Evening star., 1918-11-24
AROUND THE CITY
rHERE Is newpaper, man whose
brains are forever on tap, like
| an artesian well.

=
brains are forever on tap. like
an artesian well.
Also, there is an office boy who
Is going to be an editor some day
but not soon.
The newspaper man was at his desk
tipping copy like mad. The office 10y,
at the galiey-proof table, was trying
his .anguished best-and failing-to
write up a gnat Of an assignment
which an indulgent chief had allowed
him by way of teaching him the ropes
Chiefs are like that.
He is a bright office boy, but the
keenest Of US have our times TOT get
ting ratified. and he had the rattles
bad. 1t was time to turn the story
in, but-consider-wnat can you, or
or any man do when our brains are
too caked to dig out an intelligent
item with a pencil, and we hate to
use pickax? Naturally, the boy
did nothing. And the doing OF IT
The newspaper man, having turned
in his stuff and lit his cigarette,
chanced upon the boys tragedy. took
his program. and in less than the pro-
verbal three shakes OF rams tall
the thing was done.
To write a seven-line item of no in
terest to anybody. except to those
present" is no tax whatever-none
whatever-on a brain that is forever
on tap. like an artesian we'll, but
To help another out of great big
trouble-you couldn't possibly under
stand unless you had a story to write
and couldn't handle it-well-
1t seemed right big, splendid thing.
::
A Ian who looked as if he owned
- a railroad was talking to man
who looked as if he owned two.
While they confabbed at the Raleigh
corner a wrinkled. brown woman
came up to them. leading a wrinkled.
brown. man. She was selling
natches-"f' cents box; three for
The one-railroad man waved aside
the matches. but put some thing IN the
woman'S hand and asked the brown
man how he came to lose his sight.
Il amt ever had any to lose. sub.
was bawn with my eyes shet. suh"
He of the two railroads Clipped in
with coin and the old couple shufHed
off, the blind man childishly serene,
his pilot shrilling her slogan-"f'
cents box: three for a.
And the man who looked as if he
might own a railroad said to the man
who looked as if he might own two:
II had my eyes bandaGed for two
weeks, once"
That was all a pasSerby could hear,
but it was enough-for this atom of
yarn. anyhow.
MEET Mrs. Guinea Hen:
A'A She lives in a yard up 14th
street, near Spring road. Also. there
is a flock Of chickens--all bound
around with wire fence-and the
sparrows.
horde about to swoop down on tho
grain and crumbs that the owner
man had Sprinkled around for his
poultry, but they didn't get to sWoop,
The guinea hen, a feathered tank
with var wings and b;tyonet-sharp
beak, charged the foe-and the foe
beat strategic retreat Then there
vas come back with worse results,
and after that. there was peace.
Which is merely to show that food
conservation isn't exclusively a hu-
man institution. There is. for one in
stance, anyhow, such thing as a
And. maybe, there are others.
= !.
A SECOND helping of sparrows:
The other day, when Washing
ton was wearing peek-a-boo weather
an amiablc looking gentleman paused
in passing to watch couple of spar
rows. They were busy birds and paid
no attention whatever to their audi
ence further than to hop around him
when necessary to pick up splinters
and, in one forage, two feathers and
Wriggle of pink string.
While they were on the job another
anniable old gentleman paused in
passing to see what the other man
was looking at-you know what curl
man felt called upon to explain.
These foolish little creatures think
spring has come again and have gone
back to their nest building. Poor
things. they will find themselves
greatly mistaken for something tells
ne We will have an unusually hard
winter. ] an inclined to think, sir.
that something has gone radically
wrong with this planet Of ours. Why.
sir. recol,ect-whcR / was a boy
The other old gentle man was precisely
OF the same opinion. Other worlds had
perished. why not ours? And after a
social interchange, in which they Gre
ated cnaos With the leisure of men
with nothing of Importance on hand,
each went his way under the convic-
tion that nature was about to lose
her job.
It didn't seem to occur to either of
them that the sparrows might be at
work fixing around home for the win
ter-even as you and l.
y
X
A-~WOMAN was blowing around the
market house that last windy
Gay. The country carts had rumbied
back to wherever they had come from.
and the entire squatter colony had
done the Arab act and faded away,
except for one old person as brown
as the ribs OF Time (quotation) who
sat in a crumpled heap under the
market house caves. On the box in
front Of her were some cabbages that
had gone, brown at the edges, a few