Ottumwa semi-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1916-1918, 1916-11-21

4 AS IOf tue bOStOu e Ucdu, yOu Will
probably have to report it myth. An
exhaustive search Of the menus. Ia
carte and table d'hote, fails to reveal
its presence, and neither is it adver-
tised by the grocery stores, although
the equally characteristic Goldfish is
ubiquitous. He is advertised, and
eaten everywhere; but the, bean Is
nowhere to be found What, then, IL
the foundation for the Boston bean
legend? Can it be that the tremendous
appetite of the Bostonian for the bean
has resulted in the complete extermin-
alton of this succulent legume? Or ID
the bean pot sacred family institution
| enshrined in the homes OF the people,
concealed from the stranger eye? Or.
yet again, Is 1t possible that the mod
ern Puritan, grown wealthy. has been
seduced by the heshpots OF French
cookery, that he now eschews such
t! homely and sulphurous fare as the
humble bean? We know not; but the
Boston bean eludes us STILL
Doubtless enough has been said
about the crooked streets of Boston.
but any man who walks them for the
first time Is justified in saying some
thing more. They wander and dodge
and twist, they duck through arcades.
they run up alleys and disappear They
do everything but widen; they remain
as rigidly narrow as the way of virtue.
1t is said that they were laid out by
the cows of Puritan days. who were
pastured on the common and made
these pathways as they wendell home
ward. But gazing on typical Boston
thoroughfare. you doubt whether n
respectable Puritan COW ever steered
such a homeward course. And if not
the cows, then who? Here is a real
historical scandal. Someone in that
austere Puritan community failed to
| walk home straight!
When you ask policeman how to
! get anywhere in Boston. he seldom
tries to direct you either by the names
Of the streets or the points of the
compass. Go that way till you come
to street to the left and then walk
till you find the place." he says. And
maybe that street to the left is within
forty feet and maybe you walk quar-
ter of mile before you see It. and
then you don't recognize 1t; you take
1t for an alley.
One result of the congested condi-
ton of Boston streets is that every
man and especially every woman. is
his or her own delivery wagon. Bos-
ton is the town where everybody car
ries something: apparently the Bos
tonian seldom sails without some sort
of ballast. II may be a package or
book: bit probably it is bag. These
bags are soft shapeless affairs that
might be sa: on without suffering
much. and at the same time woulG
stretch almost indefinitely Numerous
| little leather stores seem to exist al
most solely for the purpose of selling
them and you can buy one for any
price from dollar nineteen up. PRO
fessicnal bags" they are called by the
trade, and the housewifely profession
seems to use about eighty per cent of
them.
Now from all of these things you
might get the impression that Boston
is sort of preoccupied, self righteous
int llectual place And you would be
absolutely wrong. AS matter of fact
Bo&ton is wildly. almost exotically
alive. True the Puritans got here
first and implanted certain ideals,
! which have persisted vigorously. But
the Irish got here second, and they
4
with Celtic temperamental require
ments. And so it happens that on the
principal streets of Boston, the picture
show and tpeater and cabaret flourish
and flash their winking lights over the
noisy swarming crowd. The narrow
ness of the streets has the effect Of
concentrating the life of them-the
noise, the lights. the crowd feeling are
! all wildly intensified. Broadway is no:
more white way than Washington
street And whereas Broadway with
its subway construction and rising
buildings, has a new. unfinished. al
most a raw appearance. Boston seems
E! old as the mountains, and yet as live
as mountain stream. Indeed, you
can almost imagine that these narrow
glaring streets. with their cavelike ar
cades and grotto like shops. are can.
yons worn in solid rock bv the century
long pounding Of the million footed