The Washington times., 1911-05-09
THE TIMES DAILY SERIAL STORY
ONE WAY OUT
BY WILLIAM CARLETON
Copyrighted, & Comp


Bible saws 1t was made, for
Ruth used to read out loud 10 us and
we planned to make our book suit the
day after fashion Sometimes 1t was
Emerson, sometimes Tennyson-I was
very fond OF the Idylls-and sometimes
book of sermons.
Later on we had call from a young
minister who had little mission chapel
not far from our fiat, and who looked
IN upon us at the suggestion Of the sec
retary or the settlement house. We
went to service at his chapel one Sun
day. and before we ourselves realized
II, we were attending regularly with a
zest and interest which we had never
felt In our suburban church going.
Later still we each of us found a
share in the work ourselves and came
TO have a great satisfaction and con-
tentment in it, But j am running ahead
Of my story.
We'd have dinner this first summer az
we'd go for a walk. There wasn't a
street in the city that didn't interest US.
but as rule we'd plan to visit one of
the parks.
/ didn't know there were so many of
them or that they were so different We
had our choice of the ocean or river
or the woods.
y. If we had wished to spend, say. 80
cents In carfaTe, we could have had
further choice of the beach, the noun
tains. or a taste of the country, which
In places had not changed In the last
hundred years.
This would have given us a two hours
ride. Occasionally we did this. but at
present there was too much to see with
in walking distance
me that. though l had lived in this city
over thirty years, l had not yet seen
such places of interest as always at
tracted visitors from out of town:
Ny attention was brought to this first
by the need of limiting ourselves to
amusements that didn't cost anything,
but chiefly by learning where the better
element down here spent their Sun
days.
You have only to follow this crowd to
find out where the objects of national
pride are located. An old battle nag
will attract twenty foreigners to one
American. And. incidentally, | wish to
confess it was they who made me
ashamed of my ignorance of the coun-
try's history.
Beyond a memory of the Revolution.
the civil war, and few names of men
and battles connected herewith, I'd
forgotten all | ever learned at school
on this subject
But here the many patriotic celebra-
tiuns arranged by the local schools in
the endeavor to instill patriotism and
the frequent visits of the boys to the
museums, kept the subject fresh. Not
only Dick, but Ruth and myself soon
turned to It as a vital part of our edu-
cat ton.
Inspired by the old trophies that
ought to stand for so much to us OF to-
day we took from the library the hrst
volume of Fiske's fine series and In the
course OF time read them all.
AS we traced the fortunes OF those
early adventurers who dreamed and
sailed toward an unknown continent
pictured to ourselves the lives
Of the tribes who wandered about in
the big tangle of forest growth between
the Atlantic and the Pacific, as we
landed on the bleak New England
fought with Washington, then STUDIED
the perilous internal struggle culminat-
ing with Lincoln and the civil war. then
the dangerous period of reconstruction,
with the breathleSs progress following
why ii left us all better Americans than
we had ever been in our lives.
1t gave new meaning to my present
Surroundings and helped me better to
understand the newcomers. Somehow
all those things Of the past didn't seem
TO concern Grover and the rest of them
in the trim little houses.
They had no history. and they were
part of no history. Perhaps that's be-
cause they were making no history
themselves.
AS for myself. / know that l was
just beginning to get acquainted with
INV hnCGSuDIS-tlldI -lOE lIlf All 81
my life, was really conscious Of be-
ing citizen of the United States of
America.
But I soon discovered that not only
the historic but the beautiful attracted
these people. They introduced me to
the art museum
In the wiAter following our first sum-
mer here, when the out-of-doOr attrac-
tions were considerably narrowed down,
Ruth and ! used to go there about ev-
cry other Sunday with the boy.
We came to feel as familiar with our
favorite pictures as though they hung
in our own house The museum ceased
We went in with a nod to the old
doork eeper, who came to know us, ard
felt as unconstrained there as at home.
We had our favorite hooks. our ia
vorite seats, and we lounged about in
the soft lights of the rooms for hours
at a time. The more we looked at the
beautiful paintings, the old tapestries,
the treasures of stone and china, the
more we enjoyed them.
our neighbors there, and a young
artist who lived on the sec
ond floor of our house and whom later
I came to know very well, pointed out
to us new beauties in the old masters.
He was selling plaster casts at that
time. and studying art in the night
school.
In the old life. an art museum had
meant nothing to me more than that 1t
seemed a necessary institution in every
city. It was a mark of good breeding
in town, like the library in a gpod
many homes.
But it had never. occurred to me to
visit il, and know it hadn't to any OF
nv former associates. The women oc-
casionally went to a special exhibition
that was likely to be discussed at the
little dinners, but a week later they
couldn't have told you what they had
seen.
Perhaps our neighborhood was the ex-
ception, and a bit more ignorant than
the average about such things, but I'll
venture to say there isn't a middle
the paintings play the part In the lives
of the people that they do among the
foreign-born.
work: a class lower enjoys it. Where
the middle-class comes in, don't know.
After being gone all the afternoon
we'd be glad to get home again. and
maybe we'd have lunch of cold beans
and biscuits or some of the pudding
that was left over. Then during the
summer months we'd go back to the
roof for a restful evening.
At night the view was as different
from the day as you could imagine.
BEHIND us the city proper was in a
hluish haze made by the electric lights.
Then we could see the yellow lights
of the upper windows in all the neigh
boring houses. and Beyond these, over
fhe roof tops which seemed now to
huddle closer together, we saw the
passing red and green lights of moving
vessels.
.bicb were at the same time shining