Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1909-07-25
Around the CITY

A man and a woman were selecting
. floral piece TO send to somebody
funeral.
Spread on the counter were wire
shapes Of gates ajar,' broken col
umn, a sheaf of garnered wheat and a
reaper's scythe. None of them appealed
to the woman, who was evidently the
one to make the decision.
| They are too stiff and too hack
neyed." She objected. Il want some
thing that means something-''
| The florist directed attention to a
freshly made cross Of white blossoms
and q crown Of bronze leaves and pal
lid carnations.
The cross means something" sug-
gested the man.
TT means everything. but-the poor
fellow had nothing but crosses all his
life Let US get him a crown"
And a crown was ordered.
A track ditch was fringed with Ia
borers who were sitting back comfort
| ably while car wheeled by Most OF
| those In the gang were little foreign
men. with brown faces and beady eyes.
| and all wore denim overalls. One
wizen-faced youngster had a long blade
OF love grass on his hat. The grass
hung limp from the frayed brim. but il
1
appealed to a TAT man in a crash suit
who. stood by, waiting to cross the
| track.
Hello, Hamlet. where did you get
your flower garden. huh?'
He was such q jolly fat man that the
| wizened youngster took off his hat and
waved 1t before putting 1t back on his
head. Then he answered In English
has heard and no one on earth could
| spell:
cit lay on the street and I picked It
up. A bush Of it grows in my sweet
| hearts garden near Naples"
| Memory is q powerful magician. The
thin brown face showed q fash OF daz-
cling teeth and the beady eyes became
| midnight suns.
Then the car passed. the lahorers
swa rmed back into the ditch, the fat
man who had lugged in the Prince OF
Denmark when the occasion called for
Romso crossed the track, and
The incident was over.
Two women were walking along in the
dusk. The one with an alert step wore
mourning, while the other. long.
dawdling sort Of person. as plain as u
pipe stem, was dressed in spotted lawn.
They must have been comrades tried out
| in the long test OF everyday friendship,
for they talked and laughed together with
q zest that only chums may know. The
spotted lawn woman was continuing her
remarks:
You have to live up to situation to
know all its ins and outs-Why. honest.
I used to believe all that rubbish about
old maids being prim and finnicky and
an extent that they would say thanky,
sir for any rag-tag OF a no-account man
that came along. Well, since I've Joined
the romantic dOwns-end-outs 1 know bet
ter. I know that the older q woman
gets the harder she Is to please. know
a lot Of men, good. honest. warm-heart-
ed fellows. who make splendid husbands
and fathers and who are really nice To
Lord knows I wouldn't want one Of them
as gift. / suppose it's different when
you marry young: but after you have
climbed the heights alone and fought
then look down the slopes ut the man
or two you might have married and did
not. why, you take a long, deep breath
Of your lonely freedom and feel that
spinsterhood has it's compensauons."
'.There'n be no old maids when women
get suffrage" prophesied the alert wom-
an-'"That is a man-made sentiment that
will go bye-bye-Just you keep on living
and see.''
Then the two women turned a corner
and the person who was listening kept
| straight on.
Two men who looked as il they be-
longed to the salt-of-the-earth class came
ness heat of the day. Both seemed to
be in rush to sign important papers.
Hello. Blank; where die get your suit?
It's dandy"
Simply great, isn't it? Cheap. too.
Found a little foreign tailor who works
for next to nothing-talks French and
doesn't know beans about prices.
Let me In on the ground hoor-rve
got to have a coat
Nope Keeping him dark until he nm
ishes NV fall dxingS-S long.
And the mere spinster person who over
heard felt what a boon 1t Is now and
then to hear them talk as man TO man.
A woman with a good, honest COM
plexion and more than her fair share or
brown hair stood at butter-And-egS
stall waiting her turn to be served
The market was q crowded place, loud
with trade noises and chattering voices.
but the woman who waited paid no heed;
she was too busy Strengthening the buck
sters pne Of eggs into nice. even rows.
When the time came for her to be walt
ed on she made her purchase and went
away without realizing that she had
proved to at least one observer that sne
must be a mighty neat woman In her
home.