legs downward on the
ceilings. It's all business to me, ordinarily,
and It's pipe that the periodicals won't
get together and plant hyacinths on my sod
when I'm put away.
But not all of the dipsos are so hesitat-
ing One of the non-hestant ones came
romping in here a few weeks ago. I've
known him for years. He's a business man
| in quite tidy sort of way. He mixes the
war-brew about twice a year, as a general
thing, and he invariably winds up in a nice
little cutely-papered room by himself, with
muscular male nurse lowering around his
hammock.
Came Looping In.
when he came Looping through the
swing doors, breathless and painting that