Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1916-06-18
Around the CITY

Il l. ~
Mans study Of man lacks the direct
fearlessness Of childhood In search of
God.
Leaving out the cute precociousness
| of babyhood and considerings only the
honest and entirely reasonable curios-
| ity of an uniformed mind called on to
love and obey a Hidden Being, take.
| as one illustration, small William. aged
| three.
Both at home and at Sunday school
Billy is being trained to love his Heav-
emily Father. who is God. But it was
| not until he saw picture of the Christ
| CARRIED in the flowing robe Of the New
Testament that his Imagination de-
fined itself as to sex.
He asked his mother IL she had ever
| seen God? She told him that God is
invisible. He Is our Spiritual Father.
mo. heAisnt. mamma. God isn't
man. I saw a. picture of Him and He
had on a dress; He's woman. mamma"
With the beautiful diplomacy Of
motherhood she explained the seam
less garment of Scripture. but the
Bible picture had so realistically hu-
| manized the Savior for small William
that when on a later Sunday his mother
decided not to let him go to Sunday
| school because a restless night had
made him a bit feverish. he protested.
to-"
No. you don't have to go when you
| are not well, Billy"
Yes 1 have. mamma owe God
| nickel"
For Billy. the Heavenly Father had
| come from out Of His inscrutable spirit
tured Christ who was entitled to Sun
| day contributions
Then there is Eleanor. whose first
concern took a physical turn. She
made Of So she went to her grand
father for details.
THE Bible tells US. my child. that
God made US out of dust
1t was a surprise, but Eleanor &C
cepted the fact.
my! God must do lot of sweeping"
1t was the primitive mind measuring
infnity by the only gauge 1t knew-the
dustpan-a baby intelligence in the
act of growing.
Consider. also, the colored kiddie-
name unknown-who was sitting on
the curb prodding worm, as a young
white man came along. He was such a
dead -in-earnest kiddie that he had to
hold up the man for information.
Hi. mister. you know what sorter
| worm this is?"
Mister paused to consider the fuzzy.
mahogany wriggle unofficially known
as a fever worm. Then he voiced knowl-
edge.
because IL he was a fever wum he
wouldn't be wearin' a overcoat. same
| as II he was cold"
| That sounded reasonable, SO the man
invited confidence.
what are you doing to him, SOM"
"Nothin' more'n poke at him to see
| how he turns roun' an runs the other
way. This bugs got some sense to him.
| But don't know what God made him
| for wouldner wasted time on him.
| Down yander at the brick yard, where
my uncle works, they don't bother with
no-count stun. You gotta make fust-
rate bricks. and IL l was in Gods place
that's the way I'd do, too"
This rather astonishing line of criti-
cism induced the man to probe further
into the boys views.
$50 you wouldn't make bugs? What
do you think the Lord ought to do in
| stead?"
Make peoples that's what. All of
em white. That's what benna studyin'
J God oughter do"
| A tacker-teeth-sh edding era-sitting
on the curb studying God"
A child in the temple. confounding the
high priests
And we poor old grown-ups calling
ourselves wise. knowing all the while
that we know-Nothing!
A woman had just missed one of
| those suburban cars with long waits
| between. Nobody really enjoys being
stranded forty-eleven squares from
base on June day with January trim
| mings, but one may always pick up
| knowledge. The woman learned. for
, one thing, what fine thing 1t is to
be a man in bad weather. On the cor
ner across there was a clean-looking
10 ND n
barber shop. and in front Of where
she was waiting. a coy cubby hole
| of place for tobacco and
Praise be to Cadmus. over at the far
| frame house with sign on it that
| read waiting room for ladies'
She found 1t wren's nest of a shop
with a cheerful wren sort of woman
counter. but strip of plank covered
with newspaper and supported by a
barrel at each end. AS the woman
bought one of the three gay-backed
magazines laid with careful con-
spicuousness on another homemade
counter. 1t seemed as IL prospects were
dull for business of any sort-which
shows how much she knew about it,
for just then a whistle blew and
A batch Of boys romped in for snow
balls. The storekeeper opened little
refrigerator; shaved SO many, balls
| square of writing paper and sprinkled
| it with red strip from bottle. Then
she dropped so many pennies In her
till.
A customer with a cigarette in his
hand bolted in for box Of matches
Then a spindle-shanked little girl in
| spectacles paid a cent, each. for three
ice cream sandwiches. fat cucumber
| pickle and a slab of sheet cake.
A colored woman with a drenched
shawl over her head came in for
loaf of bread and a man who entered
and had to wait, drank a bottle of pop
Through a straw.
No sane lady Of a certain age wants
| pop at time when ]. Pluvius and old
man Boreas are spending the day with
June, but-knowledge costs courage
and money-and she wanted both to
know how it felt to drink pop out of a
bottle and what sort of luck the
woman was having with her little
store. This was the result of her in
vestment:
there 10 only my young daughter and
myself, and we manage to make ends
meet. Also It 10 far better than break
ling your heart and wearing your shoes
out hunting for Jobs you never get. or
living ON gelettyea1 rho don't want You,-