Evening star., 1923-03-11
Heard and Seen


like Bonnie Prince Charlie, he Will
cen come back again.
Until he does. Washington will
continue to regale itself with anec-
dotes about this inimitable character.
typical of the great middle west from
which he sprang.
Postal officials tell the following
story of Joseph G. Cannon, one time
speaker of the House OF Representa-
tives, all timo real American. Maybe
it has been told before. II makes no
difference.
At ore time in his career in the
hard time with the people who
wanted to be postmaster of this, that
or the other village in his district
Then there were the folk who
kicked about this. that or the other
thing in connection with the delivery
of their mail. Sometimes it was slow
delivery of letters, or u letter lost, or
what not.
No matter what it was. they always
went to Uncle joe with their prob
lens. The latter, of course, had TO
take the matter up with the Post
Office Department to appease all con-
cerned.
Pretty soon the Post Office Depart
ment began to be flooded with letters
from Representative Cannon. high
official took it up with him.
You are writing us AN awful lot
Of letters. Uncle joe he said. '1t
takes n lot Of your time and q lot of
ours. Now isn't there something you
can do about it?"
Uncle Joe' scratched his head.
st don't see as there is,' he replied,
slowly. II have to take it up with
you in order to send copy of the
letter and show them that L am on
tho job
He smiled.
but I will tell you what I'll do.
When you get letter from me, from
now on, signed 'G. F. Cannon why
just throw II into the waste paper
basket. You'll know that 1 just
wrote it to be writing, so don't pay
any attention to it.
But If YOU receive Il letter signed
Joseph G. Cannon" you will know
I mean that letter. 50 give 1t your
best attention"
And they worked it out on that
basis.
AT least 90 per cent OF the people
riding on street cars seem to be suf-
fering with some form of cold or
cough these days. One is inclined
to place it at so or 80 per cent. but
perhaps that would be excessive.
Certainly an unusually large num-
Der of people display signs of colds.
And. many Of them seem to think
nothing at all of coughing into some
one else's face.
With the street cars packed with
humanity as they are, every morn
ing and evening, every one should
make a practice or sneezinE or cough
ing into 4 handkerchief, or. at the
worst, downward.
But do they do it?
They do not!
Out Of ten persons who sneezed on
one car one morning last week, only
one ker-chood into his handkerchief
The others sneezed boldly forth over
their neighbors, one woman turning
her head and sneeZfng directly into
the face of man sitting next, her.
If most colds are caused by germs
as there seems every evidence they
are. it is no wonder Washington Is
suffering from a sort of epidemic OF
colds, grip and influenza.
The cult of the optimistic must be
rather puzzling to the children.
Their young ears take in an as
tonishingly large amount Of this sort
Of thing. Parents who think that lit
tie Johnny or Mary do not hear what
they say are very much mistaken
! in many instances. A child playing
on the floor with his toys is the
original eavesdropper, although IL is
done entirely unconsciously on his
i part.
A lady called upon little sick
girl.
How are you?" the visitor asked
sympathetically.
"Oh, I'm all right" briskly smiled
the child. I'm Just. sick, that's ALL
CHARLES e. TRACEWELL.