The Washington bee., 1911-01-14
Public Men AndThings
Bv the Sage of the Potomac.N J

he would TeVamp his Two DTOmiOS'
and make it The Four DrOmios, "
using DR.. Bruce Evans, AlfonzO Stat
ford, Billy Clifford and Tom Clark as
the four dromios. These four fellows
are guilty of an ambulacral chord that
holds. 1t is only by accident that you
ever see them apart, and when you do
il is a gOld-bearing bond to an army
grayback that each is looking for one
OF the others 1t is pretty hard to
treat them individually without Caus-
ing friction. All four are dIametrI-
sally opposite temperamentally, and
yet they hang together like bunch
of unripened grapes. 1t you tickle
one you please the other three, and
if you scratch one you are likely to
prick the other three. DR.. Evans is
the handsomest of the four when Stat
ford and Clark are not around, and
the same is true of either Stafford or
Clark when you put III pinch OF
vice versa DR., Evans was educated
to be a carpenter, and the chances are
he would have written his name deep
in shavings had his father lived to
watch over his budding manhood ca
reer. Misfortune will happen to the
best of us, though; so Dr. Evans be
came a teacher. Some people here
aboutS CritiCise him as a teacher, but
| observe they are careful not to do
it when any of the Armstrong boys
are around, for they stand for him
like the Spartans stood at Thermo-
palae Stafford is an AdOnis, but he
can't help it. He was that in the in
cubator. and, ike old wine, he i'm
proves with age He IS not conscious
of it, however. Awfully bright chap,
too, and a regular IO-horsepower
dynamo when it comes to a knOwl-
edge of folk lore He has the man
ners of a Chesterfield. So has Dr.
Evans; so has Billy Clifford, and so
has Thomas H. K. Clark. Clark is
the most imaginative of the four He
can see a dollar investment expand
into millions, that finally dWIndle into
just falkland Clark has most re-
tentive memory. Once an idea,
sentence, a narrative, an article or
book gets lodged in the rafters of his
brain it's there to stay. And that's
what makes him such a clever and en-
tertaining cOnversatIOnalist. Clifford
is the old sOber-sides of the quartet
At that, there is a lot of humOr in
him, and he's chuck full of horse
sense, and ability fairly exudes from
him. There is a lot more humOr in
him now than there was when he was
in the "blackburying' business with
Rogers. Just mention his former
partner in the Cold-Storage business,
however, and all his humor goes to
the junk pile l like TO get with these
four afflnlties, and yet when l do they
are so mutual with each other | sort
OF feel that they are all the while
trying to hang the Not Wanted
sign on me- Clark is & vegetarian
in public and IN Convel 5atIOn; IN pTl-
vacy he just smOthers a juicy sirlOIn.
Stafford is one of those dainty eaters,
as dainty as a lady, yet he eats suttI-
ciently, and that developing girth of
his attests to this. DR. Evans and
Billy Clifford are what Michavello de-
scribed as Satisfying feeders They
eat anything from mountain oysters
and chitterlings 1--WE call 'em chit
lins'D to a four-inch extra porter
house, and then wash it down with
any old substitute for Ella Wheeler
WilCOxs 'nectard wine" Their Fal-
staffian girth is proof that the high
cost of living never induces them to
miss a meal, or a lunch in between.
It's good to see these four dwell in
harmony. All for each and each for
all comes pretty nea- being their
motto. And they are yet young men.
DR.. Evans is the oldest. they say
only in years. In everything else the
Doctor is a gelding with a record. A
clevah bunch, don't YOU know
Now that DR.. VernOn's term as
Register of the Treasury IS drawing
to a close, it has been suggested that
he be rendered a farewell banquet.
This is a good idea; kick it along. 1t
| has been customary for we Washing
tonians to welcome our big officials
with a banquet at which there IS q
feast of reason and a flow of soul in
terspersed with gastronomic indul-
/ gence, but we permit them to depart
unwept, unhOnOred and unsung. Dr.
Vernon was welcomed with ban
quet, and why would it not be fitting
to speed his parting with a splendid
| feast? 1t has been suggested on the
Rialto that DR.. John Hurst, being the
| biggest man of the denomination to
which DR.. Vernon belongs, IS the
proper man to start the banquet bal
a-rolling. OF course, I know so sOOr
after the holidays a searchwarrant
might be necessary to find the price
per plate in some of our rag-tIme
pockets. but we might and ought tc
| dig up about three Of those beautiful
/ Autographs, done III green, with
| figure =" in the corner, and which
bear DIR. Vernon's name, for a pur-
nose like This. To be sent away witt
banquet, and banquet-steePec
plaudits beating on the drum OF M:
orifce. would make the sIlver-tOnguec
orator from QuindarO feel that HI;
stay was not III vain. Now, get Z
hustle. and respond to tbs umpire
call of Batter up fCr the Vernon
farewell banquet.
Politically, there is a dead calm
Negroically speaking. Catch on tC
that newly-coined word Negro
icallyo? There appears to be nothing
doing. The Black Cabinet, that mere
.lv fgurative. posthumous, embryOti'
organization, they say, meets no more
lin banc. Even Rev. COrrOthers anC
Rev. Waldron, the ministerial-garbeC
air-punchers and 365-day-a-year poll
ticians, have been OmlnOusly silen
since their beloved and idolatrou!
! Democrats passed the Baltimore seq
lregation ordinance. And even MAJ
! Marshall, the delayed hero Of Browns