Evening star., 1920-07-04
AROUND THE CITY

night. but humor comes and goes.
Wrist watches retired from the COM
ic page the day they were found on
Flanders Field-and you can go to the
movies and not hear a snicker when
the French general near-kisses the
fank on whose breast he has pinned
cross of war. Also. consider how pro-
hibition has taken the punch out of
that spreey old joke entitled Gloves"
Also, again, to be personal, recall
our long ago fellow citizen who gave
himself nickname, or. maybe. it was
wished on him. the day he was indi
Vldualized as the only Washingtonian
who came out of the civil war with
out tltle'-meaning Private Dalzell.
Ihat sobrlQuet stood for a deal of
good-natured chatting in it's day, but
1T Is day that has apotheosized into
mas dedicated me. body and soul. to
humble service among the lowly with
out desire for reward
so says Private DalZell, and you
just can't get fun out of a joke that
is mounting upward to the stars!
But. praise be, there is one sun
oeamy old fun-spark that keeps it's
freshness because of the lovable. mel
aged man who still retains a
Laughing memory of boyish oneness,
IN winch he was addicted to reciting
poem the last line of which comes
chuckling down the years:
The other one was Booth
You know and love him. of course
Everybody does.
THERE is back window that
looks across an alley to an un-
dertaker's yard. 1t is square place
CT asphalt shielded on three sides by
house walls and fenced from the al
ley by tall Stats with a gate in the
middle
The person who had loved the back
window, because of it's intimacy
with a wide branching mulberry tree.
was so Mortified when the undertak-
ers started business that it gave her
shlNerS every time a caSket shell was
laid on the asphalt or a somber wag-
on emptied at the gate some boxed
IN passenger who was to lie in state
in the chapel at the front. but
what says the poet about the thing of
hideous mien that we first endure,
then pity and the rest? By degrees,
as the woman learned of the honest
and dignified efforts of the young
men who were making their venture
in a business that must have much
competition and not many compen-
sations, her antagonism gave way to
such friendly interest that the other
morning woman caller found her at
the back window smiling at hearse
| in the alley-a gray hearse as fresh
as a bride. The comparison was hers.
You couldn't tell it from new,
could you? First it was a black
hearse-I guess they got it second
| hand-then one of the men scraped
| the paint off and coated it with
brown. When that dried he put on
another of gray, and while it was
wet l was SO rafraid the ash man
would come along and shower it with
his emptyings, but it turned out all
right, and now they have just enam-
eled tit certainly is an artistic
| job
Il don't see how you can stand it
| with those plank boxes always to
remind you of death"
| but they are so fresh from the pines
that you can smell the sap and-I
used to live in the pines"
Which shows that Alexander 2.
knew his little book.
X X
livery parade must have it's tag
end. Which locates the man who
fails to keep step with woman's prog
ress:
| Somebody in a group was deploring
| the overcrowding of streets, cars and
movie shows when the man sug-
| gested remedy-which you are re-
| spectfully invited to overhear:
| IF Legislation were to limit the
| number of days in a week or month
| in which women might travel in large
cities and towns, the legal restriction
would free traffic from the army OF
| privileged loafers who CAD the streets
| to cape in shop windows. instead OF
doing their housework and saving
men from servant hire" That's all
! from him, only:
| If the government would set up a
| few notions like that in some public
! place and charge a nickel a throw
there wouldn't be any national debt -
| x X
| CHI was a woman who showed for
~ half century's hard work mind
| ing other peoples affairs And as
|