Evening star., 1918-01-27

61HERE are press of-neople on
the r street footways and a surge
Of traffic between the curbs
from the dim, graw OF morning
until night is far advanced. Along part
of the street stone, brick and marble
= wallis have risen to a great height It
has become through much of, Its length
one Of the great highways of the world,
as the world measures greatness. The
greatness Of a street is measured in
terms of trade, business, crowds. tangle
ana jam Of traffic, sparkle Of shop win
dows and the volume and value of goods
bought and sold. Thus, F street is a
great highway.
It was not always great in this sense.
In the beginning 1t was not street
at all. It was part and parcel of a farm
indistfnguishab1e from the rest of that
farm. And it was not particularly
rich and thrifty farm, though the soil
of what Is now F street did its share of
work with its kindred soil that stretch
ed away to the north and south In
bringing forth corn, wheat and tobacco.
Tall and broad plants of tobacco grew
green and blossomed pink on the very
site of some of the cigar shops today.
Before 1T became part of farm 1t was
wild land-that is. it and all the rest
y
were unclaimed, unpatented, unexplored
and untrodden by white men. except
few adventurous hunters. trappers and
trafhckers with Indians and those
white men who had been driven away
from or had escaped from the earlier
settled parts of the country south of the
Eastern branch in Maryland and south
Of Hunting creek in Virginia or who.
had gone into the wilderness from the
older settlements along the lower Po-
:omac and it's creeks.
X
Before that 1t was a region which
naIwhite man had seen. For ages. the
number of which no man can calculate
with assurance of being right, it was
land which only the Indian knew. It is
not unsafe to tell that bear, deer. and
perhaps buffalo. too, and all the other
wild animals once numerous in these
parts crossed and recrossed this strip
of land which has become F street. In
"A Relation of Maryland" published in
London in 1885 for the information
OF persons contemplating emigrating
tethe new colony it is written that
I'm the upper parts of the country there
are Bufeloes. Elkes, Lions, Beares.
Wolves and Deare in great store in all
ed as also Beavers, Foxes, Offers. and
many other sorts of Beasts such as
Muskrats. Martens and Weasels"
This is a convenient place to say
something about the "primeval forest"
which is a popular phrase with persons
who write. The Rambler does not
know anything about streets rela-
tion to that kind of forest. The land
that came to be called Maryland was
clothed over nearly its whole extent
with oak, chestnut, walnut, pine, cedar,
poplar. hickory. ash, gum, nersimmon
and sassafras. but there were also
and kept clear for open hunting, and
they maintained smaller clearings for
growing corn. In Father Whites RE
1ation of the Voyage to Maryland" writ
ten in 1884, is this:
II will end therefore with the soyle. which is
excellent that cannot sett downe a foot,
but tread Strawberries, raspires. fallen null
berrie vines, acchorns. walnutts, sa1afras, ETC..
and those in the widest woods. The ground is
commonly blacke mould above and a foot
within ground Of readish colour. All is high