Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1906-04-14
MADE A DIFFERENCE

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Unavaiingly the tired-sooking little wo-
man In the 9th street car endeavored to
quiet the bawiing. roly-poiy baby on her
lap. The baby roared and jabbed It's TN
gers into its eyes and kicked and sprawled
and gasped and chohed and spiuttared and
then reared some more. Each one of its
roars was so protraeted that 1t seemed to
some of the less experienced passengers
that the baby was never going TO get Its
breath again In this or in any other life.
The tired-looking little mother Of the tat
baby tried every old dodge known to moth
ers to get the kid to pipe down. She
chucked 1t under the chin and told 1t to
look at the horsies out of the window and
to look at the "pittie little doggie.'' and
pressed it close and crooned to 1t, and held
it out in arms length and sang out loud
to it and handled 1t and went through all
the rest of the baby-soothing repertoire.
But It was ali no go. The baby kept
right on roaring with all it's might.
Must be a pin sticking IT, some of the
women in the car said TO each other.
N''All the kid wants is drink OF water
and an automobile and silk handkerchief
and seven or eight thousand dollars in
nickels. one of the bachelor male passen-
gers growled to his companion.
The stern-iooking man sitting right along
at length seemed TO lose his patience He
had been looking straight ahead Of him.
with heavy scowl on his features Now
he leaned over to the mother of the
Squawking infant.
Say. look a-hear.' he said in a rough,
grating voice. its pretty near time for
that kid to cut out its hollering, see? just
you shut him up, that's ALL
Now, this sounded like a queer way for
a man TO talk to the tired-looking mother
of squalling baby, no matter how much
annoyed the speaker of such words might
be.
And the passengers looked upon the mat
ter In this light. too. A moment before
they had all been grumbling and growing
over the yowling of the young one. But
now that the mother was addressed in
such rough and cavalier tone by the
grouehy-looking man in the seat next to
her they all switched directly over to the
mothers side.
Say. that's fresh guy amt he?' the
men said. Where does he butt in here.
anyhow? Die hear the way he addressed
that poor little woman? That duck needs
jolt on the jaw, that's what he needs"
why the very idea of him talking thar
way to that woman, was the way the
women passengers expressed it. Did you
ever in all your born days? The impudence
of him. He just talked to that woman
with the baby like perfect brute
But the grouchy-looking- man sitting
alongside the woman with the yelling baby
CluH seem 10 De bothered Dy THESE re-
marks. He leaned over to the tired looking
mother again as the young one continued
to bawl and he said to her in rasping
voice:
Now. you hear what I'm saying don't
you? You'd better keep that kid quiet
or therell be something doing around here.
that's ALL"
The passengers were again fairly amazed,
and two men across the aisle were just
upon the point of getting up and saying
things to the grouchy-iooking individual
when the mother of the bowling young one
looked up at him.
But Eddie. my dear. what in the wiae
world am / going to do with him. she
said to the grouchy man.
Then all hands settled back in their seats
and looked somewhere else.
oh they all appeared to be saying TO
themselves
For it was perfectly obvious to them that
the grouchy man was the young ones dad
and the tired-looklng little mothers hus-
band, and, presumably. it appeared equally
obvious to them that. as her husband, the
man had a perfect right to bulldoze her in
public just much as he internally
pleased.