Evening star., 1909-05-09
Around the City

A woman was looking down at the city
from the roof garden of an apartment
house. It was city submerged in the
billowy green of spring foliage. with only
spires and skyscrapers to give evidence
Of the bricks and stone beneath.
A long line OF crows was flying across
the blue that would soon be the pink
gray Of dusk. They had been fattening
all day on the grain fields Of the eastern
shore and were cawing their way clamor-
ously to their rookery over on the Ar
lington hills. And as they flew home
ward they kept in ranks. like so many
soldiers with a West Pointer in COM
mand.
Most men and women have childish
memories in which the shrill cawing. the
parson black and the unerring march
line have their place. The woman was
remembering some OF these things when
one of two men who were also on the
roof said to the other:
"Wish / had my gun. I'd bring some
Of those fellows tumbling down"
They're not fit to eat" objected the
other man.
mo- but they're good to kill. like to
wing birds like that in flocks. Last time
I went duck hunting I guess | must have
brought down dozens that l didn't get
They fell in the water. you know, and it
was too much like work to row out after
them.
.I'd like to have bang q. those crows.
They look so cocksure OF themselves-
sailing up there as If they owned the
whole sky
AS he talked the woman looked at him.
He was not farmer, who had right to
a crows life. He was not a hunter. who
combines his sport with the desire for
game food. He wasn't even a woman
whose diseased vanity calls for plumage.
He was just an enemic office clerk who
wanted to kill things for the pleasure of
seeing them die-unless he was Dragging
and didn't know how to shoot!
Two draft horses hitched to a dray were
hauling stone along G street. As they
reached the 9th street crossing they de-
cided to halt on the tracks. The driver
gave anxious looks up and down the
rails while he pulled at the reins. Moth
ing doing. Then he got off the dray and
tried swearing. He might have saved the
wear and. tear on his immortal soul. for
the horses stood as motionless as bronze.
Then the driver reasoned:
"Mebbe you fool hawSes think yous
gwinter STAN heah till YOU bust a can.
But 1 aint gwinter letcher do 1t. You
heahs me? I amt gwinter letcher do 1t.
The horses retained their pedestal pose.
"Give 'em the whip" suggested one IN
the crowd that began to gather.
A car came whizzing from the north
and one from the south. and the driver
gave the horses the whip. They kept on
the track.
Then a working idea came into the head
Of the big black fellow, for he put a
coaxing hand on the nearest horse and
said, with confidential lowering of
voice:
'You two ole boys git a move on you,
an when we gifts home tonight Use gWine-
ter give you a extry big feed. Heah me!.
The horses switched their tails and
fiicked their ears. They had heard. Ihe
driver mounted his seat and the dray
cleared the track in time for the two cars
to flash by.
And way off somewhere some natural
list is writing another book to prove that
animals have no reason
Way up town there is rather odd lit
tie shop. In the small, bulged-out window
there is a tumble Of tobacco, specked
fruit and most appalling gum drops. Set
"a turbaned Turk. a sickly solemn Hia-
watha and a puffy odalisque with an
eruption Of coins in her hair.
Draped around regardless are tawdry
scarfs embroidered with tarnished span
giles and cheap beads, and. by way OF
especial high art the center floor space
Is given to a bronze Venus lying In
shell. The she'll is green bronze and the
figure is of warm, lustrous brown.
1t was Venus who was occupying tne
the windows. There were really three
people. but the baby in the go-cart didn't
count. And as another person loitered
by this is what the mother Of the baby
was saying:
Look at that lazy, good for nothing
colored woman stretched out In that ham,
mock. will you. without rag to her
name! And here I gotter drag this KID
everywheres I go because can't get
decent servant to save my life. less'n
pay her more'n my husbans wages
Which Is probably the worst dressing
undressed Venus ever got.
Three women were in an open car. The
one in the middle was matron old
enough to show streaks OF gray In her
brown pompadour and the suggestion OF
second chin She must have been
jolly soul, for her story went with
swing.
'Lor. girls, wish you were going down
with me. We do have such good times
on the farm! I tell Billy that before the
steamer touches the wharf there will be
pa waiting for us with ma waving from
the piazza-the house u just on BLUM