Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1922-04-02

piOn chicken raiser VI AohSo'' - 60
helps US to know what great ana
wonderful country we live in. But
I've Just got wise to the fact that
when they picture Florida as the win
ter playground of the Hon. Whosit,
the we'll known Mrs. Berkeley Jima-
maree and the celebrated Hilliard
Van Allstine-weil, that isn't the half
OF it.
For here we are. Inez, Uncle Nels.
Barry Plat and me. in a winter re-
sort where plutes in rolling chairs
are as scarce as snow shovels: where
the rich and great don't loll around
under beach umbrellas to be snap
shotted in groups; and where every
body Is as good as any one else. or
little better. AS Barry puts it. there
are more home folks to the square
foot than in any other place he was
ever in. and they all seem to be hav-
ing a whale of time. Their names
may be quite unknown to the society
columns Of the city dailies. and their
costumes or faces may never be pic
tured in the rotogravure supplements,
but that doesn't worry them a bit.
X \ y +
I'd like to see a society correspond
l. emit scratching around here for
the usual Palm Beach items. You
know: 1.-THE cottage colony has been
unusually gay this last week. Numer-
Gus dinner parties have been given at
the Beach Club and the Casino. Mrs.
T. Thurston Mckay entertained at her
magnificent home, Poinsettia Park,
with a bal poudre Wednesday night.
in honor Of the Countess Kazam. On
Friday afternoon the Burton Beales
gave a surf luncheon, attended by all
the prominent members OF the alimony
set" And so on.
Suppose he had to get his material
here? Then his breezy items would
run something like this:
The Wolverine Chowder and
Fishing Club held their annual ex-
cursion yesterday. sailing out to the
grouper banks. Glen. Wilsey. the
popular garage owner from Eau
Claire. won the pool for high line.
having twenty-eight grouper. three
snappers and a blow fish to his credit.
Mrs. Joe Hirshey Of Fondulac got second
money. A good time was had by all.
Leading favorites for the rogue
championship, now being played off
at the park, are Sam Billings Of Green
Creek. Ind. and Mrs. Sadie Mcqueen
OF Upper City. Iowa.
Mr.. and Mrs. Martin Bump, promi-
nent members of the Michigan bunch.
were pleasantly surprised Wednesday
evening when about forty of their
friends dropped in on them at their
charming bungalow. the Seldom Inn,
and presented them with a beautiful
gilt decorated lemonade set, the occa-
sion being the thirty-fifth wedding
anniversary of the Bumps. The guests
also brought plenty of sandwiches
and layer cake. and after a merry
evening of games and song dispersed
at a late hour
Say. 1 expect items like that would
get a laugh from tenants in walk-up
apartments in West 135th street and
in Oak Park. Ill, and Shackamaxon.
Pa. and Roxbury. Mass But the
same people would simply eat up the
news that Mrs. Bromley Kent of New
York and Tuxedo was giving a
luncheon bridge next Monday at her
Curlew cottage. Ormonde. Fla. And
yet I'll back the Wolverine Chowder
Club or the Bump gathering to have
more fun per minute, even IL haven't
been in on the luncheon bridge. Any
way. the Bump surprise party took
place next door to our hotel and Inez
and watched the gay doings from
our bedroom window until nearly IL
o'clock, when the affair broke up.
y + X \
"A Lso I've been sizing up these mid
- die westerners and seeing how
they pass the time down here so far
from home. Nine-tenths of 'em are
middle-aged or more. Probably a fair
average would be sixty years. Some
are farmers-dairy. hog and grain:
others are small town storekeepers:
with sprinkling of folks from such
places as Grand Rapids, Kalamazoo,
South Bend and Council Bluffs.
They've all been hard workers.
You can tell that by their round
ed shoulders, calloused palms and
scanned faces. Most Of them have
something or other the matter with
them-rheumatism, asthma. partial
paralysis and what not. They've been
used to rolling off the mattress at
$50 or earlier to feed the stock, milk
the cows. open the store, or blow the
whistle at the broom factory. They've
put in years and years without a va
cation and with mighty little play.
But now they've saved up enough
for two or three months loaf and
a trip to Florida. Some of 'em came
all the way down in tourist coaches,
with a shoe box full Of fried chicken.
A lot more drove down in flivvers.
camping out as they came. Once here
they hunted around for cheap fur
nished rooms, or little apartments
where they could do light housekeep-
ing. And then they've gone to it.
Play! Say, those old boys with funny
whiskers and the old girls with store
teeth and bulgy figures don't do a
thing but frolic. 1t may be new to
'em, but they pick it up quickly. The
men get together on the rogue courts.
the horseshoe field and the fishing
pier They shuck their coats, hitch up
their suspenders and roll up their
sleeves. The ones who are too lame
or too much crippled for such active
sport hobble out to the chess and
checker tables and challenge each
other to a state championship match,
camping on the benches for hours.
while the sunshine filters In through
the live oak and palm branches and
bakes out half their aches.
And you should see the old ladies.
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