Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1907-12-29
AROUND THE CITY

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| A big, fat, smiling man crowded his
way into a department store in the crush
Of Christmas eve. He must have been
a man of prominence. otherwise than in
the way of good. red flesh, for a floor
walker received him with Difference, es-
corted him to an elevator, accompanied
him to an upper floor and conveyed him
to toy counter.
| And one or two women who had gone
up to the toy section with the big man
said to the other. loud enough to be heard
by the crowd for six solid yards around:
There goes Secretary Taft
The woman with her asked how she
knew and the other answered:
Why. everybody knows Secretary
Taft. and besides don't you see he's buy
| ing Teddy bears?"
| OF course. it wasn't the Secretary of
War. and both women knew it. They
simply wanted to treat the crowd to an
excitement.
And they succeeded
Two youngish women in a cafe:
Yes. I've got good husband, as far
| as providing and staying home at nights
goes; but it's a great pity didn't marry
man with sentiment. I'm so full of
| sentiment, my ownself. I never felt more
strongly than this year his total lack
Of the spirit of Christmas, and it has
shocked me so that I'm just going to
tell you what he did
I'm not finding fault you know, only
II Will show you that his soul is 80
stepped in business as to leave no room
I for the softer emotions.
About the first of December I had to
go to my washerwoman's to find out why
she hadn't come for the clothes. Her
grandmother had been laid up with rhen-
matisn. and, sure enough, there was the
old soul, all crippled up, sitting on
soap box. because there was no chair,
and smoking mess of dried leaves be-
cause she had no tobacco. OF course, I
know those sort of shiftless, pipe-smok-
ing people bring all their troubles on them
selves, but I felt really sorry for the
old soul, and determined to unearth a
red plush rocker I've had since the year
1, cover it with pink-f1owered oretonne
and send it to her for Christmas gift.
when I got home I told John about it;
but instead Of approaching the sentiment
Of the thing, he hurled at me one of his
horrid notices:
10 it now"
Il didn't want to do it then, and told
him So I wanted that poverty-stricken
old creature to realize that the beautiful
gift spirit of the yuletide had touched her
with It's tender grace, don't you know; but
John shut me off by saying that if the
old girl needed a chair she needed it at
once and let the gift spirit go to smither-
Gems.
We'll, just had to refuse to say a
word more, because the children are get
ting so now that they take notice of
everything; but, all the same. I had al
ready settled it in my mind that one rheu-
matte old colored woman, at least, should
have a pink-foH7ered easy chair Christ
mas eve, when, please goodness. along
ABOUT ~ O'Clock next morning Johns
porter drives up with the delivery wagon
and hands me note:
Give Bill chair and address,
And that's the kind of a husband I've
you understand, but with no sentiment
about him.
And woman who was having her cof-
fee and three fried" at the same table
wondered what the rheumatic old woman
would have to say concerning sentiment
as typified by Mary and John.
A foreign little brown man was SELL
ing Christmas tree trimmings on a curb
Silver and gilt tinsel made a dazzle of
his shabby hat, and his threadbare Shout
ders sparkled with fairy snow In his
arms was a bag that bulged with more
dazzies and soarkles. And as he cried
been taught the few hawking phrases,
parrot fashion. for he mingled with them
the gibberish Of a strange tongue
His diversity Of languages especially
appealed to small boy, who stopped
his mother i'm ferment Of jubilation to
tell her that at last he had found the
real Santa The mother called his at
tention to the foreign little mans stub
toed black mustache. Everybody knows
that Santa Claus has a beard that is
white and flowing. But the small boy
came back at mamma with an argument
that left nothing more to be said:
1t is so, Santa, mamma, Cant hear
him talking North Pole"'
AS they walked and talked:
Do you know the Blank twins? No?
Well you ought to. because they are such
splendid girls. I think twins are inter-
esting. anyhow, but these friends of mine
are the most attractive I know. And so
alike. Why. when they were little girls
them apart: and to show YOU that their
twinsi1ip must have given them, when lit
tie. very pronounced views concerning
twins, generally. once when a teacher
asked one of them to spell egg she an
swered:
"E twin g.
And the woman who overheard felt that
she would like to step forward with the
remark that it was cute little story, told
in cute little way.
She was a woman with an intelligent
brow and the eyes of a dreamer, and she
was telling her little tale of woe with an
even mixture of modification and fun.
II don't know how on earth ever came
to make such an idiotic remark. Honestly, |
sometimes I say things that make me
think I am only the n?outhpiece of some
hidden force that captures my tongue for |
the sole purpose of holding me up to ridi- |
cule.
The other day I was walking out with |
our dog. an English mastiff named Ponto. |
A friend of mine came along and, in ad- |
miring the dog. asked his pedigree, and
I answered with fluency that was over
OH En- IisI