Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1924-10-19

with the adept W l.
ness that chair = TX ~
men seem born 5 SID
with. that mind
full of the good
work done by the
Maiden AunterS in the war both as
80 sweaters and money, and of their
later service along welfare lines, 1t
was now the sense of the club that 1t
should take action in regard to the
candidates involved in the present
campaign. Therefore, she would call
the roll: responses to be individual
views of the presidential situation
not over % words:
Miss Emeline, the antediluvianist
member, owned to having no views
whatever. Why should she. seeing
that her men folks were dead and
she had no one left to give her vote
10. and it didn't seem just right to
sell it. especially as she had no
Miss jimmie May-who frankly re-
erets that the movies didn't come
while she was the toast of Wlnches-
ter, so that she could have made
fortune in the films and paid all dear
Pop-paw's debts of honor-stated
that she hadn't settled to a convic-
ton yet whether she was a RepubI1-
can or Democrat or what. IT all
depended on the paper she was read
Ing Women were making the world
better, of course, but for her part
she had nicer time when she was
young and the gentlemen so devoted,
while now-well, she usually had to
stand in the cars.
.t.Madam President"-the Interrupt
ton came from Miss Mary c.. who
ran the blockade while the Yankee
Gunboats fired on her, and has been
unreconStructed ever siRce-"1 don
approve of any of the candidates, and
hope none of them get elected. 1t Is
my opinion that this country gets
along in spite of candidates"
There was lot more to it-incluo-
ing refreshments-but this is enough
TO show that, politically, the Maiden
Aunters-au of them dear, sweet
ancients, streaked with the best blood
of the District and the old South
are, politically considered, truly
daughters OF that military officer we
are reading so much about in the
present campaign:
General Apathy.
HERE is another yarn that began
IL its weaving when all the town
was young:
An old man came avisiting last
week, bringing with him a grandson
who expects to be elected to Congress
pretty soon. They travelled in draw
ing room section and registered at a
hotel that calls itself the best in
town. And the first sight the old
man started to show the young one
was the little frame house of his
earliest remembrance, and the pump
at the corner, for which he had
1hirSted ever since. What they found
was a nne-story office building, COW
ering both house and pump.
They saw everything else. of course,
but after they had exhausted adjec-
,iveS in praise of Greater Washing
ootn, and were back in the hotel
lobby, there came to the old man
reminiscent sadness that belongs with
WEAKNESS and twilight
ut is all splendid to look at, but it
isn't MY old home town. Even the
Capitol has had the hill cut from
under and shored up with marble
10 make it look tall, and the Monu-
Tnent is finished to the top. When 1
left, the scaffolding was still up. And
the asphalt streets have forgotten the
days when they were sometimes yell
low seas of mud. / especially recall
the mud, because I went into the
business of cross-sweeping when I
was a shaver of 9-when we lived in
tho. little house and mother fed and
clothed us with her needle-father
killed at Bull Run.
Il started out with a nubbin of Il
broom l found on an ash pile, and
thrashed another boy for the right
to sweep the crossing next to where
the Raleigh now stands-named
Kirkwood, then. Sometimes, after A
rain, when / would be up to my
thighs in mud and working like a
'umley bug to make the crossing
fordable, / used to get 40 mad at the
same people passing me, going and
coming, without ever giving me a
cent, that more than once l SplaShed
them in the backs-and l remember
The boastful pride with which
named myself, Joe, the Demon
Sweep"-poor little whited- headed
Skeezix!
Yes. sir, I have gained my little
honors in my day and made quite a
passle of money. but. in all these
many years, nothing ever SO satisfied
me as the times when mother would
laugh and cry and hug men when
brought home a fistful of coppers, and
once in awhile a shin plaster.
1T was gay life, for me, that
crossing, because OF the excitement
always going on-and such odd folks
AS we never see in these conventional
dayS-One old man, dressed like Ben
Franklin, who peddled pamphlets and
gave me one for pay-Johnny Barker,
who sold his head to three doctors
and outlived all-and old Beau Hick-
man, who galloped down the Avenue
one inauguration day with the crowds
on both sides of the street yelling
and whooping at him. Little as I was,
resented the ridicule because,
though he begged money from rich
men in hotel Hobbies, he was gener-
Gus with his change to us sweepics.
Yes, Washington is big. fine. white
metropolis. but, shucks, it isn't a
patch on the old home town.
And SO on, until grandson laid an
arm on the old mans shoulder and
took him out of the incident.
x
HER knowledge dubbed over like
IL a kettle on the boil. He accepted
her oracles. as BELTS honeymooning
groom Like that other visiting
couple whose name is legion, they
were literally fioored by the Signs of
the Zodiac bedded in the tiles of the
Library of Congress, even the bride
being unable to account for Pisces,
Taurus, ct al, until she came to the
two human figures in the circle of
symbols.
why, of course, dear. It's map of
the Garden of Eden. See? here's
Adam and Eve"
The man eyed the brass-inlaid mini
atures of "Gemini, the Twins and
was convinced.
Certainly. Why not? Aren't Adam
and Eve as good as the Gemini folks
any day in the year? And where are