Evening star., 1924-08-02
THIS AND THAT
BY C. e. TRACEwELI.

| There were his young barbarian
| all at play,
Ihere was their Dacian mother--heI
| their sire,
Butcherd to make q Roman ho,jd.Y
One cannot help feeling the hoiida
| spirit on street in the afternoon.
IL Is the dominant note.
rerhaps no thoroughfare in the
| world better combines business and
| play than Washington's own r street,
renowned parade ground of the Ma
tional Capital.
While the old man is down At tho
ONCE, grinding out the wherewithal
niother and the girls are walking +
street for all they are worth.
| ct weather cannot stop them
Smow ,h never did, either. Like ducks
.ney use the south side of the street,
except Tor the O'Clock parade.
1t is during the late afternoon that
street comes into its own. Tha n
II shines with beauty and wit CLEANS
with the CLINT of silk, founces with
ooobed heads, dreams with the heart
| of youth.
Make holiday; your rye-straw hats
And these fresh nymphs encounter.
every one"
Here goes the gladsomeness OF an
entire city. ambling along tbs
sSnraisnI Ss ana narrow path between
Ninth and Fourteenth streets. COM
6ining duty and pleasure in a way to
oenght the heart of the philosopher
and the utilitarian
There is Johnny Bellbottom. He is
q: simple shrimp, but you cannot help
Hhlng him. When il comes to play
ing. no young barbarian ever had
anything on him.
He may have an aim in life, but
IT SO. no one has discovered IL yet,
not even his soda consuming pals
or himself
Just think of it-there are young
thought in life is just this-walking
along street, enjoying life" Snorts
an old fossil
mines, these birds prance along +
street In broad-bottomed duck trous-
ers. Out in the West men pant for
breath as they fight the raging
tioIest hres: Johnny Bellbottom drops
INTO an ice cream parlor for
chocolate soda
Is it more unmanly to drink a choc-
olate soda or a. nut sundae?
That is the question being fiercely
debated among the steady frequenters
Of F. street.
Word that all Washington does not
share in the belief that this is the
hlsh point OF existence, this + street
at , pm, has trickled in
The thought worries Johnny Bell
bottom.
Why, II seems to me much more
unmanly TO drink a chocolate soda
than to eat nut sundae," he says,
casting wary eye under his straw
Tor the sargeant. The sargeant has
been making himself unusually OBJ
noxious lately. You can't hang
around in front of the candy store,
without with .,, that harness bull coming
The tin types eat chocolate
sodas: thereby branding the practice
as the ultimate in oldfashioned
teminity. Johnny continues. t"Tin
street for girl with unbobbed hair)
And, besides. whose business is 1t,
anyway, whether a feller eats a
chocolate soda or nut sundae?
That is what I want to know. TIL
take an egg matted milk. with
whipped cream, il want to-"
With this defiance to the world
Johnny moves on, his pants waving
along the sidewalk like the ears of
an unfortunate elephant suddenly
turned turtle. :
**A
Within a year, I make bold to pre-
dict. street is going to see a youth
with bobbed hair.
Oh, no, not just hair cut
1 mean regular bobbed hair, just
like the girls, waved out over the
ears, and everything.
If this seems like a shocking state
of affairs, think back over the his
tory of mankind. Recall colonial
days, when men covered their natural
hair with great powdered wigs.
No one can say that Gen. George
Washington did not look all right in
his wig and three-cornered hat
When it came TO snappy dressing, the
fathers of this country really had it
on the men of this, day and genera
ton.
Alexander Hamilton. first Secretary
of the Treasury. could have given the
boys of today a few points on how
to do il, with his silk stockings and
bright buckled shoes.
Those old boys never walked F.
street. There was no F. street But
with their lace cuffs they made brave
figures.
Recently women and girls have
their bobbed hair. A year from now.
as count on F street will prove to
any one, there will be few tin types
left.
Then it will be the turn of the men.
They will let their hair grow a bit,
and then
Despite the light-hearted gayety of
F street, in the late afternoon when
theaters and government departments
send forth their thousands under the
slanting rays Of the sun, there is an
essentially fine side to this street
One only pokes fun at it because
he loves it. Behind this forth and
filter there is something to make one
proud of Washington and the nation.
What can that be except manhood
and womanhood?
The superficial side is the side we
have pictured, because it is the
brightest and the most entertaining
These boys and girls who walk
here because there is peace and
plenty in the land. On this street,
as in every other walk of life, the
difficulties of dealing in generalities
are obvious.
No one can look at crowd and do
more than paint general picture.
Let Mary Robbed-Hair go home; you
before she got "shingle bob"
Take a close look at Johnny Bell
bottoms coat, and you will see there
the button of the American Legion.
Island in Sea of Azov
D. EaI