Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1907-02-24

Two women boarded a crowded car They
were not pretty, nor stylish. nor young.
But they were very. very gentee1. No man
made a motion to do what most men con-
slider the proper thing. One woman, in an
abominable red hat. showed herself closer
to the woman next, but the woman next
made no effort to push the good thing
along. nothing came of it. So the women
who Were neither pretty, nor stylish, nor
young. but just very, very genteel caught
hold of a couple of straps. And when the
car turned a curve they lurched against
each other and turned red. One of them
clamped her lips together in a way that
brought out a double chin and an extra
batch of wrinkles. The other made an
effort to look if she thought having her
life half jolted out of her before lot of
strangers was real cute. The effort failed.
The woman in the abominable red hat
looked sympathetic, and young girl.
few seats up. arose and offered the double
chinned woman her seat. When she had
settled herself into ii, the woman said, with
a sigh that wasn't altogether relief:
when you get to where the men in
car wait for girl to get up and give you
her seat, then you may know you are
Old
Don't talk so loud Sis Martin inter-
rupted the other, who had caught a strap
in front of her companion. Why, l see
lots of men give up their seats to women
much older than we are
I'm not talking one bit louder than you
folks. If an infirm woman was to totter
in here now these men would tumble over
each other to give her seat. That's all
right, I'm not complaining. I'm just telling
you what's true. They are always polite
to young women and to very old ones, but
they don't bother about middle-aged wom-
en- who are too plain to appeal to their
romantic feelings and too healthy to touch
their pity. | haven't been riding in cars
from the time they started in with horses
not TO know what I'm talking abodt. That
girls got a seat already. What did l tell
you?'
Indeed. Sis Marth. you oughtnt to be
unfair like that. / think men are always,
at least nearly always, polite. Oh, thank
you. sir
man had pushed button. got up
and touched the standing woman on the
arm. When she thanked him he touched
his hat. Then he passed out and swung
off the car slowed up. The woman in
the abominable red hat beamed her pleas
ure Lord love her. and the woman who
had been hanging to the strap sat down.
She must have. felt that she had achieved
mans vindication, for she leaned across
and whispered:
You see?''
"Oh, yes / see. He's going to cross the
park. He couldn't very well take the seat
along with him"
And on the face of Sis Marth was the con-
viction of one who knows her little book.
There was Mark Iapley in one crowd
of men and women who had braved the
icy squall to see the balloon that didn't
ascend. AS they blew homeward, with
hands on hats and with gowns Tapping
like so many flags in a blast. the Mark
Tapley man varied the general grumbling
with a conundrum:
What is the difference between George
Washington and the weather bureau?'
The others tossed the conundrum like
ball between them and then gave 1t up.
Nobody could guess the difference between
George Washington and the weather bu-
reau. Mark Tapiey grinned and took on
the Importance of an endman.
"Well, I'll tell you the difference. George
Washington never told lie, and the
weather bureau predicted no wind for this
morning-See the point?
Whether they did or not, the grumbling
gave way to derisive laughter, and one TALL
beanpole of a young man crooked his arm
into a hook and wreathed Mark Tapley's
neck.