Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1914-05-10
From Dome to Monument
With Party of Tourists

what suggestion can do. so ! packed and
came home by the next train
BY that time the elevator had climbed
so high between the ever-narrowing walls
that the cables clattered like rigging Al
sea. and voices sounded shrill. The ex-
preston of grit was accented by philo-
sophie silence. rasped every second BY
hysteric giggles and gasps. One nervous
soul clutched her husband and auavered:
Lets walk the rest of the way. I'm
rested now. Can't We get out at the next
floor"
And instead of assuring her that there
was nothing to get nervous about. the
man, who must have been twin to the fel-
low who rocks boat and kills with an un
loaded pistol, snickered out an answer
that should have put him in jail:
"You gotta stay right here and tate
what's coming to you! One thing. il the
car goes smash there'll he no pieces to
save.''
But the car didn't go smash. IT empred
its load on the thirty-sixth floor as I'M
concernedly as IL it were a trolley al
junction downtown.
Those ink-blotty holes you see from the
street are not ink-blotty holes. They are
biggish windows that look out on the
four corners OF the world-never mind
about its being round! All day long OF
practically every day. each Windows is
rist-packed. with the front row ever
shifting to give the back line a show.
Each row takes its chances good
naturedly, and before the allotted ten min
utes are up every one has had what
gourmand would call his I'LL Of view"
Comments arc usually many stereo-
typed CALCULATIONS with tremendous run
on the "My's"' and Ais but the
ception is always around Yesterday il
dubbed out in the shape of honeymoon
lady. stylish and not any too youn-.
whose voice. to be strictly descriptive
would have to be called megaphonic:
-.
Look, DEAR the White House is q
mere marshallow. And. see. the automo-
biles are so many crawling bugs.'
And that bridegroom man. who obvious
ly belonged to the ham and greens class.
and had a business. say, in the hardware
line, or, maybe. lumber. sawed and split
that man stood there and accepted every
exaggeration with a rapt acquiescence
that implied that-but everybody knows
about bridegrooms.
Also everybody, regardless of sex. had
a poetical swat at the river. There 1t LAY
below, broad and deep and wet, witt
steamers going and coming and launches
skidding over its rippies like so many
gadfiies gone entirely mad, And those
tourists took that Potomac and, as far
as words could do II. changed the thing
into "a mirror "a silver thread" and.
according to one oldish man with a G
A. R. button on his coat, "a saber steel
that flashes. sir. as our swords flashed
that day at and so on. 1t didn't seem
TO occur to one man or woman who wenG
up that monument elevator yesterdar
morning that the Potomac might be
plain, everyday river.
There's never any telling how a view
may strike a tourist. Here's a small
proof:
In one party yesterday was jolly
man and ruffied-up woman both as TO
manner and dress. Her skirt was so
many TERED frills from high heels to
feathers had the required razor back
stiffness and there was a mess of dia-
monds on her one bare hand. But in her
face was an old-fashioned expression -
temper that Xantippe herself might have
worn. Luckily. they had first go at !
window and the man chuckled over his
lungful Of fresh air:
Pretty high, aren't we.''
mot as high as that breakfast Tho
idea of charging Is cents for one baked
potator'
"Oh, forget It! Gee. this is great"
'.And 1t wasn't a good potato. at that"
Hang the potato. We more than even
I'D with a free show like this. Just see
that"
You can get whole half peck Of po-
tatoes for If
The jolly man. being human. said things
under his breath. but the woman kept 10
the loud pedal:
II don't care if they do, You know.
YOUR ownself that we were simply
roueed, Fifteen cents for one baked
And that's about all there was to that
,-At.nI.d On Ninth Page,