Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1907-06-30
AROUND THE CITY

The avenue ditch was fringed with labor
| ers who were sitting back comfortably
while car crept by, Most of those in the
| gang were little foreign men with brown
| faces and beady eyes. and all wore blue
| shirts and denim overalls. One wien
| faced youngster had blade Of love-grass
| on his wreck of hat. The grass hung
limp from the frayed band, but it gave its
wearer a distinctiveness that appealed to a
| fat man in linen crash, who stood near.
waiting to cross the track.
Hello. Hamlet, where'd you get your
] flower garden. huh?"
He was such a FOLLY fat man that the
| wizened youngs.er took OF his hat. and
he waved * before setting it back on his
| head. Then he answered in English that
| had an accent to it that everybody has
| heard, and that no one on earth can
! spell:
| Il picked 1t up from the street as I was
coming to work A bush of it grows in my
| Sweethearts garden. near Naples"
| Memory is a powerful magician!
The wien face showed a flash of dazzling
teeth, and the beady eyes became mid
night suns.
Then the car passed. the laborers jumped
| into the ditch and commenced to do things
| in linen crash. who had lugged in the
| Prince Of Denmark when the occasion
called for Romeo, crossed the track
and
The incident was over.
Three green cars were blocked on Penn
| sylvania avenue just above 10th street. To
| the south side of the track lay an over
| turned cart. Under the shade Of tree
stood two sweaty brown horses with their
noses together, and on the pavement was
| the usual crowd
Somebody's going to have job shovel
| ing that coal back into the cart, remarked
| a huckster, who was looking on from the
seat of his own red-wheeled wagon.
Dat amt COAL mstuh,' corrected very
black old woman. with a basket of wash
over her arm. Oats tar
Who say dat's tah?" doomed out an
old yellow man with wool-like chinchilla.
Il say OATS tar. ngguh l cum fun
de tar kentry down yander in Souf Cab
liny. l knows it by sight an knows 1t
by smell"
"Oh. do you belong to South Carolina?"
put in thin-faced white woman, with
an eagerness that was downright pathetic.
so do l. Where did you come from?
'Out'n tab pot. jedgin' by de looks OF
her." suggested the yellow man, chuckling
at his own smartness.
rs hon'able black, anyhow" spanked
up the dusky daughter of the south, with
a glare at her adversary.
Having settled him the old black woman
turned to the white woman and explained
affably:
Il cum from a little 'tother slider Aiken.
My people was the Blankeses. You ever
heerd tell err Jedge Blank down yander at
de cote house in Cahlny? Marse Gawge,-
he got killed in de ahmy an ole Miss died
afterwards an lef' me to take care of Miss
Amy 1 reckon YOU don't know Miss Amy,
do you? Il amt never seen no gal hold a
candle to dat chile. but she up an flung
herself away on poah man dat KEEP school,
an when de free nigguhs was gone an
de DlantatiOn went rack an ruin, MISS
Amy an de chillen had to set deirsevs
down in rented house an l cum along up
nawth. Is quality Dawn an riz-tah pot!
Whar dat yellow man done got, to, huh2''
The yellow man had done the wise thing
and vanished The thin-faced white
woman listened as an exile who is hearing
news from home, and the black one shifted
her basket to the other arm agd resumed.
''Yas'm; l bin cookin' nigh onto foah
yeahs in bodn' house up yander by
Jewpont Cuccle, an before dat l was nus
to a sick lady down in Amy Randle
county My madam broke up an went to
keepn' a hotel on top de Alemegany noun
tains, an l sot mahsef down for res
onti my inshooance begin to git ahead of
(me, and den 1 TUX a job at place whar
dey dyes cloes an orchestry plumes. But,
sho. dem folks warn't my kyind. So tun
aroun' an quit, an TUX in washn'. SUIT
tinly OATS tar.
Tuesday, at noon-remember how hot 1t
was?-a middle-aged man, thin. and iras-
chile faced stood at a corner waiting for
car. While he waited he divided his time
between hopping his face with pink
bordered handkerchief, tanning himself
with stiff straw hat, twiddling his UNI
brella around, poking his heels in the as
phalt and calculating unspeakable grunts.
Then, all Of sudden, he flew off at
tangent, and yelled at wagon that was
rolling leisurely by:
Hi, there. STOP you old fraud. you!
Where's that thunder storm you were go
ing to give us yesterday"
But the driver kept on as though he had
not heard, and the wagon curled around
the corner
1t was nice black wagon, and on It's
shiny side was lettered: weather bu-
reau."
A small frail-looking girl skipped up to
gate where a middle-aged woman was
waiting in smiling welcome. She. was
rather a prim child, but her eyes danced
and her voice fairly dubbed with joy:
"Oh. aunty, what do you think? I'm
going to do something grand. I've got a
place as bundle wrapper in Blanks store.
and I'm going to get two dollars week
until school opens, and mamma says l can
save some of it for my winter coat
To leave school one day and get job
the next; to be glad to work all summer
when nearly every other child in the land
is at play and to feel the urgent need of
saving for a winter coat.
She was rather an unusual little girl
At the close of church service Sunday
two women came out with the crowd. One
was young and handsome. in white china
silk and lingerie hat, and the other was
a mere spinster in black. When they
reached the pavement they were joined by
! third woman, in blue chip and gray tat
feta. .
AS they passed department store across
from the church the third woman glanced
at her reflection in the blue-curtaned win
dows and beamed a smile of justifiable
pride. Then she said:
my husband bought this hat and dress
for me. Don't you like them?'
OF course both women liked them. The
young one expressed her admiration with
the spontaneous enthusiasm of youth that
is in the matrimonial market and the other
with the impersonal appreciation of one
who is on the shelf.
He has beautiful taste" exclaimed the