Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1919-11-16
nee more the Rambler found
himself on a road whose
dust was stirred and whose

hoo "oo NY way
farers in colonial days and years. The
Rambler uses the phrase found him
SELF in the idiomatic style for the
sake Of convenience and not with any
thought of giving the impression that
he had lost his way. He deliberately
turned into this road because'he knew
1t well, because it was quiet way. be-
cause 1t aided and abetted his reveries
and meditations and because it was a
useful IL not necessary. link in his
pilgrimage to a house and farm called
Moidone-a place which he mem
toned in the narrative of Ayre Hill,
and which he had set out to visit. The
road is now called the Old Courthouse
road. From 1900 until the building of
the new Vienna Fairfax auto pike it
served as the main approach from the
north to Fairfax village, and before
that 1t had been one of the roads to
the colonial and revolutionary court
house of Fairfax county, which stood
on Freedom Hill, near Tysons cross
roads courthouse of which no YES
tige remains, and the precise site of
which seems to be forgotten.
The Old Courthouse road has GER
tain things to commend besides its
age though that alone should en-
title ii to respect. Age, whether in
roads or men, should coDmand fine
degree of consideration. Old roads
are useful and SO also may be old
men. IL not always for action, then
for counsel Old roads are beautiful,
and DO also may be old women. This
road in it's youth and middle age
served mankind and it gives to man.
kind today all the service that is
asked of it. 1t is not a decrept
road today bus merely lonely and
neglected one.
Loneliness and neglect are bad for
roads, as they are for men and women
1t 10 NO fault of the road that it is not
a busy one today. Public taste in
roads changes just as it does in eco
nomic theories. education theories, So
cial etiquette, family management and
the proprieties. People are looking
: for the easiest way in roads, as in
other things. Easy roads. easy living,
easy riches, easy work or no work at
all, easy religion, easy schools, easy
profits and quick fame without exer-
ticn and often without merit are the
demands of the times. This particu-
lar old road may muddy a mans boots
(shoes) or his tires, and is therefore
condemned as a bad road. The Ram
bier grows impatient when he hears a
man, who Is no angel and is without
prospects in that direction, jump on
this old road and call it bad. Some
men are SO internally human that they
attach greater Importance to good
ness in roads than goodness in any
thing else.
This old road is not really bad.
Fashions in roads change as they do
in manners. and there are some things
in the history and career of this old
road that may seem shocking to some
Of those folk who go to church on
Sunday and treat the ten command
ments as scrap Of paper during the
remainder of the week. Along this
old road there used to be some of
those ancient devices called inns or
taverns, where men drank decoctions
"a Nioe'iA"tAouo lhdt HdNc HOW UccOIne
lost arts. The Rambler will admit that
some men have carried demijohns along
this road. Hogsheads Of tobacco, anoth-
er Satanic thing, have been hauled
along THIS old road. Many of our an
cestors Travelled this way to and from
horse races. Perhaps ancestors of
some of our proudest and prudest
families travelled over this old road to
go to chicken fights. Men with lot
terry tickets in their pockets-tickets
issued to help build churches, school,
houses and courthouses-have tray
eled this road. Young people going to
and from dances have travelled over
1t in family chariots. carry alls and on
horseback. There are many sinful
chapters in the life of this road but
perhaps there are chapters in the
youth Of many Of us which we would
not care to have reopened.
But, on the other hand, priests and
ministers have used this old road in
hurrying on to give consolation to
dying men and women and to make
less bitter the tears of saddened par
Pnts and children. They have rid
fen over this road to marry men and
maids. Your ancestors have tray-
eled over 1t on their pious way to
church and they have gone to church
through winter storms which uo,1a