Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1909-01-10

carpets and pots and ACKNOWLEDGMENT
things?'
perhaps heredity spoke for me. Why not
start | suggested, why not start-start
second hand furniture store
Ivan fell against the frame of the broken
mirror, laughing: a wild laugh at first, but
then more quietly, and finally the laughter
was gone down to a chuckle. 1t is good idea,
my little brother, he said with bitter twist
of his lps.-'a good idea. 1t shall be done.
And SO it was. Such was my reason for
saying that at the making of homes and at
the breaking of homes Father Ivan plays an
important part in the life around him. In time
he not only stocked the floor that he had
planned for a home. but absorbed the store
below in his business. The young lovers of
our neighborhood come to him before the
wedding day for the making of their own
homes. And while every such trade must re-
mind him-remind him of Anna, he is kindly
with them and gentle in price and the terms
Of payment
Likewise at the breaking of homes.-the
death of a parent. the cruel result of pow
erty.-' Father Ivan comes after the under
taker or appraises the worth OF the goods that
have been thrown into the street. Again he
Is gentle and kindly and often disastrously
generous from business viewpoint But he
is we'll loved, is Father Ivan. Yet he talks
to nobody, save to me and then very seldom,
and to children. With children he is like a
penny bank; for if little one plays cute
antic before him as he sits in front of his store
so that he shakes with laughter, behold. a
penny drops from him and chinkles on the
pavement 1t is fact well known to all the
little ones"
Did he never hear from Anna again"
"A year ago he heard said the journalist.
"A boy came to the shop one day and laid a
letter in Father Ivan's hand and straightway
was gone. The old man opened the letter,
stared an instant, then into the street,
peering to see the boy. But the lad who was
Annals youngest son, had disappeared. What
the letter said never knew. All that he con-
fided was that it had been written by Anna
within a few hours of her death
JINGLE FELTMAN looked quickly up The
~ folding doors had been drawn back. A
company of musicians entered, taking seats
around tables in corner and read lustIng their
instruments. The journalist looked at his
watch. 1t was past one o'clock. He smiled:
"Music-especially for us-in this room'
ne said to his nephew.
the band after the rush hours had passed in
the elegant dining room and rathskeller, to
bring their music to the old side, the pro-
prietor's compliments to his old patrons They
brought moreover the best music there
in them.-the old music of the old country
that they knew they here played to eager
ears. The crying chords of oldtime dances the
hit of sweet and plaintive folksongs, sounded
in this old side" amid no chatter of talk, no
cackling of laughter, but through silence,
fond, intense so that the old room became,
for the grizzed, world worn men that listened,
a hall of precious memories, and the opal haze
of smoke filled with tender visions for their
dmming eyes,-visions in which youth and
love returned and, sometimes, visions that
went even farther back until mothers kisses
were felt again,-felt the browS of gray
grown withered children
Youth and man turned quickly. for while
they were watching the musicians assembling
IN their places waiter had placed before each
d goblet of chdi with little blue flames curling
and leaping above it.
90 Father Ivan sends them, the waiter said
and then made his way over to the band and
spoke to the leader. The violinst nodded,
boxing curiously toward Ivan kremlofs
table The huge old man had risen. He leaned
on great hand spread on the table. In the
other he held a brandy glass and waved it
toward the leader and then toward Uncle
Feltman.
THE motion of invitation was lost to the
eyes of Uncle FetInan; for his attention
was riveted on the leader of the orchestra. So
this the man, Uncle Feltman had
heard that Herr Grunberg, the director for the
East quarter of a century, Ill at home
that new conductor had been installed at
least temporarily. This new man had thick
gray locks that fell over his temples and be-
side his eyes, which were large, almost womanly.
And a small gray mustache with uptwisted
ends rose airily above his lips. His shoulders
were narrow, sloping, his body small and the
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