Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1907-12-22
AROUND THE CITY

A woman going along in the dusk of
business street saw an oldish man stand
ing before a store window, He was tall.
thin man. with students stoop to his
shoulders and the profile of a deep
thinker
AS he stood motionless and with look
of absorbed contemplation. the woman.
knowing how slight thing will recall old
days and old scenes. felt without knowing
that the man had seen some article in the
window that had set him to thinking of
the past. With the instructive sympathy
that one lonely soul always feels for an
other. she walked by quietly so as not
to disturb his line of thought. In passing
however. she glanced at the window to
see II she could determine what had
worked the charm.
1t was trousers marked down
A tiny boy with one eye bandaged and
the other shaded by smoked glass knelt
on car seat and looked through the
window. He was a joyous little fellow
but the man with him had an anxious
ace and answered the child's questions in
voice as tender a woman's.
Suff ring is as old as the world and as
common as life. so that the only thing
particularly noticeable about this par
ticular child was that his cond ton and
the merry way he accepted it made a
woman on the opposite seat say to her
companions:
You won't hear me complaining about
my eyes again. I've been taking lesson
from that boy"
And another woman who overheard
wished she had said 1t loCd enough for
the anxious-faced man to hear.
Maybe 1t would have helped
\ yoke of steers were hauling an ad
..rtisemnnt a 'ong 18th street. They were
'.g red steers. with brass knobbed horns.
and they plodded along so sedately that
ne WHIP carried by the man who walked
beside them was as useless an emblem as
a scepter held by king
Passersby on both sides OF the street
topped to chuckle and calculate and
on t$nihed old gentleman. who looked
as i ms name must be on some board of
'ank directors was so pleasantly eX-
cited as 10 exclaim to another man. who
.-ai the appearance OF being out OF job:
That's great, isn't it? They are just
off the o q farm, SIR
The man who had the appearance of be-
ing out job had different opinion, and
ne expressed it.
We'll. sir, they don't look homelike to
me. I've driven OK teams ever since I
was big enough TO holler, and you have to
10 heap of hollerin' to handle oxen
They want TO wheel out of the road and
am into fence rails and buck into trees,
and that's what they are a-goin' to do IL
so7d free. Watch them oxen. sir Do
you see em lower their heads or switch
t9eir tails? No. sir. Thy are wa KING
jong as unnatural calm as if they were
marching up church aisle to get mar
red They've gone through a lot of
trainin since they left any old farm,
and while they look right pgart and fun
ny paradin' along there so mild let me
ask you. sir, what do you suppose a
farmer would say if he saw that there
team?"
To the person who had taken these OBJ
sarvations in 1t would have seemed more
Interesting to know just what the team
thought of the situation.
A man was looking at a painting in a
store window on 18th street There is
nothing sensational, of course in a pass
erbyS stopping to admire a work OF art
that was put there to attract attention,
but the humorous intentness with which
re studied the subject caught the interest
of a woman who was also looking at the
pictures. curios and bronzes.
The painting, a large framed canvas,
showed an humble but cheerful interior,
with a peasant family at table, except for
a small girl who preferred her plate on
the floor. The mother was feeding the
baby on her lap. and the father, cup in
hand, was watching the process. The
couple must have been typical of the
class and nation to which they belonged:
the woman, honest and hardworking the
man lean, clean shaven and with his hair
hidden by a close-fittng cap. 1t was q
scene that appealed to ones love of home
and honest love. and for that reason the
woman failed to understand the express
sion on the face of the man beside her,
until. IN turning away, he said to himself,
quite loud enough for her to hear:
John D., leading the simple life.'
In the light of this suggestion the wom-
an gave a second look at the peasant
father, with his lean. clean shaver face,
and the close cap that hid his hair, and
Well, really!
A woman was looking at books in a de-
partment store.
Every inch of the big place was filed
with holiday shoppers who had swarmed
in from the icy blackness outside to the
blaze of lights and the glow of scarlet
bells. Men, women and clerks made a
merry clatter between them. and mingled
with the rich, unstudied music of childish
laughter. were the gone-mad buZzes, toots,
whirrs and tinkles of wound-up toys, all
of them goings at once. 1t seemed to the
woman that she was the only one in all
that crowd who was to have a lonely
Christmas. and she was thinking that it
wasn't fair, when voice said to her:
Good EVENING"
1t was a cheerful voice, and 1t belonged
to man with friendly eyes and a nice
smile, who had with him pretty young
daughter and a son who will grow to be
his double some day.
Happiness is a beautiful thing and the
woman. who had only known the man in
a casual, business way, felt honestly glad
for him. The children meant Christmas
tree and filled stockings and all sorts of
merry goings-on, with never a shadow to
mar them.
"of course you are going to have a
lovely Christmas?"
The man looked at the children and
smiled, as if there was no telling the
good times they were going to have. Then
he turned a little away frcm them and
said in a lower voice:
1T will be a sad day for me- because
one of my children, little girl Of twelve,
is dangerously Ill, and we are afraid
that"
1t seemed to the woman that he had
turned from the children so as to shield
them from the sorrow of his words. and
that, no matter how heavy his own heart
might be, he wanted them to be happy
And when he started off with them his
face was smiling.
1t was a lesson in bravery. And Il
helped the woman.
A Successful Recital.