Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1907-07-07
AROUND THE CITY

A steamer at the wharf was crowded
with excursionists. and the band was loot
ing out welcomes to late arrivals, when
man came aboard to sell flowers. He was
a young man, who looked If his proper
place was in bed with the doctor in attend
ance, but his wicker tray was heaped with
fragrant carnations and dewy masses of
sweet peas In pink and lavender bloom.
family excursion seems not to be
profitable field for floral sentiment, for
the vender was about to leave the deck with
out sale when one of a group of six
young men concluded he wanted g. button
hole bouquet. He was probably the lead
ing spirit of his crowd. for when the man
with the tray went off. pitifully elated, six
dandified young gentlemen were decked
out in huge clusters of lavender sweet
peas. fastened to their lapels with glass
headed pins.
That's the way the money goes" SER
moniZed man who looked as If 1t wouldn't
have ruined him if he had bought a bunch
of posies for his wife.
Il bet they are going to give them away
to the girls they dance with said a pretty
blonde In white. who was promenading the
deck with companion in pale blue. And
she made her prophecy with an air that i'm
piled that she wouldn't be surprised to find
herself wearing lavender sweet peas on the
home trip.
The sermonizing man had a poor, meek
wife. for in lull of good-natured chuckles,
in which the six youngsters joined heartily
at their own expense, she returned his
adage in kind:
Maybe they've got money to throw
away"
She said 1t, poor soul. as If 1t were her
business whether they had or not. The OBJ
vious thing that they were in for
good time as long as the money lasted, and
that every boy of them had helped a fell
bowman little way along toward earning
his daily bread.
And that counts for a heap.
tired-faced excursionists filing out of the
east terrace of the White House fingered
to look about while the others piodded on
In the south grounds a gardener was
rak-ng grass into little green mounds.
squirrels scudded under the trees, birds
flew about the branches and down in the
sunshine flowers were swaying in the
breeze.
One of the party called back for her to
hurry on. and the woman who had lin
gered turned to overtake her crowd she
gave SIGH as of sudden realization, and
said to a person who was looking at the
fish pond:
Il don't wonder. after all. at a man
wanting to be President. to get a yard like
this
Which is pretty good reason as far as
it goes.
A laborer with pair of long-handled
SnedrS was trimming the grass on d street
triangle A very old man who was tot
tering along leaning on the arm of an
athletic-looking young one, insisted upon
stopping to watch the process.
Il can clip grass better than that, quav-
cred out the old man. Il got my training
as landscape gardener 'front.' forget his
name-but 1 always stoop. ia IKE to try
one of those new-fangied things, Jlm'
Tell the man to let me-
Jim patted the old mans arm and an
swered with fresh and hearty interest:
He can't stop his work. grandpa Well
go and buy pair, SO that you can cut
Maybe that would be better. But
want to show this man how ! can beat
him. Tell him to come to the house. JIM
and ask him when he'll be there
He isn't allowed to talk in business
hours. grandpa. I'll see him later. And
now I'm all tuckered out You said you
could outwalk me, and, by jinks, you've
done it. I'll have to ride bit
He held up hand toward coachman
was was driving his carriage slowly along
the curb. And as woman who was walt
ing for a car watched the tenderness with
which the young man helped the older one
inside. she said to herself:
I've seen an angel. His name is Jim"
Two women and man were riding down
Pennsylvania avenue in an open car They
must have been strangers-they knew so
much about Washington that wasn't so.
The woman on the end seat dispensed In
with a hand dingy at the knuckles and re-
splendent with a cluster diamond ring with
one set gone. When the car had curved
around 18th street she pointed to an I'M
finished building on the south side of the
avenue and announced. In voice that had
all the merits of megaphone:
That's a church. See the saints
statches."
"Oh-h! So 1t is!' exclaimed the other
woman shaking her head with disap-
proval that skewed her hat to one side Il
think it's awful wicked to waste all that
money on saints statches that have eyes
and see not and ears that don't hear,
when there are 80 many little children all
over the world crying for bread
Then the man took a turn.
i've got no for churches. The for
ests were Gods first temples"
He made his statement as IL it were en-
tirely original and he had never heard tell
of a Druid. Which, incidentally, 1t Is prob
able he never had.
And by that time the car had passed the
municipal building.