Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1906-05-12

hanging IN vain. Can you tell of single
convenient breathing spot that Is not in
Tested with the like of these?
Aha! A strange thing is happening-one
or the bench warmers Is bestrring himself!
The man of business who just now walked
past dropped his extra" and the bench
warmer is picking 1t up. How indolently
he scans the head lines-and how speedily
his head Is nodding again.
You have heheld one OF the luxuries OF
city loafing. The latest news can always
be picked up and passed along the bench.
And consider the luxurious loaing quarters!
Flower beds multi-colored dotting the
greensward; fountain playing for the en-
tire park; twittering birds overhead: the
fragrant smell of new mown grass, and
street piano at the corner more or less mu-
sically grinding out the very latest popular
airs And then there is the ever-changing
panorama of street and sidewa k-the great
est of all shows known to man.
Perhaps you have already noticed the SUI
perior quality of the loafing being INDUCED
in. The town loafer is forever spinning
yarns-working his jaw, in the parlance of
the newsy, whose voice Is even now reach
ing your ears. But among these lOafers
there is the silence of complete Incidence
a silence emphasized by an occasional
snOre, or sullen shutting Of feet, or the rat
Ting of a newspaper falling to the ground
from sleep-loosed fingers.
How many loafers in the park? Some six
or seven hundred, probably, and It covers
only block. But don't think that all the
lOaIeTS are IuESBdlHeItu bEItt We nave just
begun our trip of exploration.
Loafng Around Great Works.
BY the way, here is a great hole being
made for the foundation of q new office
building. Why is the crowd fringing the
hole? Oh. just few more loafers There's
plenty to do all about, but the men making
up the crowd prefer to hang over the guard
rail, and let carking care and toll shift for
themselves.
This is one Of the things that makes loaf
ing in a city so very easy. "Oh, / m just
watching the dagoes hauling away the
dirt" It's good excuse, that satisfies both
self and any acquaintance who chances
along. All day long the rail will be sur
rounded by idle watchers, some remaining
for as long as an hour or two.
All, here's another of these excuses for
Ioafing-a fakir grandiloquently expatlatng
on the virtues of his bauble. Perhaps one
in twenty of the several scores of men
grouped about him has been drawn hlther
by mere curiosity alone and when that
feeling is satisfied will hasten away to
make UP for time lost. But the rest-wel,
iinger here little space. How slowly they
drift away, looking for another excuse to
kill time. or how brazenly they hang about
waiting for the man to begin his song all
over again!
1t would not be quite the proper thing
to venture into such place, but the
next time this wicker door swings open
smeared table filed with idltng and nod
ding men, and just across the way Is the
office of a publishing firm that has been
advertising all week for canvassers.
Here we are on the water front at last,
20 not be surprised at what you see. Since
man began the water front has been
notorious loafing spot. The first ocular
proof of this statement is yonder sailor man
sleeping peacefully against the lamp post.
Are they not loafers. topping those bar
rels and sails? Squatted In front OF that
rum mill are a dozen husky longshore-
men This morning the boss stevedore at
the wharf Immediately opposite almost got
on his knees and begged these very men to
come to work but they would not. Any
boss stevedore will take oath that that
so long as the average longshoreman has
the price of drink of vile whisky in his
pocket he will loaf-loaf-loaf, though the
international commerce of the world rots
on the wharves for want OF his prowess.
The Ubiquitous Idler.
ct worked hard for six months to get
lob. now I'm going to loaf
DO YOU know who said that? New
York city man who recently landed a
political Job You don't need any one TO
tell YOU that many, many of city's poiit-
tcaI menials loaf outrageously, put mere Is
a little illustrative Incident
The tree to be cut down crowned the
highest mound in the park. No other
trees were about to shut off the view, and
this was the little play the dwelers round
about witnessed following the coming OF
exactly seven men to the knoll
Two men hacked at the tree two or three
tiroSs then rested from their toll. while
another ax-bearing couple tried inef-