Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1905-07-01

me-" said old Washington correspond
ent who has been living west several
years, lis to come back to this town and
find all my former dcquaintances on the
water wagon. Now / never accounted my
self a particularly hard drnker ] was one
of that numerous class that say of them
selves that they take a drink when they
feel like 1t. | conclude / must have felt
like 1t pretty frequently. Anyhow, during
my sojourn here pretty much everybody in
the business drank. not excessively In the
most cases, but drank some. In fact. l
know the year they held the r. ubiican
convention over in Philadelphia. and 1t
drafted the most of the correspondents and
politicians out of town. that one saloon, the
resort particularly of newspaper men and
statesmen. complained that its receipts
fell off $40 day.
well, since l have been back here l
suppose | have meet a dozen able-bodied
soaks of my acquaintance, not one of whom
would touch a thing. OF course the warm
weather is accountable for a good deal of
the slackness of the alcoholic drinking A
man who has any sense at all will not fire
up his insides with whisky. at least during
the heat of the day. But the most of the
men l speak of have cut out the high ball
and kindred seducers altogether. Say, 1t
is a sight to see the old gang absorbing
ice cream sodas and other light drinks in
the drug stores near their former favorlte
haunts. / asked them what was the
trouble, and some of the more interpretive
and philosophical simply said that the pace
whisky. Also they said they felt better
anyway not taking anything to drink l
guess that is about right. The telephone
and six afternoon editions a day have
made a whole lot of difference In the news
paper business, and if man is all in at a
critical time or not on the spot when news
develops he can't deliver the goods And
that is what a managing editor wants
these days
There is a mighty nice. charitabiy-dis-
posed old lady in Washington now who is
scratching her head and wondering whether
organized and scientific charity Is not, after
all. better sometimes than individual effort.
She has a son who lives out in the north
east and she was going to visit him some
time ago. On the road there was a negro
shanty of very humble sort standing al
most alone on almost a block of otherwise
vacant ground. 1t was only three-room
house. two on the ground floor and one
above. on the door was the sign of mourn
ing. a white scarf tied to nail beside the
door where more pretentiouS houses would
have had a door bell.
The kind old lady stopped. attracted by
the symbol and it's pa thetic setting. II was
a pathetic event. for there in the front
room were laid out couple of little twins,
very young babies. She talked with the
bereaved parents and the more bereaVed
grandparents little, gave them 81 and
went on her way.
on the trip home she thought over the
situa ton and decided that 81 would not go
very far She decided to make it s. anyhow,
and on her return stopped at the lowly
home 10 leave the money.
Somewhat to her surprise there was no
response 10 her knock at the half open door,
and she was more surprised on going in
10 tird the twin bodies gone. She continued
on 70 the kitchen at the back Here again
there was nobody. But she heard sounds
Of voices in the back yard. and going out
there she found the assembled family, in
Guiding the twins (stilI dead rowever), but
propped UP in a baby carriage, and neigh
boring photographer, hired with her 81. en-
gagged in taking a final picture of them.
The good lady was shocked, very much
So and she did not contribute the other
three dollars, but went home. and IS still
thinking over the subject of organized
charity.