Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1912-03-10

blocks or squares or In minutes or half
minutes, from that corner to. say. n
street? A larlous short distance. Ism 1t!
And yet slews and slathers of Washing
ton folks ride from the Treasury Depart
ment to X street in the street cars
know a chief of division In one OF
Pleasant, on Harvard street He's one
Of the huskiest. corn-feddist persons in
the District of Columbia. He's about
forty-five. and as hearty as lumber
jack after a hard winter. But he's
whole lot too fat. Before he connect
ed with his job in Washington he lived
in Ohio. and in the progress OF Dig
ging for a living out there he used to
walk whole passed. of miles every
day Now. however, of course, he rides
to and from his office in the War,
State and Navy building every day. A
while back ! met him as he was wait
ing for car after office hours. ] in
quired of him, politely, why. seeing he
was plenty large enough and husky
enough and ugly enough. he didn't put
over a little mOccasin work and do a
Weston up to his abode on the Mount
Pleasant hill. to the end that some Of
the lard. blubber and other component
elements of his corpulency might fade
away and dissolve a little.
He looked at me as if had suggested
that he place an Internal machine with
a time 1uS0 on 1t III SlaludTy Hail at
the Capitol.
What! he pelted back at me.
Walk. Walk. Me walk all the way
from here to Harvard street! You
want to set some traps for those fit
termice that are chippering in your
campanile."
"Why?' / asked him, bovinely. How
far is Harvard street from here, dye
reckon"
How far is it?" he .snorted "Why,
man. it's miles I'd as soon start to
walk to Baltimore"
Now, Harvard street isn't any miles
from the corner of 14th street and New
York avenue. 1t may be about two miles,
one would reckon. or even q little more.
but that isn't miles with the gasped
accent on the word. 1t isn't far enough
for man of my friend, the division
chiefs robust type to even get a proper
stretching of the legs. So l reminded him
that at former time 1t had been no un-
common thing for him land myself with
outskirts of Cleveland to the Rockefeller
building. away downtown in Cleveland. a
distance of about seven miles. every
morning and evening. He remembered
manifest wonderment. Then he took and
owned up to it that living in Washington
had made him lazy. But could ! get him
to duck the street car for once and take
a
Pleasant hill? Not a chance. And he
had and has twenty-five pounds OF adj
posity on him that could easily be taken
off, most of it, at any rate, il he could
be induced to walk to and from his office
every day at good. brisk, swinging pace
and he Is yawny and only half awake
and dopey and cumbrous and heavy Oh
his pins solely because he has forgotten
how to manipulate his props since he
came to Washington to live.
Do the folks of Washington buck III
and take long walks for themselves ever
on the sunniest. blandest Sundays wher
the weather is glorious? Not SO that any
hordes of them so engaged are percepti
bic to the undraped optic.
And what a dandy town Washington Il
for that long-walk thing! There isn't
corner of the city that isn't interesting t
the walkist who plugs along and keeps
his eyes moving around on the picture
Within the past ten years whole grea
big handsome chunks of Washington hav
suddenly sprung up that perhaps hal
the inhabitants of Washington only know
about by hearsay. There is no part o
Washington that isn't worth prowlini!
around In afoot. There's fun in wall
} through Swampoodle. There are heal
of interesting things to be seen on wall
down on 1.-The island" especially whel
you get close to the docks.
There is not SO fine and convenient
canal towpath near any American city
, that / know of for a little morning
walk of Sunday as that old canal tow
path that begins over in Georgetown
A little breather from Georgetown up
! say. TO Great Falls on Sunday mornini
I along that towpath would give law
statue new joy in living. l don't say al
9 the way to Cumberland, which is l be
3 lieye. 1914 miles, because that couldn
be done exactly on Sunday morning
D But a man with n wooden leg ought TO b
D able to tIudre np - Great Falls or tina
i ,uw,ala il. the COURSE cf Il Sunda! for.