Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1906-12-02
AROUND THE CITY

Two women were walking down II street
when a man overlook them to say:
you dropped this letter. madam"
The elder woman thanked IN, and when
he had passed on she turned troubled eyes
back over the way they had come.
II wonder where l dropped the other?
Are YOU in the habit of using the streets
for letter boX?" inquired the younger
woman.
No And 1 wouldn't have done it this time
if you hadn't persuaded me to give up my
good, honest old handbag for this snippy
purse I'm not used to carrying letters in
my hand and they slipped Oh, well,
anybody's welcome to read it. 1t isn't as
if l had been writing a love letter to my
self, like poor jimmie Cox
Il don't know jimmie Cox. Who is she?
"Oh, little tad l used to go to school
with down in the country, way back in the
last century. She was a sknny,legsed,
big-eyed child of thirteen, who lived in the
pney woods with a deaf grandmother The
grandmother did nothing but pray and fuss
1t was a desoiate life for the poor little
thing, she took to reading novels more
than was good for her, and having no ra-
tional comradeShp she made believe she
had a lover who wrote her torrid love let
tiers and signed them Ralph At school she
would swear the rest of US little tads TO
secrecy and read extracts from her az
famed, who nobleman in disguise,
and meant to take her TO place where
she would wear a crown every day ana
never have to pick chickens for dinner VI
course she wrote the letters, poor lite
soul, and, equally of course, she used to lose
them somewhere across fields or along the
main road Whoever found them would
pass them on until at last everybody in the
neghborhood was laughing at jimmie, and
her grandmother fairly skinned her alive
Served her right, precocious piece!
cl,a ~iad
usual mortgage, and glad 20 have chickens
no, indeed; Jinne's the peacefulest old
maid YOU ever saw. She nursed that old
grandmother of hers after she was paral-
yzed for fourteen solid years, and now she
lives in Baltimore and rents rooms to take
care of a great aunt who's a hundred II
she's a day. wish to gracious [ hadn't
lost that letter. | always get so mad with
myself when 1 do careless things like that!
l bet I'll never go down town again without
nv bag Say, have you seen those Sill
ver-meshed wrist bags at
Then the woman who had been following
to hear all about jimmie Cox turned down
18th street.
look at the holly! Let's get some
said the man with the basket.
ITO have it dry up and fall to pieces all
over the carpet before Christmas2 Indeed
I won't, then" answered the woman with
the purse.
A IL.
Christmas eve and buy all the wreaths and
crosses l can carry. Sort of takes me back
to the old woods down home when L was
a boy"
away on crosses you can do 1t, but you
won't bring EN- into my house. I've told
you, year in and out, until I'm tired, that
crosses belong to Easter, and that nobody
uses EN- for Christmas decoration except
those that don't know any better. l want
a nice marrowy shin bone this morning,
Mr.. Blank" addressing a market man:
MY that's a scandallous price for soup
bone. My old butcher used to give EN-
away to his regular customers. and weigh
me leg of mutton, please
Say, EN- whispered the man with the
basket, make it lamb, for change. I'm
sick of mutton"
'"rhen you can get well again. How do
you suppose I'm going to buy lamb every
day on your miserable salary-fve pounds?
1t doesn't look if it weighed half that
much Make it four pounds and III take
it,
Then the man who made the money, but
was only allowed to look on while it was
being spent crossed sadly to the opposite
stand and picked up an apple.
An ancient negro woman was hobbling
along the road that winds around the
White Lot. Her face, brown and wrnkled
as chewing tobacco, was sWathed In
worsted shawl that had once been red her
cape belonged to the beded-plush era, and
her dress was beyond the English language.
Two middle-aged white women We're ap-
preaching from an opposite direction, and
the old creature extended her hand hos
pitably and called out with good-natured
assurance:
Good mawnin', ladies' Yoh po' old Aunt
jules got a pOWfl misery IN her back.
How's you ALP
One of the women shook the scrawny
black paw. while the other held o., plainly
irritated at the interruption a., . AZ :.
you honey? 1 got q pahlized laig an
stir tint in my lef ahm, but wuks when
I kin git it. De butcher man gimme
passle er bones, an done picked up some
thowed-away cabbage ieabs an wivery
tatahs; but 1 amt got no bread"
How can you work. Aunt Julie, with
your bad arm and leg?'
"De good Lawd heps me, chile. He knows
I amt muffin but ole broke down, no
count niggah oman, an He sens His
min strin angels along
The white woman opened her purse and
the black ones features beamed
II amt begin. honey. De p'lice 'resses
you If you begs-thanky. honey. Is dishere
yuther lady yoh ma? You looks de spit
image Of her 'lowin' fob de great diffunce
in yoh yeahs,'' and Aunt Julie smiled So
ciably at the irritated woman who turned
her back and walked on.
And who is your dear Aune Julie?' she
inquired as the two resumed their walk
Never saw her before. Oh, but you are
good and mad because she asked if you
were my mother"
Nonsense. Anybody can tell don't look
like you, and I'm not day older"
Aunt Julie knew that as we'll as we do.
You were rude to the old soul and she was
shrewd enough to even up by giving your
vanity dig. Serves you right"
And before the other woman could an
swer they had walked out of hearing of
third woman who was sitting on a bench.
Two women met in a big department store
about o'clock yesterday morning.
I've just been enjoying a joke at my
own expense" remarked the one with gray