Semi-weekly herald., 1913-05-01
WASHINGTON
HAS B0WERY
OF ITS OWN

WASHINGTON, b. G., April co.
Washington, capital Of capitals, where
everything, including the citys NOR
ais, is under the watchful eye Of ev-
cry member Of the house and senate
each with a different idea as to how
to run national capital, has a Bow
cry OF course, that isn't the name
Of the street. Such name is not
high brow enough for the nation Il
capital Even if it had started bliss
fully in its youth with that cogno
men some Legislator would have
changed it to commemorate some one
from his district who had invented a.
new kind of soft soap, or had ideas
on currency reform. It's name isl
merely Ninth streetsa noncommittal
sort Of distinction which is possessed
by streets all the way from Oshkosh,
Wis, to Lone Peach Tree. Alabam'.
But if its name is mediocre, Ninth
street has atmosphere. Not even a
patriotic senator or n voluble con-
gressman could, rob it Of its atmos-
phere. The wearied New Yorker who
longs for breath Of Broome street,
or Spring street, or the Bowery; the
mid-westerner who Graves to hear
again the metallic jangling of the tin
pirno in front Of the moving picture
SHOW on Douglas street in Omaha;
the Milwaukeean or Chicagoan who
vents surcease from legislative wor-
res by the cosmopolitan sights he
would see along Third and Wells
streets or Dearborn street-all all
are invited to go down on Ninth
street when they come to Washington
and get the atmosphere from home
and possibly meet another from his
home town.
For Ninth street has an individual
ity Of cosmopoiitanism which satis-
lies all strangers in the District of
Columbia. Somehow the lights are
brighter, the moving picture show
signs more lurid, the people happier
looking, and the hurdy gurdy more
blatantly like the 'home town" than
anywhere else in Washington. 1t *
as il Ninth street, realizing that it
stands as the only unsurpassed, really
human note in the national capital,
knows its responsibility and is de-
termined to let no influence, not even
legislative one, deprive it Of lis
perquisites-
The "Bowery" of Washington
stretches from Pennsylvania avenue
to f street, matter Of three very
short city blocks, in the northwest sec
ton of the eitcy. 1t isn't anything
more than succession Of stores
where goods are cheaper than any
where else in town; where the one
price garments, the one-priee shows,
and the pawn shops seem to have
congregated for companionship. 1t
always seems pawn shops always
form the central note Of street
which naturally becomes the harbor
of play for people who still proudly
admit that there is such a thing as a
Sunday suit"
Mini street between Pennsylvania
avenue and streets is always crowd
ed One clutches the note Of care
free laughter mixed with unframed,
happy English; the Chinese restau-
rants send filtering Of ragtime notes
from Dickel-in-the slot pianos TO join
the medley Of sound on the pave
Inents; the crowds jostlng in and out
Of the moving picture shows "kid'
enc another when they step on the
toes Of the man in front and general
ly It's nice sociable street where
even hypochondriac can squeeze out
flicker Of cheer. II old Scrooge had
visited Ninth street, he wouldn't have
had to take those three ghostly. mid
nigh. perambulations to acquire the