Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1910-01-16
Around the City

L ne snowy rain anu Siusly SlicctS -iS-
suited in car full of sloppy people
Most of the women had the unhappy
look of-say. wet hens-and the men
read gloomily. as if every line Of news
meant disaster and death.
There are always exceptions, and in
this especial-not special-car the va
riety was furnished by two men. who sat
together, the elder one, tall, spare. beard
ed and we'll dressed, damned up in the
corner. The other man was both young
and middle-Aged. according to whether
one judged him by his fresh-colored face
or silver gray hair His voice also had
the vigorous assertiveness of youth.
He was telling the other man about
| the battle of Waterloo He told it as if
it were fight of yesterday, in which he
had been on both sides, and as If the
! man he was talking to had never heard
of Napoleon in all the days Of his life.
He gesticulated as if the wet floor of
the car were the field of immortal his
tory. he pointed down to the English
forces and over to where the French
were marshaled. He stationed Yelling
ton at one vantage point and Napoleon
at the exact spot where his star Of
fortune went down.
And all the time the snowy rain beat
against the car windows. the women
kept up their damp fowl expressions. and
the other men continued to read of dis
asters and death. Finally the young
, middle-aged man came to a breathing
space with:
1T was the greatest defeat. sir, In the
history of the world
why not consider Wellington instead
of Napoleon? Why not call 1t the great
est victory?'
And a woman opposite who wasn't feel
hoy,
she was facing two wise men who were
above the small worries of weather.
Three girls were at matinee. They
but, Lord love them, they were happy.
And each possessed the elusive pretti-
ness that youth gives to girl who may
wake up any morning and find herself
a homely woman
The one in the middle had her flaxen
hair plastered over pompadour that
showed gaps of woolly brown rat and
around her thin, calloW neck was a
string of pearls tied with grimy cord.
The girl on her left was a taior-made
brunette whose eyes will be sharp, once
they get over their childish luster. And
If any one. except herself. had put her
into so high and so stiff and so starchy
collar she would probably have COM
planned TO the police.
The third girl was sedate little body
i'm navy blue with her brown hair braided
to form a crown
1t was the taiormade girl who started
a theological discussion:
Say, | think it's hateful 10 have to
take off your hat, don't you?
The middle girls answer did her credit
despite the trouble she was having with
a chevy caramel:
None deed, Name. Other people got
ter see as we'll mel think worter taken
off in church. too
I'VE can't. Daise." reminded the sedate
little body. 1.-The Bible won't let us,
Jus lissen at Luly.'' went Daise
and her caramel Il think the church
orter follow the fashions same as the
theaters do
who wrote up the fashions in the
Rible. anvhow?" inquired the tailor made
girl, with just peep of the coming
Sharpness in the childish luster of her
eyes.
The sedate little body knew all about it.
She told them that the apostles were re-
sponsible.
"Why. the very idea, calculated the
tailor-made girl with gesture that
would have been shrug except for the
stiff collar. What do men know about
what women oughter wear? Why. my
father can't tell one color from another"
Law sakes neither can mine.' put in
Daise. who had triumphantly downed her
caramel Il think they'd oughter to put
woman at the head of their millinery
department. and not trust 1t to men, who
plume 'cept'n for the cost-say girls,
look who's here
couple of smirky youths. with fam
boyant ties, pimples and big canes. en-
tered a nearby box. and the girls gig
gled and giggled and giggled.
The apostles were discarded for young
gentlemen who were more up-to-date.
Three women were passing hotel.
The middle-aged one was aristocratic-
looking in simple black. The second was
blithe little old lady in an invalid
chair, and the third Vas a very black.
very motherly colored woman. who was
guiding the chair. The blthe little old
lady Chartered with the care-free spon-
taneousness of little child. The aris-
tocratic woman listened with smile
more pathetic than tears would have
been and the colored woman kept one
hand on the old ladys shoulder. patting
it as mother soothes and quiets her
child AS they passed the hotel the little
old lady flung a rubber doll to the pave
ment. The colored woman picked it UP.
The little old lady walled for it with
outstretched arms. The colored woman
put the doll back in her arms and
tucked down the carriage robe The
blithe little old lady forgot about the two
women and talked to the rubber doll.
And one of two men standing on the
hotel steps, who must have recognized
that nature had touched the blithe little
old lady and made her little old child
lifted his hat and said TO his companion: