Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1908-02-09
AROUND THE CITY

A man boarded q car exchanged greet
ings with another man, sat down. pro-
ceeded to pay his fare and found that he
had nothing smaller than a five-dollar
bin. The conductor couldn't change it.
The bill man asked his acquaintance II
he had the change. He had not. Then
the bill man looked at the conductor, and
the conductor looked around at the pas
sengers. No one could change the bill.
Then the conductor smiled helplessly at
the man, and the inference was. that he
would have to get off. change his money
and take another car.
1t was an hour when everybody was
hurrying to work and the delay might
very probably have Inconvenience the
bill man, but it didn't seem to occur to
his acquaintance, or to any other man
around. that he might end the situation
by offering the embarrassed passenger a
ticket.
A plain woman in brown took Q more
practical view. Of the incident. She had
already pressed a button and the car
was about to stop when she said to the
bill man:
Permit me, SIR
The man looked surprised. took the
ticket, touched his hat and the woman
got off the car.
But the bill man didn't have to.
A woman stood in the dark on lonely
corner. waiting for car. 1t was an
to be out in it except herself and the
weather. Incidentally there seemed to
be. more weather than was quite neces-
sary, for the wind had an edge like a
razor and the shadows were extra big
and black. And something must have
gone wrong on the line. for there was
no sign of yellow lights either up or down
the track; only occasional globes of cleo
trio. lights and dark loneliness-and the
woman.
Maybe she was nervous woman who
was afraid of the big, black shadows
made by the tree she was standing undeR;
maybe. again, the inscrutable thing called
g feeling in our bones, made her step
from the curb to the asphalt and turn
toward the pavement. In either case it
was wise move for, as she turned, she
faced TWO slouchy figures: one behind her
on the curb, the other STOPPING on the
pavement to pick up what looked like a
stone. The woman didn't stop to be sure
ABOUT the stone, for In two hops and q.
jump she was across the street on some
body's terraced steps, with her handbag
safely on her arm.
Ana While she was painting from her
1ear ana her race. home-looking man
came blowing by, and the woman asked
him II he would mind If she followed him
back to the corner. BY way of excuse,
she pointed 10 the two figures that were
slouching themselves down the street and
explained how she had been frightened.
me man, who was good enough to wait
and put the woman on a car. congratu-
lated her upon her ESCAPE and advised
her to notify the police
don't know that l escaped, because
I'm not sure l was in danger" she said.
III course, l was scared half to death
because OF the frequency of real hold
ups, and maybe after I've told nv expert
ence few times it viii! develop into an
other dastardly outrage. While I'm in
the primitively- truthful stage however.
m bound to admit that if those men
had wanted my purse they had every ia
cinty for helping themselves. Maybe I've
ESCAPED robbery and a broken head, and
maybe I've misjudged two poor fellows
VINO mad no notion of harming me-theres
no telling.''
Then the car blazed around the curve
ana the woinaii got on. The man. accent
ca her thanks with lift of his hat that
gave the Icy wind chance at his bald
mead. and the two slouchy figures. long
ago swallowed in the darkness, were 60
ing their law-abiding ways or lurking In
sinister black shadows for unprotected
handbags
There's no telling!
farmer looking man in a rickety bug
gy stopped his scrawpy old gray mare be-
fore an Office building on G. street When
the man got out he protected the animal
from the ley wind by laying brown
blanket over her bony back. Then he
started toward the Office, but stopped
midway in the pavement, returned to the
curb and. taking of his overcoat, spread
it over the mares foreshoulders and tied
IL by the sleeves under her neck. 1t was
rather an unusual proceeding. but it must