Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1906-08-23
VICTORIA IS A DREAM
Home Sweet Home Town on
Puget Sound.
THOSE DEAR BUNGALOWS
The Whiskerettes and Babble of Con-
sui Smith.
A ONE-TIME WASHINGT0NIAN
Pacific Coast Hardshells With Whisk-
ers-The Busy Waiter and the
Lucky Poor.
ONE-TIME WAsHINGToNIAN
Special From a STAFF Correspondent.

Province of British Columbia,
Canada, August IA, 1906.
This Is a sure-enough town. And don't
mean that In an offensive way, either For
the public buildings are not so imposing In
architecture or in the estimation of Vic
toria's population that the cinder-scarred
stranger has to visit them before he washes
his face; there Is no Carnegie library, with
circulation of 400 volumes and twenty
two miles of empty shelving, and last but
by no means least, there is no particular
show cemetery, of which the natives are
inordinately proud.
No, Victoria is not great along these
lines. But In the home-sweet- home depart
ment she has almost every other abiding
place I've seen blotted off the map. I'd no
sooner seen the streets and the houses and
the general look of things before something
began to jump up and down in my throat
and my eyes overfowed on a new wash
neckt1e. But I'm not a bit ashamed Of it.
Take any man five or six thousand miles
from home and run him into come-to-my-
arms-darling town like this and I'll guar
antee he'll behave the same way-only
worse.
After awhile I got bit more used to it,
and. save for feeling Of gentle melan-
quite normal. But I like the town. 1 like
1t extravagantly. And If I ever have to
leave Washington in the night, this Is
where I'm coming. The people are char
table and the climate is delightful.
Those Dear Bungalows.
Just imagine, If you please, street after
street. wide and well paved, lined on either
side by the niftiest, cutest little bunga-
lows you. ever dreamed of-the kind you
see pictures Of in the Ladies Home Jour-
nal construction department - and every
one of them covered from ground to roof
with the widest profusion of flowers. I'm
tails of the profusion, for there's local
committee waiting downstairs, and I al
ways try to be courteous. I'm afraid IL
continue to writes one of them will come
upstairs and note by the light In my room
that 1 haven't gone to bed. But all the
plants that ever sprang out of the earth
were there. and any four-volume work on
botany will give you the Celebrations much
better than l can.
But it isn't only the streets and the trees
and the Ladies' Home Journal houses that
lend the town that indef1nable, Goddess
our-home air. Twas something more, but
thing is there. though, and it snuggles right
up close to the transient married male off
by his lonesome and makes him think Of
intimate little details. I know, for it hit
me strong. I thought of the breathless mo-
ment long ago when 1 fired the cook, and
remembered as If it were yesterday the
time the baby hit me in the eye with
Noah's ark. Oh. this is a great town!
The local committee briefly referred to
moment or SO back met our party at the
train and put the town at our disposal. But
first they loaded US on four-story tally
no pulled by four snorting equines and
drove us all over the place. That's when
the home-sweet-home atmosphere began
to- get in its deadly work. But it was
mighty interesting.
First. we'd pass lot of little bungalows
,f~x oh
rounded by it's own grounds and garden,
and then we'd come to a-big one off by It
self, with more grounds and more flowers
and with Jap servants puttering around
posing-looking Englishmen sitting on the
front porch Furnishing the favorite product
of Scotland. If I could only remember
half the interesting things saw in Vic
script in my trunk. That's the only safe
and sane method, anyhow. It gets all these
things out Of your system and Is easy on
the Unmatched pocket
A Voice From Washington.
I met lots Of folks from Washington who
spoke disrespectfully, by comparison, Of
the climate Of the national capital One Of
themI wish I could remember his name
had the next seat to mine on the lofty tai
ly-ho. He told me that he was at one time
secretary Of the District Of Columbia tele-
phone company and was associated with
Alexander Graham Bell in the latters labo-
ratory work. But some years ago he de-
cided that he'd collected enough real money
to last him for quite spell and began to
cast around for place 10 hang up his hat.
AS a result Of continued residence in
Washington the matter Of climate became
with him a paramount issue. He was will
ing to sacrifice almost every other luxury
and few necessities for the privilege Of
living in a section where the ordinary citi-
zen, on leaving his house in the morning,
could decide whether to take a change Of
fig leaves or an extra suit of wooden pn-
derwear. Finally he decided upon Vic
toria.
But he didn't make any haphazard
choice. He got the advice Of Prof Willis
Moore Of the Washington weather bureau,
and that gentleman was strong for Vic
toria. Mr.. What s-his- name confided to
me in confidence that this sort Of preju-
diced him against the place. But the
weather maps bore out Mr.. Moore's state
ment: all the isobars and isotherms he
could locate pointed to the same thing and
so he moved. Since then he hasn't been
frost bitten or pestered with the heat and
1t rains SO infrequently that sometimes he
goes out In the back yard and has his Chi