The Washington bee., 1910-11-12
Public Men And ThinDs
(By the Sage of the Potomac.J

| fully intended last week to COM
ment on Mr.. r. r. Horner's recent
interview, as published in the daily
newspapers, OF foot ball playing. Ii
was very sensible interview, and
met my appreciation. An old saying
was that "a gun is dangerous without
either lock, stock or barrel" And
foot ball playing IS dangerous with or
without new rules. 1t is barely posi-
bic that too much stress is being put
on athletics anyhow. One thousand
or twelve hundred dollars per annum
is paid physical culture or athletic
teachers, and from twelve to twenty
one hundred, and more, for teachers
.Ot mental branches. yet the language,
science and mathematical teachers
must subordinate themselves to the
athletic teacher. This is manifestly
inconsistent. The leaders in thought,
art and science today are men and
women who had no acquaintance with
those tadists-physical culture and
athletic teachers in their school DAYS.
r
Our people do certainly like to ape
and initiate A few years ago. be
cause a bunch of variegated migratory
sons OF Ham who were able to hire
washerwoman moved into the nine
teen hundred block in Eleventh street.
that block was styled euphoniouslv
and distinguishably. Quality Row
Now since few high colored officials
have segregated in 7 street, that thor
oughfare is being referred to as "Ex-
ecutive Avenue" | presume this is a
fad, however, that gives solace to
those worried with the prosaic in life.
so let them have it.
X K
My art education was sadly neglect
ed in my youth, and this may ac-
count for my failure to appreciate as
works of art these atrOciOusly unbe-
coming hats the ladies are wearing
this year. There is not one woman
in a hundred who looks becoming un-
der them. And these hobble and mar
row cllnglng skirts the women wear,
showing all the contour of their body,
are so suggestive as to appear vulgar.
They may do for the chorus girl
whose weekly stipend is but an incl
dent, and whose occupation on the
stage is only an advertisement of her
other prOClivities, but for a woman or
young girl who assays respectability,
these skirts are inconsistent, to say
the least.
y Z
Now that the elections are over
there are a lot of 'I-told-you-so" bits
of humanity. DR. Vernon, who GRATED
up in New York State, and Dancy.
who spellbinded in the Keystone
State and New York, and Lincoln
Johnson, who fitted out into the po-
lItical waters, | presume are "knOwl-
edges" of just how and why it hap
pened. And I presume when Ralph
Tyler gets back from the Buckeye
State, where he went on a hurry call,
he will be full of the why t was
thus" Cyrus Field Adams-we came
near forgetting him-also mea1dered
out to Illinois to vote. IF Cyrus is
as reclusive in his own State as he is
here, it must be like just moving from
one monastery to another when he
returns to Chicago.
80
Now don't think I am getting TO be
a near-Roosevelt just because / ex-
press regret that Judges Mullowney
and Pugh failed to select a colored
man for one of the probation officers.
However, il does seem that, with our
people forming one-third of the popu-
lation, and with four-hfths of these
officers work being among the meek
and lowly and low Hamites, one of
the three officers might have been
colored man. And to think that
Judge Pugh, who was so solicitouS
for the assistance of all colored men
of every degree, when he was aspir-
ing for the judgeship, should so
quickly forget one of the bridges that
carried him over. ! hesitate to call
it ingratitude, so will simply call it
| injustice.
COG F street is a great rendezvous
| for colored men. Doctors, lawyers
teachers, pseudo newspaper writers,
men with and without visible means
/ of support, congregate there and
| damn, praise and criticise everybody
and everything. From the number of
black BlackstOnes that rent and rant
within its four walls it has been
stvled the Temple of Justice" and
the Temple Bar 1t might, more
appropriately and more truthfully, be
called the Temple of Talk. AS TO
Justice, that particular article of diet
lis not always served up there with a
garnish of equity. And to call It
I"Temple Bar" fails to incorporate
lsome of the misnomers that habitually
lfreduent its halls and rooms. But to
| stvle it Temple of Talk" you get
lin all classes and species, and fully
meet the appreciation of Bob Pendle-
ton. who domiciles there eight hours
each day with a smile that IS the same
to all And my friend Will Pollard,
who is tasting success now with a
pernicious regularity, has smile
that won't come off" also. He and
tPendleton could we'll pass for the
Smiley twins. And Mendez King,
with his sedate and mobile counte-
nance, and studied walk, could, If he
but put on the hood and robe of the
c1Oister, easily pass for the Abby
Bucone of the Temple Of Talk"
! Speaking about the Temple Of
Talk" it seems singular that friend
Chase never located up there. But It
seems he preferred to move his legal
dispensary away up on Eye street.
"far from the maddening crowd" and
There. like Billikins, the god of luck,
Chase sits and dispenses alternately.
and simultaneously, at times, law ana