Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1910-10-23
Around the City

woman stood on. the roof OF an once
building and stared up at the blue.
She was looking for GrahameWhite.
She was SO high up that she could
almost lean over and shake hands with
the post Office clock. Not quite; just al
| most. And if she were good at jumping
she might have aimost-just almost
made a flying leap and landed on the
dome of the Raleigh Hotel
No. she couldn't do that. because the
Raleigh had no dome. It had been wreck
| ed. The big place was just lidless
cavern with broken walls. And on the
| walls men were swinging picks There
they worked, swarm Of colored labor
ers, risking their lives eight hours out OF
| the twenty -four at so much per day.
And when that danger was through with,
| off to level another skyscraper and thank
the good Lord for the job.
The woman forgot about Grahame-
White. She had eyes and emotions only
for the men on the wall-everyday men,
| splendidly unconscious of their nerve. as
they balanced themselves on the thin,
| dizzily high walls with a chance that any
| dig Of the pick might loosen brick that
| would send them, bodies, souls and over
alls crashing down to other bricks nine
stories below.
When the woman gave another thought
| to the airship 1t was as near as the
post Office clock. Almost.
| She wasn't disappointed, Of course. An
| airship is q great thing. but. after all.
as she said to herself. which Is bad
habit some women have:
when a Grahame-White tumbles to his
death the whole world gasps, and his
| name goes sailing along with his aero
plane down that oratorical structure folks
call the corridor of time. But just let one
of those laborers fall off a roof and all
he gets is local. stuck wherever it hap
pens to fit in the form. And then, like as
not, his name won't be spelled right
G. W. is hero, all right, but there are
Others"
Then the woman left the roof and de-
seconded to the obscurity where she most
properly belonged.
A gum-chewing girl would have called
him "a grand young feller.''
His eyes had the freshness Of the
morning of youth. and in them was a
smirk of braggadocio as he noted the
stare of every other passenger in the car
"a smirk that had for it's redeeming con-
trast grim upper lip that promised the
horse sense OF manhood later on.
1t is supposed to be the closed season
for shirt waist young men, but every rule,
good and bad. has it's exceptions. The
grand young Teller wore white and blue
necktied. but the cuffs drawn over the ell
bow that all the world might see his arms.
1t was no wonder he absorbed the exclu-
sive attention Of the passengers, conductor
included, for:
Each bare arm was a pnny-show from
wrist to elbow joint. with tattoo pictures
pricked in with black and scarlet inks.
There was an outlay of initials IL, old
English letters as big as chestnuts and
general exploitation of hearts, flags,
anchors and other symbols dear to the
saiIor-man's heart. Overlapping these.
as If to show what the artist could do when
he tried right hard Was coiled serpent
fat and vicious. it's fiat head crested. its
open jaws Jagged with teeth, and its
forked tongue striking at a fly. The riya
arm was a marine gallery of wind -puffed
ships blowing over scallopy waves. Also
a whale.
And when woman opposite began to
estimate the forty-eleven thousand sting
ing stabs and the after soreness of each
clio and saw only the grim upper lip with
manhood--later on.
Refuse wagon, No. 10
But you never would have guessed if
except for the registered sign.
The sides of the wagon were so MANY
lath bars that served as racks for pic
lures and postcards, and the two colored
men who had been hustling with their Job
Of cartng trash from empty house
paused before driving off to tuck a maya
zine calendar in the art-rack of ideal
heads. summary landscapes. pretty chill
dren, beribboned cats and herd of red
COWS up to their mddles in field daisies.
that made tumble Of bright colors, that
entirely hid the rubbish within.
And, say, it was real pretty.