Evening star., 1923-01-07

along Connecticut avenue Suii-
day afternoon. The elder-not
20 young, doubtless, as her birthday,
Dut stiu with a good share of earth
Sarthy attraction on parade-suddenly
bolted from her companion and rushed
to business door that opened proVi-
nentially on flight Of steps The
,pther, stunned into paralyzed astonish-
ment, waited a second and then followed
after. A third woman, who CHANGED to
be behind, also paused to offer help in
case of need.
The friend wanted to know what was
the matter. The hiding woman waited
to assure herself that the couple that
had been approaching had passed on
without seeing her, and then tried to
laugh the incident off: AS It she couldn't
trust her friend with details.
"Nothing. I just saw-sosnebody-
4 didn't want to meet-that's all
come on"
But who was It? Tell me. Go on,
Lena, tell me! I don't see why you
had to run off like that. If 1t was me.
would have walked right on and paid
no attention. Was It the man or the
woman? It's mighty funny you couldn't
tell me a little thing like that"
Lena wouldn't say a word. but the
shock that had turned her face to cay
under its pinky powder fairly shouted
confession that she had seen an unlald
What of a little thing like that?
Nothing. Absolutely nothing-eXcept
that it offers a seed Of proof that every
last man and woman of us carries UNI
der our conventional armor the max
ings of a movie Show-a big drama OF
the class the producer calls super"
And the reason the screen loses out is
because; like Lena, we Keep to our
selves the unlaid ghosts of our past.
= x Z ::
IXIAsHINGToN people are shiftless.
w 1t seems a shame to spread the
news, but lady whose name might
be Thrift week came here the other
DAY and sized US up. And wrote us
down. And maybe-maybe-wel be
published. And illustrated. She ad-
1nitted admiration for the Lincoln
Memorial, but considered that a lot of
good money had been wasted on the
pool, with the river so near to look
at. Her hostess. who was spending
office time and money in sightseeing
her around on bus, explained about
the reflection.
what do you want with a reHec-
ton when you have the real thing?
You people squander too much
money in extravaganza. / can tell by
the fruit carts and flower peddlerS
averywhere-and l notice your hus-
band buys two papers, when one
would be a plenty-and will you look
at those Christmas trees on that ash
cart!-Sarah, do you see those trees
on that ash cart?"
Sarah owned up that she did. She
blessed the interruption: nothing like
Christmas tree to soften even a
Thrift week mood:
Sort of lonesome. aren't they
when such little time ago each was
wonder tree freighted with the
glamour that only childhood may
Absolutely throwing them away.
instead of drying the cedar to grind
into sofa cushions-and splitting the
tree for firewood, as we do to
& home. If that's the way you people
throw away your property. all 1 can
say Is you waste enough good fire
wood to keep the freezing Armenians
warm
She didn't impress Sarah as being
the sort of Thrift week lady who
would burden herself with freezing
Armenlans, but she listened all the
same while her visitor reeled off the
good points of cedar sofa cushions,
Ana as the ash cart numbered into the
nsyond. Sarah got to thinking of the
some child with. It's Aladdin Jewels.
and, vanishing, fsft behind a curious
something to. be woven into web
called memory"
Whoever those ashes belonged TO
dldnt slft the cinders. It's sinful the
way you people throw away good Gin
ders' as scarce as coal is"
called memory, which each little
girl will look back on some day when
she thinks of that other curious some
thing which she will come to know as
her past"
Sarah, I wish you wouldn't let your
thoughts go Woolgathering while /
am talking to you. l said you Wash
jngton people ought to be ashamed OF
yourselves for throwing away good
clnders-I never. saw such shiftless-
nessI
So now you know.
X X * X
\ BIRD is a cheerful thing at any
a time of the year. And especially
cardinal, with it's red pIumage MAX
ing a burst of color on the bare limb
of a bone-gray tree-like one that ap-
peared the other morning.
And the way that bird whistled-
well. OF course. you couldn't hear him,
sealed up in a street car, but the
whistle was there, all right. because
You could see his bright feathers ruff
up under his throat, and tell by the
way he sWayed his body like a flower
in breeze.
He was such cheerful bird that
as the car curved around the Capitol
grounds, every passenger in it seemed
TO watch him-and on the composite
race OF those men and women was a
smile as If spring was on the way.
Even the lackadaisical lions that
live on the Grant monument seemed
10 perk up bit-but, no., that is
story. And when you get to telling
stories 1t is time to stop But, any-
how, the cardinal was there, And a
bird is cheerful thing.
X x X x
n WOMAN who had plodded her rut
! for the whole round of months
and days skipped off New Year eve
on jack-o'-lantern journey to where
a wise man sits on a throne with a
scepter In his hand. Naturally, pro-
sale folks who don't know sentiment
from beans might call it an~invalid
chair and cane, but who wants to
he prosaic on the very last night of
the very last month OF year. when
you have chance to sit at the feet
OF wisdom SO deep that it knows
where the new years come from and
where the old years go when they
An earlier disciple who had come.
bearing tribute-cigars-wa asking
how to attain ambition. He was q
hustler, so far as getting to work on
time and doing it the best he knew
how, but he lacked what you call an
urge" Seemed as If every fellow
ought to have ambition.
And Wisdom said unto him:
Every fellow has. Ambition be-
gins with the infant who cries for
what IT wants, The how ljnIS the