Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1914-09-05

derneath a pungent field of moth-killing
drug-and then promptly forgot all about
them as long as shore duty lasted. There
wasn't anything more disagreeable to a
pair of COMPOUNDED old bachelors like
they were than f1Xin' up and paradin' be-
fore lot of ladies to whom tobacco
chewin sea-farin' men were foreign
race anyhow
One day, however, along came an invi-
tation that could not be ignored. 1t was
wedding ESQ it was told on the Press
Club roof garden long table the other
night, and the two of them just had to
go. There wasn't anything else to do. So
with plenty of grumbling and creaking of
out the uniforms from their glaciers of
camphor, they produced the revenue cut
ter blue full dress with as many camphor
balls in the pockets as there were wrinkles
in trousers, shoulders and sleeves, and
sat down to figure out the next move.
81 suppose we gotta get hack, said
McAllister as he kicked the invitation
about the floor.
1t was the blessed era before taxicaos
came to spoil things.
eyes, 1 guess So" replied the melan-
cholic Bertholf, by jimminy, though, L
would rather do double tricks of duty for
the next twenty years.
Me, too"
On the evening of the great occasion
the two bachelor officers could have been
seen stiffily stepping out from their bache-
lor apartments; each had new shoes Whlch
were stiff, and each one had white gloves.
new and tight and agonizing. Each one
wore uniform which was redolent with
camphor, and each one looked hastily up
and down the street to see whether their
vehicle had arrived. To their MINDS II
was not a hack. 1t was the hack. 1t
marked an epoch, disagreeable. formal
never-to-be-repeated epoch.
It Was "the Hack
And sure enough there it was-the
hack A fine heart of oak sort of hack it
was, with stout wheels and black enamel
panels, with a ruined looking individual
in a rough silk hat perched upon the
seat like one of the Druid stones at
Stonehenge That's just what he looked
like-a prehistoric monolith, weather beat
en- and mysterious as night liner could
look, and not at all in keeping with
revenue cutter uniform, no matter now
anti-moth it smelled.
The neighborhood in which these two
nervous heroes lived was just the very
neighborhood in which the presence OF
hack attracts crowd. In the five minutes
during which the Druid stone had stopped
his horse and had waited for his two
fares, seven people collected. Two OF them
were ragged and rough youths OF about
twelve one was a scissors grinder, one
was an old man, another was non
descript friend of the old mans, who had
fingered on lust to see what his friend
was going to see one was dog, another
was a woman who leaned out of the front
window and conversed in loud tones with
a person concealed in the interior OF the
house, and another was misguided col
ored boy, no held on to the horses bride
under the misrepresentation that by SO DO
ing he would receive a reward from some
unknown but prolific source.
AS the two officers stepped out the DRUID
shook himself to life, touched his ruined
hat with look of wondrous smartress on
his beer-spoiled face and the little col
ored boy hoped about looking tor that
never even saw him, SO stif11y did they
keep their eyes to the front. and amid the
glances of the gathered loafers. and the
cheers of the two boys who threw stones
at the back Of the hack, the hobby old
horse drove off on it's way to the party.
Greeted by a Mob.
When they arrived a great fleet of
hacks and private vehicles had assem-
bled and was maneuvering about to allow
their passengers to disembark in an
orders manner There was a much
to see the grandeur Of the approaching
hundreds ali dressed in their best. There
must have been 200 leering, laughing
youths and a large sprin-
king of nursemaids and other wandering
females who could not keep from stand
ing about to see what each person wore
when the carriages disembarked their
passengers.
Grandest of all was the dignitary (hired
for the night who swung open the doors
of carriages as they reached. the awning