Evening star., 1909-08-29
Around the City

A woman quick of step and nervous
voiced approa ched a policeman at a cor
ner.
Mr.. Officer, can l get home before it
storms?"
The policeman looked at the sky-hlue
overhead. with rain-coated gray clouds
travelling up from the Union station
What direction do you want to go?''
Fourteenth and / northwest
RAINS coming from the east You
can OUTRAGE it if you hurry
The woman looked her thankful. relief
and hurried. +
And the human kiosk smiled to himself
as If lie were considering his new duties
as weather bureau.
This is Alice Roosevelt,s portrait,
painted in the dress she wore in the
Philippines
The native who gave this valuable in
formation stood before a Chinese carved
frame in the lecture hall at the Museum
Her companion, who was plainly q vis-
itor from some place where bustles are
still in vogue, took keen inventory OF
the picture-the pink and yellowisll
cheeks ard slant eyes. the black hair,
the overleweied hands with their claw
like nails. the gorgeous brocades. the
gay lanterns and entire oriental environ
ment.
1t wasn't Alice Roosevelt's portrait of
course: but after all. when You take COM
pany to see the sights the main thing Is
to get them interested. and doubtless the
dear. good soul from the land OF bustles
got more satisfaction out of the belief
that she had seen the one time. and may
be again. Princess Of the White House
than il she had known the cold fact that
she was looking at the late Empress OF
China.
Diff" f. 'a' 'Aos "o''o say ""A' ; 'he
Size was a big-hatted woman with a
caved-in contour and heels high enough
to give her the walk of one who goes on
stills. The two small girls who accom-
panied her down the avenue were in white
mall and blue ribbons. and each had her
small head hidden under bushel of
peach basket straw, with brims so droop-
ing that they could only see straight
ahead.
AS they reached the crossing at Market
other woman. While the little girls. whose
sight was hampered. like a horse with
binders. crossed over and by some
miracle of chance-or Of some higher
power-managed TO escape automobiles.
.:rolleys.. business vans and all other
vehicles incident to 9Th street trade
AS the milliners' conference held in
Paris last spring voted down the ressur-
rection Of the shaker because ''it pre-
vented a child from seeing where she was
going" the query seems to be:
why the peach basket?"
A young woman. who has evidently no
back yard to her home. was stretching
lace curtains on the pavement in front
of her door. The wooden frame was
placed as close to the house as possible.
and the young woman. protected from the
sun by a. tree that fiickered it's shadows
over her light hair-not pompadoured-and
trim white dress--not directoire. which
means not bolster siip-pinned the seal
lops of nottingham, strip. as uncon-
scious of publicity as though she were in
country garden hundred miles from
town.
The street is in the vicinity OF what
New York would call the red light Sec
ton. and a conventional woman who was
hurrying through it to shorten an emer-
zency trip to the southwest wondered il
1t We're quite proper for her to be there.
She feared to see something unusual
don't you know
And when she saw the young woman at