Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1910-05-22
Around the City

4 business woman downtown has an
office that combines the official and So
cial qualities that made Broffin's Bower
such Il surprising delight. Books, pic
lures, odd chairs and other associations
of the past serve as a background tor
the more important business furnishings
of the day, and there is a latticed-off
room and a little yard full of breezes
at the back. Between clients yesterday
the woman told another woman about
the cat:
1t is a stray cat. black and self-asser-
tive. and every time it strails i'll l give
it something to eat. The other day L
was reading, when L happened to look
Gown, and there was the cat standing
before me with live thing III her
mouth. Thinking it a rat l Jumped up
in the usual insane fashion. but the cat
having reported her arrival slipped past
into the back room, and then l saw
that the poor, homeless thing mad
brought me her kitten. After bit sIe
slipped out and back again with another
kitten, pausing to see if | meant to raise
a second racket. l invited her TO pro-
ceed, and she kept the performance up
until there We're four blind kittens IN
bed in an empty coal box, mace SOIL
and warm with things that the motcef
had pulled from the I'D OF an open
trunk.
"A neighbor across the way, who de-
pends on the stray cat to keep her mousse
free of rats, came over and asked me
10 let her have the kittens. but Whlie
7 wanted to oblige her | had to refuse.
Won see. the cat could have dumped
them there had she wished, but she Sc
lected me. and, someway-living alone
one gets freak ideas-it seemed TO me
that she had trusted me and l had 10
make good. suppose she must nave
figured il out that l lived alone ana
that her Young ones would be safe
II did not at all occur to her That II
was her own kindness that made the cat
come back.
A man so old that his bushy hair was
granite gray, and so poor and SO I'M
shackeled as to conventionaiity that he
could hump himself on an office Dulld1As
step and smoke a pipe in broad day. was
talking, between puffs, yesterday morn
ing
The listener was q scrap of a colored
bow who was cured up on the same
step: one foot under him, the other show
ing broken shoe srasped by a tiny
brown hand
The mans whole heart and soul was in
his story and the boys eyes were eagerly
intent.
The traffic of q business street rushed
by going and coming, but the man talked
and the boy listened as if Pennsylvania
avenue were Sahara and they had it to
themselves.
4 passing woman. curious to get hint
Of the mans subject, slowed up long
enough to hear him say:
so the prince fell asleep under the
tree but Jack he travelled and Travelled
and Travelled
Then she knew that the old man and
the small colored boy were way way off
in fairyiand.
\ horn is a forgivabe crime at Christ
mas, but the small girl who footed her
way from the Capitol to the post ONCE
Yesterday morning had reason TO believe
that she had made a deadly enemy OF
every passenger i'll the car She was d
pretty child with remarkable lung power.
and her persistence is going to be fine
asset for her if she happens ever TO apply
il along the right line AS she footed the
pesterous tin thing she walled her eyes
around in search OF appreciation. Getting
none. she footed longer and louder for
a pleasant change. Her presumable
mother accepted the horn as a chronic
trouble To which she was placidly re-
mothe:'. They were mad Two jolly
women. for instance, each with Il picnic
basket and one with d fishing rod under
took to say things about the child and
her ma:
II like children. ali right but if l had
d .ouns one like that"
We'll what better can You expect with
the kind of mother she's got?'
The mother heard and tried to look as
ii she had not. The child heard and
footed.
She probably kept on blowing all the
way to Georgetown. but the woman who
is telling about il got out at 18th street.
\ man on bicycle WhiZZed into q boy
and sprawled him on the asphalt The
man whizZed on and the boy yelled after
! him:
AN YOU amt no comet neither
Which shows how handy Astronomical
knowledge may come in. now and then.