Evening star., 1909-06-20
Around the City

A man and woman We're seated in an
automobile in front of a government Of
fee while the chauffeur did things to
the gear.
Two women We're passing on the street,
when one paused to direct the others at
tention to the couple.
Isn't 1t odd how you will get interested
in people without knowing anything about
them? I've been seeing that man and his
wife half my lifetime. sometimes stead
lily and then again of and on; this is the
first time now for two years. They
tcaught my fancy first because they
were SO handsome and devoted. She
used to be over there at the corner every
afternoon to meet him after Office. and
the two would go off as loving as sweet
hearts and as chummy as boys. used 10
run across them everywhere; at the
music In summer, the theater In winter.
and on the street all the year round. And
1t was curious to watch them grow old
in their different ways; he red and stout
and gray and she thin and feeble and
white-but always sweethearts. Why,
the last time he fairly had his arms
around her; she was SO ill
Il reckon you are mistaken In Your
pair, or else they're changed bit since
you saw them last Why. the woman
looks young enough to be his grandchild,
the old fellow that's white and thin
II told you I hadn't seen him for two
years. Maybe this is another wife. /
know the other was dying
Most likely. It's the way with men.
The first one could walk, but he has to
have an automobile for his dear second.
Still. as long as he had to go and marry
a girl he might as well try to put her in
a good humor, instead of sitting like
stone and looking ahead like that
Maybe he isn't looking ahead. Maybe
he is looking back: Maybe he sees some
one waiting for him over there at the
corner
And then the chauffeur whizzed off
with the disconnected young woman and
} the thin, white old man.
She was an oldish woman. independent
|; enough to take comfort in a black skirt
and a 'josie" untrammeled by waist
lines And she was crossing the triangle
at Pennsylvania avenue and 18th street
Most everybody knows that the wedge or
greenery there is protected from the as
phalt paths by a single wire, which Is
strung from staple to staple, about knee
high to the average man. The oldlsh
independent woman had not known of
the wire, but she wasn't the sort of per-
son to be turned back by a small thing
like that. She just hiked her foot, and
except that her good, clean old petit
coat got tangled up a bit-cleared the
line with the professional ease of one who
has been reared to climb rail fences.
Such is the yearning Of man for excite
ment that the bench-loungers and curp-
loiterers became suddenly and loudly
humorous. Their racket even attracted
the attention of the woman. for having
reached the pavement. she paused to ask
a street urchin the why of the CARVINGS
: on.
'They's laughin' at the way old lady
Istraddled the WIRE" explained the kiddle,
with a grin of expectancy at the con-
fusion he was about to create. He was
disappointed.
"Why, that's nothing. I just done the
same thing, myself"
And, serenely unconscious of her star
part in the performance, the oldish, inde-
pendent woman strode out on the asphalt
| and hailed a car.
A spry old yellow woman was waiting
| at 9th street for car. Her market
| basket was covered with snowy patch
| of old table cloth so that only some beet
tops and the butt end of an onion peeped
| out, and she held wilted bunch OF red
| roses that had been strangled to death
with a string. She must have been nerv-
Gus as we'll as spry. for she said to-
white woman, who was also waiting for
a car:
".Scuse me. lady, but these cars fius-
| trates me so I never can tell tother from
which, want to go to Floridy avenue.
| The other woman was waiting for the
| same car. When it came she helped the
old soul to scramble aboard and then,
Il
| thing for the story she hoped to get out
| of her handed the conductor two fares
''Thankt kindly, lady-you sholy must
come from Va-ginier."
| The woman explained that she was born
| In Virginia, but claimed Maryland.
"Wel, chile, Mehlan an Va-ginier is
just the same That's whar all we quail
ity folks come from. I got me these here
| roses because they minds me of the old
gahden down yander in Va-ginier, only
| they amt so big nor SO red nor sweet
smellin'. Law, times has changed. hasn't
they? an they amt nigh as good an So
ciable like. is they? My people was the
finest family in the wholer Va-ginfer, an
| when l got my freedom my ole miss give
| me eight thousan' five hunderd dol
| lars
full precision and then waited for the
| white woman's ejaculation which ex-
perience had evidently taught was bound
! to follow the mention OF SO large sum.
| The white woman calculated.
"Yesn deed. chile / had all that
| money in bunch-an', don't you know,
never got nair cents wuth of good out of
| it-nair copper! And what's more mus
| terious is I never did know what come of
| It, MY husb'n said he never teched it
| an I know he didn't. becawse he never
had nothin' to show for it; 1t jes van
| erished when I come nawth. an 1 ain
| got nothin' but my word for 1t that ole
| miss give me all that good money in
bunch de day she give me my freedom
eight thousan' five hunderd good Con-
| fedate dollars"
| And the white woman had the story.
| 1t was IL O'Clock at night and raining
| hard The window Of a flower shop was
blazing with electric lights and on the
! outside swarmed a double bank Of UNI
| brella-topped men. two women, a police
| man and boy.
The thing they were looking at was a
rustic tank Of water with a pebbly bed
| and sleepy lilies around the rim Float
| ing on the surface of the water was
| plank that served as roost for six
| huddIed- together baby ducks. all of them
! asleep like the lilies. One lone little
yellow fellow padded around in the
water. it's eyes as bright and wide awake
! as If the electric lights meant noon. And
one of the men who had paused to look
| said to his woman companion:
THAT little chap ought to be sound
| asleep. It's his nature to roost from dusk
| to dawn" Which shows what environ
| ment will do even for a duck.
Chinese Actors.
| From Everybody's Magazine
| The Chinese present their plays on