Evening star., 1923-08-19
Heard and Seen

"asnln gtOnlan.
They say that a real Washing
tonian has never been up in the
Washington Monument or through
the Corcoran Gallery Of Art, and thai
he doesn't know half as much about
his city as a visitor does after thu
latter has been on one sight seeing
tour.
If the above is true-I do not alto
gether believe it, but ii has some
truth in it, acknowledgements truly
is thoroughly Washingtonized at last.
One day last week / visited the
weather bureau for the first time
Thousands of times during the past
ten years has the writer called UP the
weather bureau by telephone. II may
be said in passing that never once
has anything bur the utmost cour
tesy and good viii been experienced
from these calls.
< =
But having occasion to visit the
bureau personally that rainy day last
week, I took the Georgetown car over
to Gath street and walked up 10 NJ.
1t was an interesting thing to do, TO
visit for the first time a place you
had been talking to over the telephone
for ten years.
II was much like sight seeing a
strange city, with most of the
strangeness left out. however. But
the charm of novelty was very pres
ent. Not every day is IL given to one
to walk in the door of a place one has
been writing about for decade, Yet
never seen.
l,.a
never seen the United States weather
bureau. how about yourself? Hon
est, have you ever seen it? Yet
STORY" from the weather bureau ap-
pears in the left or right upper cor
ner on the first page of nearly every
day.
Its reports are eagerly awaited by
men and women throughout the coun-
try. On land and sea its latest words
are quoted. If il makes a mistake
the papers are blamed for it. IL il
is right in it's prediction-as it most
usually is-nobody ever says a word
of praise.
x :;
Up in the interesting Office where
Prof. Marvin, the chief, sits at his
daily task. one may look out over the
green yards and note the unusual for
nation of this group of buildings,
with the outer offices surrounding the
main building. There is big gate
way beneath the outer buildings. En-
tering there reminds one of how
knight must have felt in the old days
as he went across the drawbridge.
But no knight was ever accoutered
as / as I stepped into the main oulld-
ing overshoes. umbrella. What a
Knight
1t was, however, courtly greeting
which ] received from Prof. Marvin
and later from Mai Bowie, one or the
local forecasters. These and other
gentlemen at the bureau will show 4
stranger how he ought to be trcateo
in a government office.
1t is a noteworthy thing that al
most invariably one receives kindly
and courteous treatment from offi-
cials working in the great govern
ment offices that have to do with ma
ture, her soils. air and water. TINS
is not to be construed as a reflection
upon any other department of the gov
ment. but merely as an interesting
sidelight on the humanizing effect OF
certain vocations and pursuits.
Talk to your farmer in the field. AND
unless age ana ndTu lliiith nave
him Grabbed. he will treat you like
fellow human being. Stop and talk to
some upstart in thousand dollar,
white-coIlar job. and more likely than
not he will be inclined to resent your,
intrusion upon the majesty of his
thoughts
At the weather bureau they work
with the deep, mysterious forces Of
nature. They take their telegraphic
and other reports from all parts of
the country and world, and, using the
latest developed instruments of sci
ence. work out the weather lore of
the day.
II nature. in strange mood,
changes the wind currents suddenly.
bringing down a blizzard when the
bureau predicted fair" it is not the
bureaus fault.
The weather bureau is one of the
best of the government bureaus. III
is doing, as il has done for fifty-three
years, a great and important work.
It's possibilities for added usefulness
are large Beautifully located, the bu :
reau is going about its work daily in
the interest of all of us. Every
washington should visit it-and
not walt ten years, either! -. -
CHARLES e. TRACEWELlA