Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1905-12-09

tin board on election night. Questions in all
| the ten thousand dialects of the world and
all the ten bad tempers were shot at him.
He looked around stolidly. shifted his cigar
| and waved a golden arm In a generous
| world-sweeping circle.
| Thicker than pea SOUP" said he Yes,
ma am, I'm afraid that It's going to stay
for the day. No, sir, no chance of getting
! up TIL late II at ALL Not at all today,
think myself. Certainly not now Couldn't
| take tug through this crowded place.
ma am, let alone the Imperia. Yes. sir
I'm I'm sorry. but you'd better settle down to
The ships bell hammered out monoto-
nous punctuation for his remarks. Things
beloved and barked and hooted all around
near and far, In Endorsement. The gray
epecter OF a tug screamed by, after utter
| ing snorting screech as II she said hur-
riedly. Excuse me-" The pilot saw his
chance and escaped.
Another Important Question.
Enter to him presently as he tackled the
! third slice Of ham, a millionaire person
| OF that three hundred square miles of jum-
Ole known as Greater New York He had.
not one one-thousand-dolar stateroom but
suite of them, and he felt properly ag-
| grieved.
He was not pretty and he had no chain
| - AAi'iiiSi, out LS Idu his name IN the pa
pers every day and the pilot listened polite
~ He had tremendous financial opera
.lon 10 close before night. The fate of
10 more e. than nations depended on It. that
| is, the operation would net him a million
more If he could only get to town. And be-
sides, he had promised to spend Christmas
somewhere Now what he wanted to know,
| was what cou'd be done about it.
Nothing, thought the pilot very regret
FULLY. Even his free sea-soul was i'm
pressed by the immense Importance of the
affairs thus held up. He took it on himself
to apologize for the fog and for the rude
| ways OF the sea generally.
| The millionaire person, mised by the
vicarious apology, made his mistake. He
and drew out a noble pocketbook IF
| can make it worth your WHILE" he began.
The pilot got up, very slowly. He looked
the big, red-faced man up and down.
| I'm the pilot of this Ship" said he "She
goes up when the fog lifts and not before
| Do you think that you understand, or
| would you like diagram?'
| The pilot had barely reached the point
| where his eye roved to the fourth slice of
| ham when a great lady swished in, so ap-
pallngly elegant that all that one could
| gain without staring rudely was a vague
| idea of overpowering gowns and still more
| and most refined style She was one Of
| the Newport crowd who have achieved that
| high pinnacle where their husbands, who
| work as bank presidents or railroad presi-
dents soap boilers things somewhere
| are never referred to as themselves, but
| always as Mrs. So-and-So's Husband This
particular Mrs. So-and-So had achieved the
| tip-top pinnacle in that people not only re-
| fered to her help-mate as Mrs. So-and-So's
| Husband, but also added the surname, Poor
| Devil.
Really Had to Get to Town.
| Mrs so-and-so really simply had to get
| to town. She gave the pilot all the ninety
nine reasons that don't count and the one
| that does. He was deeply concerned, es-
| pecially as the lady began to make elabo-
rate preparations for crying. But he shook
| his head and she bethought herself and
| did not cry, but founced off, crushing him
with a look that really sank in.
| Before the pilot got through with that
| fourth slice of ham he had in audience be-
fore him as IL he were king, half the
| little and great mightinesses of that float
| ing engined city He began to get con-
fused Impression that there couldn't pos
| sibiy be any Christmas ashore unless the
cargo of important persons got there to
| permit 1t. So he bolted.
But he was caught again. At the very
| foot of the ladder leading to the bridge
| he was not only stopped, but held, by
| girl 1.-THE pilot married man of per-
feet morals; but he had to look at that girl
| twice. The second look was so entirely
satisfactory that he didn't even try to dis
| engage her little hand from his coat.
| She tried to speak, but, instead, her eX-
| tremefy red mouth formed itself into
most melancholy bow and she commenced
| to cry-reaI tears, not Newport society
ones.
NOW" said the pilot, my dear Che
was fifty and the girl truly was only eigh-
teen), what is the NATTER?
There was a great deal the matter-a
most shoekingly great deal. The girl was
engaged to a young man. That was not
SO bad But the young man was soldier.
And he had been in the Philippines for
whole long, round year, and he had come
~oofn 71tyt av,d do hcfn md Ia
had to go back again on the morning after
Christmas, and he had cabled to her, and
che had caught the Imperia with her maid,
and now-and now
And If the ship didn't get up She could
only see him for just minute tomorrow
morning, even II she could get to the trans
port at all before it sailed. And the pilot
felt as IL he would willingly eat al the
fog and have 1t on his digestion all the
rest of his life If he could only get that
ship up.
Then he soothed her, or rather, he failed
most utterly to soothe her, and he climbed
up to the bridge very angry at the fog.
| Now the girl had gray Irish eyes and the
| pilot was Irish himself and long ago
when the first Irishman was made 1t was
| ordered that never an Irishman should look
at pretty girl coldly.
So the pilot lit great black cigar on
| the bridge and said to the captain:
at seems to me it's letting UP good
Bit"
The Fog Had Thickened.
L
And the captain looked at the pilot I'M
winkingly and answered: Just what was
going to say myself"
If the man in the crows nest had been
consulted he might have reported that the
| fog had just achieved a triumphant degree
| of thickness, for he could not see the look
| out at the bow below him any more. where
| as before that he could see shaping down
there that looked dlmly like something But
| the man in the crows nest was not con-
suited.
Thus 1t happened that presently the indig-
| nant and sulky passengers heard the chain
| come complaining home and the awful siren
beginning to whoop: and then the propellers
| shook the ship again, and into the thickness
and the unseen noises she walked at eight
knots an hour-5ust four times as fast as a
| fat man would dare to Yalk along dark
country road where nothing could befall
him except a stumble into a mud puddle,
| 'Christmas" yelled the helmaman OF
fishing smack. showing his helm hard down
and just scraping away from the high bow
that doomed suddenly out OF the white wall
l flpfv "a dfdpst MAJ N To vyaao r,f