Evening star., 1924-12-12
THIS AND THAT
BY CHARLES E. TRACEWELL.

4 the morse, the sound of hoofs again.
| Look out of the window and survey
the scene. The milkman has light
in his wagon. Perhaps he wears a
sweater. Usually he is a tall, "raw-
boned' man, physically fit to stand
the wear and tear of q hard job.
! He clatters by your house at /
O'Clock. One night you see he has
a small boy with him, who is help
| Ing. AT s o'clock that morning, just
| as you are getting onto your street
car, you see a milk wagon come by.
In 1t are tall man and a little boy.
Milkmen seldom make mistakes in
| leaving their wares. Despite the
fact that all row housese look alike
and bottles of milk must seem as
peas in pod in the dark, the milk
| man Will leave you quart and q
| pint one morning and, If you have
changed your order. the correct
| amount of quarts the next morning
If the milk is not on the doorstep,
| IT Is never the milkman's fault. bnt
always that of some pilferer. All of
| man.
| Here is another thing-while the
postmen on Christmas morning greets
| his patrons personally and receives
| fat Christmas presents all down the
street, the milkman never sees any
| body, and So
Well, who Is going TO remember
the milkman this Christmas?
X X
| The hurrying lamplighter has a Job
that never appealed to me. With his
| lantern under his arm, he hustles
| from street light to street light, up
alleys, around corners, to light the
| = '"mpS that do duty throughout
the city
pay. as for all part-time work,
is comparatively small. A lamp
| lighter must walk around the world
| several times during a year right
! here in Washington. If your doctor
| ever tells you to take up some out
door occupati tion, apply to the District
Building for u lamplighter's job.
You can get four or five miles
walking each evening, to say moth
ing of q similar amount about 6
O'Clock in the morning. For lights
that must be turned on, of course,
have to be turned off. too.
The ashmen. garbage collectors,
trash men and street cleaners hold
humble but highly important positions
| In the civic structure. Upon their
persistent, perspiring efforts depend
the sanitary condition of the very
| groundwork of the metropolis.
| Inc charWomen, too who clean the
| great departmental structures and
| office buildings come in for share
or praise, at the same time we admit
we would not trade jobs with them.
And the motorman, the conductors
and the men who work in the plow
| pits, especially those who do their
duty from midnight on-how could Il
| big city like Washington get along
| without them?
The big man in the plow pit, down
there with the liye wires makes an
| especial appeal to the imagination of
small boys and of their elders who
have not lost their faculty of percep-
ton. He slides down with the great
| est unconcern, clangs his bell, Jerks
the trolley pole rope, comes out
| again. totally unmoved, turns the
switch, goes back into his little house
on the corner to wait for the next
! car
AS for the banana peddlers-aIso
| the celery vendors on the corners
| the street piano men, and the steeple-
| jacks, l would not be Il one of them
| for the following reasons:
/ could not stand the ladies who
would keep on asking me if I was
| 3ure my produce was strictly fresh ::
| street piano is too darn heavy. and
l surely would fall off a steeple.