Evening star., 1919-03-09

ME Rambler turned aside from
the gray stone bedded thor
oushfare now set down in the
records of Montgomery county
as Potomac pike, but borne in
the memory of old folk as Persimmon
Tree road. He left the highway to
ioiio" iane which leads to the home
VI '"e man VINO as an official of the
county gave his efforts TO the creation
of the road. His name was John sauu-
ders. Though dead for thirty-six
years, his image and his deeds all of
winch were Kind and honorable, are
yet fresh and clear in the recollection
of the people who were his neighbors.
They speak well of John Saunders not
in the perfunctory manner of men
bearing In mind "de mortuis nil nisi
bonum,' but in the manner of men
thinking of a good man
And here is a chance to say that all
good men are not dead. Many whom
the Rambler comes upon In these rus
tic marches will measure up as good
men when the rusty -throated church
bell rings their requiem ana the yell
low clods rattle down upon their cof-
fms. One should not be perniciously
exact or perniciously eXacting in de-
inning what good man" means The
tendency is to account as good only
the man who fits himself to our own
moral concept, The narrower a man
is the more insistent he is on class
ing as good only those who At his
own measure, who believe his own
creed, who humble his own prayers
ana VINO drink his own drink. Broad
ly speaking, the narrower a man is
hh q
have changed all along the course of the
ages, have changed greatly in our own
brief lifetime, and by fair reasoning the
changes are going TO continue, Pos
terity may look upon the most re-
spectacle citizens of this generation
as monsters.
4 s.
Ethics have so changed in few
years that the present code stamps as
wicked men those of us who bet our
money on Flora Temple, Dexter, Gold
smith Maid. Rarus, St Julian, Maud
s., Jay Eye See and Sunol. We hang
our heads with shame that once we
sat in the office OF Jim humphreys
livery stable. or John Prices livery
stable, or Allison Majors stable, or
Wash Majors Office and talked about
how Archer rode Silvio, or Constable
rode Sefton, or how Fordham rode Sir
Bevis, or how Ben d'Or. Iroquois. the
Harvester and Ormond ran. We dare
not confess that once upon time we
saw Lydia Thompson's burlesque com
pany of English Blondes" play
'lxion,' watched Pauline Markham as
Venus lead the Amazons. listened to
Liza Weber sing that wicked song.
up in n Balloon. Boys, Up Above the
Clouds SO High, looked upon the
beautiful Miss Urquart and laughed
III tyat tAa h lx.
immoral song:
Now see you, and you see me,
We both see one another;
Ii didn't see you, and You didn't see me
We wouldn't see one another
We cannot admit in the presence of
the moral paragons of today that we
used to go to see the beautiful Ada
Isaacs Menken, watched Kate Fisher.
the best of the Mazeppas. ride her
white horse in the thrilling act. and
that some of us long time ago occu
pied seats in the Odeon Concert Hall,
the Canterbury and the Theater
Comiuue.
Though it may give painful shocks
to twentieth century Puritans the
Rambler as an historian, annalist or
recorder must set 1t down in cold ink
that some of us were addicted to that
base form of amusement called negro
minstresy. That there was more musi-
cal excellence and talent In an old
time minstrel show than in many q
newtime opera troupe, and more
humor than in an p-to-date slap
stick comedy is not to the point. The
minstrel show was but another of the
lures which the devil used to increase
the population of his tropic realm.
Yet, in spite of this. there Is happy
little spot In our memories for old
Jim Crow Rice who sang that rlbald
and licentious song:
Wheel about. turn about,
DO JUS SO;
An cherry time iurn about
jump Jim Crowl'
And with Rice were Dan Emmett,
who wrote Dixie" odd Dan Tucker"
THE Boatman's Dance" Early in the
Morning and Walk Along. John,''
and Frank Brewer, Billy Whitlock,
Dick Pelham and Billy Blakeney.