Evening star., 1918-01-20
AROUND THE CITY.

| AROUND !
Nature has no funny bone. but 1t may
be that natures Author smiles Win
fatherfy indulgence at the way we un-
dertake to manage His affairs.
At a concert matinee. before the
performance. for one instance, when
two intelligent-looking women ex-
changed views as to the proper con-
| Quoting of that spiritual institution
which we know as heaven:
'The war is dreadful in every way, OF
course, but the worst Of all is the kill
ing OF of the men who should father
! the coming generation. 1t is natural for
the old to die. but God never intended
that the world should be robbed OF the
young men who are needed to run 1t"
+, "Yes, He does, dear. I used to think
that way, too. but 1 know better now
You see, according to your idea, heaven
is only g home for the aged, with an
infant asylum attached. But you must
| admit it would be awful1y dull up there
If its only Inhabitants were people who
had died of old age or teething-
What foolishness! I believe heaven
is this way"
Let me finish. If there is really an
army of the Lord. it naturally needs
recruits all the time and conscription
once in a while. And conscription
means war for us down here-See?
Why, most any young man We know
| may be merely reserve, waiting or
ders to mobilize at the call of the Great
Commando
you don't get my meaning. I'll ex-
plain to you@
But she didn't explain. for the orches-
| ira filed in and began the deep blowing
of horns. And the women-God love
them-who will doubtless find out some
day that heaven may get along beauti-
| fully on a basis different from their
own. stopped talking to listen to the
score.
| Which, of itself, shows what intelli-
gent women they were.
-
The rain staggered down as if it was
made of something stronger than
water. and Boreas reeled around in it
as If he wouldn't go home until morn
ing-if then.
At one place on the Avenue the wind
caught mans hat and sent it wheel
ing over the asphalt until it came to
puddle with ice cakes in it, where 1t
seemed a good place to locate.
The owner was not a young man,
and he had more than his fair share of
chins. But Ben Hur had nothing on
him when it came to racing! Naturally,
he had to stop every two yards to
puff and pant. but he made the pud-
die at last, and as he f1shed his derby
from a frozen cone he shook his fist at
1t and wheezed out:
"You blanked little rascal, you@
And il the wind is really Boreas
person who does his blowings accord
ing to rules beyond the comprehension
of humans too blind. to see him, he
doubtless considered the hat incident
quite a remarkable little event in its
| way, for
Believe it or not, that man wasn't
! mad. There are witnesses to prove 1t.
| She was burdened-not accompanied
by two children and their small and
| pitifully cowed grandmother.
And when the four of them got off at
the transfer station to see their car
whizz off without them the younger
woman felt called upon to wall:
IF you weren't such slow pokes We
could have caught that car! You, Tom
my, stop dragging that umbrella. Jean
take your thumb out Of your mouth.
You've got the transfers haven't you.
! momma?'
No, momma did not have the trans
fers.
well, If you aren't enough to provoke
a saint! After I bought the tickets
you might at least have attended to the
transfers. All right. we can walk. I've
got too much to do with my money to
throw it away on people who don't know
| enough to appreciate it. I'm just mad
enough To-
She looked It, Furthermore, she
sounded that way. And while the TRADE
was in full blast momma bent her head
| as If to an accustomed thing and the
children huddled around her.
heard, along with everybody else for
twelve yards around, was good enough
to rush back to the car In time to get
| the transfers. And as he handed them
wise loud enough for the twelve yards
to hear:
you should have asked for the trans
fers when you got your tickets, madam" !"
| She accepted the slips with the boor-
ishness which cheap people mistake for
|haughtiness and showed her youngsters
onto a just-come car. leaving momma to
shift for erself.
| And to think-just to think-how
many lonely women there are in this
town who would be thankful for small
| slice of, grandmother and the merest
pinch of a child!
Sometimes-of course. it isn't really
lso-but sometimes it just looks as II
blind fate, who didn't know what she
was doing, cut us humans out with dull
scissors hit and miss. Sometimes 1t
seems that way. And then again. OF
course it doesn't.
Which makes this world such mys-
teriously exciting place to live in.
The next time your vanity sickens at
the injustice of world that makes you
work for bread. when. by rights
natchally-you ought to be enjoying
cake without cost. go over to the mu-
scum and call on that mummy that
"died 5000 years before Christ" He
will do you more good than box of
pills. And the prescription won't cost
you a cent
One day you would have found child
before the case-such a small child that
she stumbled over the reading of the
label and had to be corrected by the
woman with her. But she was an in
|tently interested youngster. and re-
fused to bulge when the woman. In
voice that sounded like sweet pickle
tastes, insisted that she stop looking at
the horrid thing and come on.
ssWait q minute, Susie. / can almost
hear what! he is saying"
But Susie didn't want to~wait She