Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1906-08-18
A DISMAL RAINY DAY

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For a period of meanness, and ennery-
ness. and wretchedness. and gloom. and
hopeiessness. and depression. and misery,
what do you know about long-drawn day
Of rain at a seaside hotel?" said the observ-
ant man with the peeled nose.
ut seems to me that I'd rather live, any
time. In a mud hut on the left bank of the
Congo river. or in the branches of a deadly
upas tree In an Orinoco river swamp. for
three consecutive months. than to spend
one Of those dismal. never-ending days OF
rain at the average seaside hotel.
s"In the first place. the sea itself is meas
ly. spirit-dampening monster and as ugly
as a bat-eared alley cat. on a sullen. rainy
day. The rollers that break on the wet
beach-the beach always looks million
ever does when It is equally soggy from
the salt water on clear day-have gray.
greasy. Shiny. nasty look; and the dun
| hued waves farther out rain-swept and
| slaty, haven't got 10 cents worth of In
/ spiration IL 'em- all the way across to the
coast Of MadaEascar: and the muddy-misty,
lowering skies. as they drip and drip and
| drip out over the soggy sea, look Thousand
| times more dispiriting and wretehed than
| rain-cloilds ever look to a human being In q
| city, no matter II 1t rains steadily out OF
| gray skies for four or Eve straight days
l or weeks
| Then the porches and all the chairs on
| the porches of the seaside hotels are wet
| and clammy. and the windows are mostly
all down to keep the wet and sickness out,
1 and all hands. Of course, have to hang
| around inside the plant, most of them In the
| big parlor called the assembly room, ana
just gaze around and hate each other and
| themselves and the skies and seas and ma
| ture and the whole blooming design Of
| things, until life becomes a burden.
| "All the youngsters are kept In Of course,
| and they howl around the outfit like q
L 80 do Dc Cl,n nd m
general misery.
THE flies in a seaside hotel on a long day
| Of rain bite like those East Indian spiders
that spin webs the size Of hawsers. and
| there's no getting away from them.
| IAN of the girls and young women nece5-
sarlly kept in take waliop at the piano in
the assembly room at intervals Of three
| minutes or so. renderng-if you call 1t rem
dering~such atrocities as 'salvery waves
and Monastery Bells and Pure as Snow
| and The Maiden's Prayer and thing that
they think is Rubensteins melody In F.
each Of them inevitably winding up with
q sinful and knocking butchery of the In
termezzo from Cavalleria.
| 1.-The grown women invariably start pro-
| gressive euchre parties In all of the writ
ing rooms, including the mems writing
| rooms, and all over the rest of the place.
and they generally wind up by scrapping
and accusing each other of punching too
many holes in their own cards.
| Eight or ten young Willie boys IN
| evitably take possession Of the billiard and
pool room, and their hoarse, voice-chang-
Ing haw-haws and raucous croakings can
be heard up to the top floors from the
hour Immediately following breakfast till
late at night.
There's no chance to wander into the
most retired nook or Granny OF the seaside
hotel on the day Of rain without butting
into some moony young couple that have
beaten you to 1t in finding the out-of-the-
| way spot. and when you slam in where
they are they glare at you out OF oWlish
eyes as II you were bent on oiackman or
| some other fendish purpose and you nave
| to run away from there as fast as your
legs'n carry you to dodge their manifest
| wrath.
"The genial clerk has a lot of shuttle.
| boards brought out on the rainy days at
the seaside hotel and the clatter and rattle
and misery Of those noisy denominations
keep you hopping during those rare inter-
walls when something Else isn't chopping
away at your already shattered nerves
| with an ice-pick.
ION the rainy day at the seaside hotel the
invariable hopeless ass of male being who
imagines that he knows how to sing clomps
up to the piano. gets some fool girl to &C
company him, and tears chunks out OF the
basso nuisance of a song that he calls Raw
hawked in the Ora hadle of the De-heep.'
when you venture into the reading room
| of the seaside hotel on the rainy day you
find that It's Uttered and ciuttered up with
| q bunch Of sophisticated-appearing married
women who've nudged together for the pur-
L pose OF unreeInR q rev ullle new StOIlcS
that they've heard somewhere or other. and
| when they catch sight Of you they regard
| you with blazing eyes. as If you were a
prowler or slinker who'd been eavesdrop-
ping on them, and you go away from there
in the same hurry that incites you to give
the spconing couples In the out-of-the-way
hooks and crannies wide berth.
"Low-pitched but acute and intense
| scraps between young married folks break
out all over the place on the rainy day at
the seaside hotel. The young married man,
kept in the house by the rain, maybe sneaks
off to the bar for a while and when he re-
Joins his wife he's bit glassy-eyed, and
then she nails him and accuses him, and
he tells her that he isn't down at the sea-
| side for his sins and that he's going to have
| little fun or know the reason why. and
| then she gets the weeps or lights into him
| in an entirely weepless state.
ION the rainy day at the seaside hotel
! the large, ponderous and horribly severe
| mother Of bunch of manageable daugh-
tiers sits in rocking chair In the assembly
room ALI day and glares at the other young
women and makes mental comments on
| their ugliness that you can almost hear as
they revolve under her hair.
| ION the rainy day at the seaside hotel
the dashing young widow-nobody knows
whether grass or sod-who Is darkly sus-
pected by all of the other women In the
place Of coming In too late O. nights nut
tiers around the assembly room in some
gorgeous costume especially butt and de-
signed for day Of sog, and the men all
sort of hop and hover around her. and then
| all Of the other women get their heads to-
gether and buzZ-z-z-z-z about what shock
Ing amount of kalsomine makeup the fine
looking young widow wears on her map.
and tell each other what they've heard
about the hour of the night at which she
came in in her rolling chair couple OF
| nights before and comment upon what pin
heads men are to be able to see anything
in such a padded. buif-up creature, and a
| hull lot more of the same.
i a. o{x,vy 6nxy of a
I grown-up, sure-enough man who has ar
rived at the shaving age and who Is OF
good enough physique and character to
enlist as a private in the United states
army is bound to wonder what In the In
fernal thunder he Is doing or has done to
be caught in such a position. and ne has
about eighteen times more respect Tor a
| convict than he has for himself.
Machines Limitations.