Evening star., 1918-02-17
AROUND THE CITY

tethOOuv0 htu1 VII
Curiosity IL Contagious. - &.
Over at the National Museum there Is
one exhibit that looks like a cistern
pump Of rusty iron, together With an
other piece of the same ancient metal
that might be lever, about three feet
long.
In front of the case stood youngish
information on the label
When he had moved on, another per-
son went over to the case, read the card
and began to scribble in a note book-lil1e
this:
Lock and key to the city gate at
Peking. known as the front gate, di-
rect1y opposite the emperor's palace.
This gate was taken by the United
States marines August"
Move up. please, and give us room to
see." - -. .,
The person in possession made way
for q heavy doubfe-chfnned,
bride-you know how you can spot
them every time. Her gray chiffon. ex-
actly unsuited to the season, was cIum-
pied from touIfst-trotting and her new
plush coat with one button hanging by
thread was trimmed with seaiskin
made at a New England mm-and
spotty round the bottom with s1ush.
Her tired but bounteously rosy face
was all bound around with forced
season straw that must have cramped
her ears, and her white shoes bulged
over at the sides like raised dough.
al 70 in vH<NIif lrVN 1fSSs
against an undersized bridegroom
whose open overcoat revealed a white
bosom gashed with blood red tie.
When they had seen what there was to
marital happiness and sighed-only it
didn't sound like a sigh, exactly:
Come on. dolling. ] thought it must
be something grand. Ans nothing at
ALL And dolling dragged his burden
off to metal more attractive
When they were gone the youngish
man joined the person in possession
and volunteered. with the heemasonry
of common interest:
Il was in that uprising"
whole lot of meaning to the iron in the
case.
Counting by years, she had Just en-
tered the tooth-shedding zone Meas
ured by worldly sophistication, she
might have been twins to Cheops.
And she was perched on the lap Of a
woman who feels. naturally, that she
knows all about children-having none
of her own. The intimate. position was
due to jammed movie show which had
led the woman to extend the hospital
ity of her knees. And the small per-
cny $o1,
intimacy to match.
The film was a triangle thing which
no child should have understood and
which even the woman scrupled. There
was siren in jet gauze with batwing
sleeves and long-tailed earrings, and
Wlfe who personified virtue in white
added to later by the shoulder-shawl
Whlch Is the dramatic standard for
Want. The beautiful hero who caused
the nippings and tuckings finally re-
pented OF Christmas eve and went to
hls starving family disguised as Santa
with q !" And when the play was
over the child made use of the inter-
mission to voice views:
wouldn'er took him back a min
ute, after webbing me and my chile of
the nesserys Of life to spen' his welf on
q vampire, like that-Ider peferred
on-Wouldn youo|I don't 500
what she mahied him for. frsa ren ofr see
ne Wouldner been the man of nv
Jolce! lder rather mahied our mail
canler-unlessen she caulder got her
alley money like that grass widderone
hern"- iihe
The woman put in wedge by remark
which netted anothes shock:
You don't petend to bleve in Santa
Claus, do you?'
The woman shut up. and the child
took silence for consent.
l thought you looked too oldy-but
pooF momma thinks I do. All the NOM
mas are that way-us girls has niles
OF fun writin' letters to Santa and ne
tenind to go vile over the Chwisnas
t"ees dwessed up the same eyehy year
and maxim believe about Santa and
ms sleigh an all, so our poppas can
u"ess UP IN fuh rug and wiskers I
knew there wasn't any Santa wav lac,
year before this one but I had to ne
lena on accounter poor poppa and
momma--they feel so had, YOU know
when Children find out
sand by the time the intermission was
over the woman was forced to the CON
ciuslon that she didn't knew as much
anout children as she thought she did.
man sat on girder
A'S SHoeI Suot HiSH up In the air
and the man on it was taking noon
whiffs at his pipe.
On scaffolding .reassurinrlv 1ssbed
to wall sat another man with another
pipe. And the two were apparently
passing the time of day
Down on earth, one passing man
looking up said to another: II wouldn't
be up there where that man is sitting
for million dollars"
You mean you couldn't There's a
difference"
That was all there was to it. onlv i,
seemed to person who had overheard
that the man on the girder stood for
progress.
And progress is the thing that runs
the world.
A market wagon broke down and
spilled lot of flowers.
Mr. Blank picked up an overlooked
carnation and took it to an office. where
he passed it on to woman who put it
IN glass of water. When she left the
office. meaning to go shopping, the wom-
an absentmindedly went a square out
of her way. which led to a church.
In the church there is dim and si-
lent chapel. where the Mother of sor-
rows holds the lifeless body of her son.
there are kneeling figures. and
sometimes pilgrim will lay flowers
before the shrine.
The woman put her carnation on the
mn HI