Evening star., 1924-09-04
THIS AND THAT
By @. K. TRACEWELL.

l
Verance to shame a colony OF ants,
| on Our Street.
Twenty-Five men, toiling with a
single thought, almost with a single
motion. were showing the animal and
| insect Kingdoms that Homo Sapiens
! even though he be black, takes his
hat off to no creature when it comes
! to work.
| They were demonstrating it, too. to
| scores of residents of Our Street,
their children, dogs and cats. and to
| strangers who had come from near
and far to watch the process Of
putting down a concrete street.
Beneath the pretty trees that line
the curbing, trees that cast their
| gracious shade upon the green lawns
and picturesque houses, the paving
gang went about their work. in or
! der to finish the block before quitting
| time.
And over all rumbled the roar of
| the concrete mixer, a huge machine
that kept it's hopper steadily grind
ing out concrete to pour at the feet
| of the advancing men, while great
trucks with shuttered bodies doled
| out I'm front nice mixtures Of sand,
gravel and cement.
| X X X I:
No more interesting spectacle is TO
be witnessed in Washington these
Summer days. with the possible ex-
ception of a bootleg chase or run
| of fire engines.
The street paving job has about it
| something of permanence, something
of construction, which happenings of
! mere prevention, however exciting,
! do not possess. 1t is much better
| for man, woman, or especially
! a child. to get an honest thrill
| watching men doing constructive
work than to thrill with the excite
ment of the Smoke screen
A modern street paving gang, with
their ceaseless activity, and move
ments as If timed, furnishes really
a thrilling, intensely interesting
sight, one to inspire the lazy and
| hearten the pessimist. For here there
! is something worthwhile being done
| in worthwhile way, by just plain,
common men, men laborine for
wages" and earning every cent of
| 1T, 1t seems to me.
The cement mixer roars, the trucks
Ldrive up and drive away, the engineer
I sends out the great arm-load of mix
ture and dumps 1t, another man toots
| the whistle, one man folds up the
empty sacks from which the cement
has been dumped, other men shovel
| the roadbed smooth, others spread
out the concrete, still others smooth
1t off. standing on a bridge that spans
| the street from curb to curb. others
smooth 1t off with boards on short
and long handles, more workers roll
| II, still more drag it with a great
sweep Of hose.
Our Street is growing, before our
very eyes, into a thoroughfare, as If
the Little Boy Street of yesterday
suddenly had come to life and was
| stepping out into the world, q Man
| Street grown, to join hands with the
| paved streets at either end.
Over all, and above all, is the con-
stant noise made by the mixer, domi-
! mating the whole scene. its hopper
| revolving without stop as the mix
ture Is fed into it from the far end.
Smoke pours out of the chimney,
| while the din is broken intermmit-
| tently by the sound Of the whistle,
4 signaling the great trucks as they
back UP with their loads of provender
for this Unsuitable monster whose
nav is never full. Like Molech, the
mixer is not satisfied. Not until the
block is finished will the machine
| become satiated.
| laundering trucks, divided of into
compartments by means of iron shut
terlike arrangements, are backed up
by busy young men in khaki, who
| allow the sand and gravel to run
down into the mixers scoop, accord
ing to prearranged schedule
| TO the average person that is the
| great charm, and point Of commenda-
| tion of this whole business. Prepa-
| ration is evident everywhere. Every
man knows what he is to do, and just
how to do it, and he does it. There
is boss but he does not seem
to be particularly busy. There is an
inspector" but 1 never saw him in
spect anything or anybody. Undoubt-
edly he functions, but not during the
hour l played inspector. The in
spector looked very important. how
! ever, and that, after all, is an in
| spectors chief duty.
| x * \
! The men worked on section of
street about IL feet long, marked Off
| with boards laid down on edge across
the already spadedcut roadway.
| Careful digging and surveying made
the mixture take a curve across the
| street, as all Washington roadbeds do.
Wearing high boots, the workers
| with shovels spread out the gray
| substance. which appeared somewhat
dry as 1t came from the machine.
! There was plenty of water in it, how
| ever, s watchers soon saw.
Carefully the men. with scarcely
a word to each other, smoothed the
| pile across the section, now and then
meticulously throwing bit more
! concrete back onto a portion that
seemed all right. They knew their
business. However good the work
| seemed at that point, bit more was
! needed there.
| Two men operated the leveler, a
| board with handles. worked backward
and forward. One man stood on the
| narrow bridge across the portion Of
street just laid, the other out where
the mixer was located. Together they
| see sawed the board to and fro
1t was marvellous to watch the
transformation of the mixture. Under
| their ministrations it changed from
a rough. seemingly dry and somewhat
rough dough to smooth, glistening,
wet and olive-colored substance.
| Bad grade, boy, bad grade" said
! one worker to another. Those were
the only words 1 heard uttered. The
| bad grade soon was made a good
grade, it is needless to say.
| Smoothing the street was an e1ab-
| crate process. Men with small boards
on small handles worked by the curb,
and then took boards on the ends OF
tremendously long poles to finish this
| part of the job.
But they had just begun. A roller.
with long ropes, was pulled by two
men from curb to curb, first across
one way By one man. then back to the
other side by the other. AS it rolled
into the curbing water welled out.
| Now for the finishing touch! A
| rubber hose, with short poles stuck
| into either end as handles. was drag
! ged carefully over the portion just
| completed It snloothed out small