Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1920-10-24
SCHOLARLY old gentleman


n but whose wealth of humanity
is at the service of any phil
anthrophy that comes along, gave a
! talk the other afternoon to some or
ganiZation and was on his way home
! through Lafayette Park when an in
ward feeling-that wasn't conscience
| made him aware that he was hungry
and had no money to buy little
snack.
Belng philosopher. he made the
best of it. but. also. having serene
faith in the helpfulness of Provi-
dence. and back of that spirit of
adventure, he decided to test the
psychic value of that faith then anG
! there by appealing to the Invisible:
Il am hungry. The Lord Will pro-
vide"
All right He kept on along the
graveled path until turn revealed
i a bench. under which lay an orange.
The old gentleman seated himself on
the bench and enjoyed the orange
which some providentially careless
young war worker must have dropped
and which was quite all right for a
| relish. but not enough for meal. SO
| on he started again, bot in no time his
tinterest was caught by a neat little
]paper bag laid on top of the park gar
/ bage can-such a carefully placed lit
tie bag that he opened it, and-lo,
Two sandwiches, nicely prepared.
| which some other little war worker
must have found to be too much of
good thing
| The feast was a happy vindica ton
for whoever it is who runs the psychic
pantry, and the old gentleman, with a
humorous little quip at the lack of
dessert. walked on and on until he
| came to another park called Frank
| lin. And thereon bench, under
| tree-lay a small white package that
fairly lufed him to take a peep He
accepted the invitation, and-beh hold,
Two slices of lovely homemade cake.
1t may have all just happened or
been ,ordained-you never. can tell
but one thing is sure: II that. orange
and those sandwiches and the cake
were really left around by wasteful
war workers, they are not starving
themselves to buy silk stockings and
georgettes--which is comforta BILE
thing to know-and hang the moral
that ought to go with it.
**
A WOMAN at a vaudeville matinee
picked up quite a fat roll of
money from the floor at her feet.
Instantly a woman seated next
made grab for it:
That's mine. l just dropped it,
The finder gave it up: the claimant
dent. so far as she is concerned
until her Judgment day comes around,
either in this world or the next
In little while an usher brought
up another woman whose voice chat
tered with nervousness:
will you please let me see if /
dropped my money here? This was
my seat
The woman who had found the
money explained, but as there was
was all there was to any of it, except
that it furnished that thing all of us
hate and most of US need-a lesson.
Ii you choose to look. you can find
tons of literature bemoaning the dis
trustfulness of man toward his fell
low man, but outside of books, most
ly pessimistic pamphlets sermons and
things. you notice that we every
day men and women are apt to take
people at their own valuation. The
woman who found the money accept
ed the others honesty. as a matter
of course, when. by right, she should
have turned the money over to the
box office and let the man in it de-
eide ownership
Faith in others is an admirable
quality, but common sense is more
satisfactory and pays better in the
CHE is a splendidly wholesome
- woman on the sunny side Of mid
die age. And she was in car, next
a window. the other day watching with
amused tolerance the nose powderings
of woman whose vanity kit was open
to the general public, when
A man in the aisle seat back ex-
tended over her shoulder caterpillar
on a card. With the gift went a
politely solicitous request that she would
throw it out Of the window. Without
taking the card. the woman turned
around and asked what most of us
would consider a very natural question
why don't you kill it?''
The mans answer was most reproach-
full:
Madam, it has a soul and should be
given a chance to live out its present
life. You don't know but that you. too,
may return to earth in the form of
caterpillar"