Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1910-08-07
Around the City

A young mother was on an open cal
with baby in her lap. 1t was a second
summer baby. and its opinion of teethins
and other official ills was expressed in
fretful restlessness and insistently peevish
walls. The young mother, red from NOR
LITIGATION, tried to hush the tiny creature
by humping 1t up and down on her lar
and by imploring it to look out in the
street to watch the horsie go buckety-
buck and to see the little doggie- woggie
But the baby had no use for the horsie
or the doggie-woggie. 1t wanted to wall
So it walled. And nobody in the car OBJ.
jected.
Except one.
She was a white lingerie young woman
who was seated with her escort on the
bench behind the child. She was pretty
and slim and young, with rich braids OF
ruddy hair piled under a Hindoo turban
of seagreen straw that matched her sea
green sunshade. And as she talked and
smiled and pouted and batted her eye
lashes it was plain to see that the young
fellow was being gone for" by every rule
of the game.
81 had a perfectly gorgeous time last
night. A friend brought his automobile
around and-isn't that child annoying
the moon was perfectly divine. He wants
me to go again tonight, butt should
think woman would have more sense
than to bring out baby she couldn't keep
quiet-I told him I'd phone him whether
he could come, Or"
If the young woman's pause and side
glance was to enable the young man to
put in a jealous protest. she missed her
guess, for he was entirely absorbed in the
baby. Its mother. as desperate change
from the lap bumpings, had cuddled 1t
over her shoulders. and the result was a
sudden and most satisfying success. The
baby's eye had been caught by the sea-
green sunshade. and one skinny, prickly-
heat arm was reaching out for the
handle.
The white lingerie young woman drew
the sunshade away.
The young man gently showed his UNI
brella forward, and the baby bounced on
it and put the onyx knot in it's mouth.
The cool hardness of it must have been
satisfying to the feverish mouth, for the
baby cooed and showed its one tooth-a
tiny white sail in red sea of gum. And
the smile was more pathetic than its wall
ing Then it dropped the knot and
reached out insistent arms to the young
man.
"Da, da. da,". 1t gursled. with CO.
quetry that had the lingerie young woman
beat to a finish.
And because the young man felt great
pity for a mother whose arms were soon
to be empty-or maybe because of some
conscious call of coming fatherhood-
there's never any telling how things come
about-he, too, reached over and held out
answering hands.
Come along to da, da-"
And the baby came Its mother kept
her hold on its body. but for one beautiful
second the fever-red arms were around
the young mans flawless collar. and a
hot little mouth was chewing at his cheek.
And only the Reader of Hearts knows
whether it was diplomacy Or sudden kind
Illness that made the lingerie young wom-
an pat the baby's pain-wizened forehead
and say to 1t:
''Oh, you little darling"
pantomimic free show offered enter
tainment for whoever happened to be at
the corner of F and 9th streets Saturday
at noon.
Two young men were passing the corner
when one Of them reached out an arm
lazily and lifted his hat to set it at a
more comfortable angle. His elbow
knocked a pair of eyeglasses from a
young woman's nose. Having no string
attached. he glasses fell to the pavement
with tinkling little crash.
The young man Sauntered on unaware
of the breakage.
The young woman picked up the frame
and overlook the young man.
From her gestures and lip motions 1t
appeared that the young woman expect
ed the young man to consider himself
responsible for her loss.
The young man lifted his hat again.
seemingly to demonstrate his innocence
in the matter.
The young woman must have failed to
see any advantage in mere explanation,
for she still held out an insistant hand,
with the wrecked frame in its palm.
The young man took a card from his
pocket and handed it to the young wom-
an. This evidence of a willingness to
have the bill for new glasses sent to him
p6 IN commercial
The young woman kept her hand ex-
tended and, though 1t was impossible to
catch her words. she seemed to be giving
the young man a realistic dramatization
of Kipling's verse line:
Pay, pay, pay"
Laborers were swarming over the brok-
en-up track at Thomas Circle. AS car
rounded the curve the busy fellows, white
and colored, foreign and homegrown,
stepped beyond the danger line, as If
grateful for even moments rest under
the merciless sun.
One of the workers. a thin black man,
fingered for last whack at a tie, and
then darted back in time to save himself
from the car wheels. But not from the
wrath of the motorman:
Get from under, you blankety blink
blank, you!"
"All right, cap"
There was a dazzle of white teeth and
the good-atured uplift of an arm that was
all muscles and sweat. And the voice it
self had the umtudied melody that nature
has given her black sons-maybe In a
last moment of sorrow.
The motQrman must have been rather
ashamed OF his share in the interchange,
for he apologized to another man, who
was about to get off the car:
These coons and dagoes get on my
nerves. I reckon it's the heat. I'll be
glad when frost gets here"
Then the car clipped on. with the mo-
torman enjoying the breeze that other
people are glad to pay for.
And the laborers swarmed back on the
track and swung their pickaxes IN the
midday sun.