Evening star., 1907-10-26
T HE RIGHT w AY

man with the queer light In hi.
eye, that l am the stubbornes'
man ir' Washington. A lot of folks al
of whom are perfect strangers to me
think the same thing. Some of them.
have no doubt, even think that I an
bullheaded. Let them. / don't care what
they think. I am right. and they are
wrong. and so it doesn't make any differ.
ence to me what they think
Now. 1t is an odd thing that am only
stubborn in a few respects. The most i'm
portant Of these respects concerns walking
bornest about. 1 will walk to the right
I won't let anybody coming from the
other direction walk to the right of me.
am not. as I say. particularly mulst
|kabout any great number of things. But
I am mulish about walking to the right
Some folks say that am bug on the sub
1ect of walking to the right. All right
Let them. AS I have observed. I dom,
care a hang what they say. because
know that / am right.
you know that am right. don't you
OF course, you do! You know. or you
ought to know. that you've got no busi-
ness walking on a. crowded street in any
If you don't know it, then you're nui-
sance. and you're the kind of people I've
got 1t In for. 1 am fighting people like
you all the time-people that won't keei
| to the right when they are walking.
II met one like that the other day.
was walking down the avenue from 18th
street to 7th street. l was walking or
the north side of the avenue, of course
You will perceive. therefore, that mas
| much as 1 was walking down the avenue
hn ,nrth ctr nf
had a right to the curb. 1t was my rlgh,
to make everybody walk inside of me
that is to say. it was their business, wher
they bore down upon me. as they pursued
| their westward. up-the-avenue trudge, te
keep on the side of the buildings and tC
give me the curb. That's all l asked OF
them. And I didn't ask 1t as any favor
1t was my right. If they didn't know il
was my right, then that was their fault
But they all knew it, don't you worry
about that.
|. We'll. came upon a few left-wa kers
upon the trip, but they We're easy. Mos,
of them were walking to the left, out by
the curb, thoughtlessy. They weren't the
pose All l had to do when ! met these
was to stand still, right on the edge OF
the curb. and then. when they remem-
bered that L was in the right, why, they
just picked up their feet and wake
around me.
But, down near the corner of 11th
street I came upon one of the g-headed
ones. 1t enrages me yet to think how
stubborn that fellow was. At the same
time 1t gives me a glow all over to think
how beat him out. He was tall sham
bly,, youngish, pretty well-dressed sort of
a fellow. with hair that stuck out above
his ears kind of cowlicky and stubborn
He had stubborn face. too, and an eye
that looked right at you. l spotted him
about thirty yards aheead of me- He was
yyalkjpp n the left close tn the cIlrh. He
was making olks-mullet-headed folks
that didn't have enough spine to assert
| themselves-walk to the left of him.
well, he won't make me walk to the
left of him said to myself when spot
ted him. And so 1 got just as c.oSe 10
the curb as l could without lettering over.
The tan, shambly follow spotted me quite
a little distance away, too. | caught him
spotting me. l could see that he was 60
ing to be left walker worth fighting.
He sort of gathered himself together
when he spotted me, and l felt his men
tai processes. He was saying to himself
that he was going to make that crank
meaning me-walk to the left Of him or
know the. reason why. He didn't know,
OF course, that I was saying to myself at
the same instant of time that I'd be eter-
nally hornswoggled if I'd walk to the
left Of him.
"well, there he came. walking right on
the edge Of the curb, till he was only
about three feet away from me. By that
time It was plain to him that l wasn't
going to turn out and let him have the
curb. So he stopped. right on the curb S
edge. That's where l was, too-rght on
the edge of the curb. He looked square
at me-. l looked square at him. He put
his gloved hands on his hips and looked
at me some more. 1 put mine on my hips
and looked at him some more. Neither of
US moved a muscle for quite a minute.
Then he saw that he was up against
1t. So he thought he'd try strategy. He
turned around so that he was facing the
other side of the street thus endeavoring
to convey the notion to me that he wasn't
going to proceed any further He thought
that bf ] derived this impression from his
move I'd probably walk around him. But
wasn't to be fooled by any such scheme.
I'd seen that tried before. So l just turn
led halfway around myself so as to face
the other side Of the street, and I pre-
tended to be greatly Interested in the
second-story windows of the Post Office
Department across the street .
When l did that the tall shambly chap
looked at me out Of the tail of his eye.
happeDed to be looking at him the same
way or of course 1 wouldn't have caught
him at it. He grinned slightly and turned
his head back SO as to seem to be sur
veying the other side of the street again.
Then he placed his hands back of HIM
and clasped them and began to softly
whistle plaintive air. dis idea in doing
| that was to give me the impression that
| he had all the tlre IN the WOrlQ. L was
on to his purpose. But it didn't work !
had p'enty OF time myself. That Is to
say. l was on an errand. but, errand or
no errand. l would take all the time need
ed to wear down stubborn pig-head like
that fellow.
AFTER bit he took out cigarette,
adjusted 1t carefully in holder lighted
II and proceeded to blow smoke rings at
the other side of the street. 1 got out a
cigar, lighted 1t and fell into the enjoy
ment OF tobacco myself. We were both
standing so close to the curb that our
shoes overhung the gutter. The only diff
ference between us was that | was right
and he was wrong. He knew that he was
wrong, too. only he meant to beat me out,
and didn't mean to let him.
Fine afternoon. he suddenly said,
sort of half turning toward me.
Very said L.
Then we both stood still for a while
and smoked some more.
Foot ball weather. eh?' he observed
after the pause
'''Yep-good for walking, too. for peo-
pie that know how to walk l replied.
He sort Of grinned at that but made
no direct comment upon the observation.
After another considerable pause, how
ever, he came right out with it.
Kind o. determined, amt you?' said
he
"'You bet am said l. When it comes
to my rights l am. And this is a matter
affecting my rights.
oh, it isn't SO important as all that
comes to. is it! said he.
don't you move around to the right, as
tn yn in tha fret nj