Evening star., 1924-10-24
THIS AND THAT
by c. E. TRACEWELL

OFF the trail in Washington there
are many interesting things to be
seen which the sightseer never
glimpses because the Capitol, the
Washington Monument, the Treasury
and the rest of the sights" over
shadow them.
If your gaze is concentrated on the
majestic dome of the Capitol. how
can you notice the ivy green trailing
over the wall of an ancient house?
IF the grandeur of the Monumen,
focuses your entire attention, how
will it be possible for you to notice
dog and cat eating out of the same
plate?
If you are enthralled with the
millions of dollars in the Treasury
valuts, where will you find time to
enter into the fairyland of a tiny
Washington back yard garden I can
show you?
These are off -the-trail sights, hard
" to be known to the earnest visitor
who is bent on crowding as much as
possible of our lovely city into his
mind and heart before his stop-oyer
privilege is up.
These pleasant sights are intimate,
home things for us who live here to
enjoy. They are in none of the guide
books, and even Mr.. Foster would
have 70 admit himself nonplussed for
once, II you ask him about them.
Imagine going to Mr.. Foster and
asking him; Can you tell me where
there is little house that sits under
a big hill, where the setting sun
CLEANS red through the tall trees?"
Oh. dainty plant is the ivy green,
That creepeth DER ruins old
So sang that versatile man, Charles
Dickens. in his immortal "Pickwick
Papers,"
Some of the ivy of old England
creeps today over walls here and
there throughout the National Capt.
tai, reminding many of the blood ties
that bind the United States to Great
Britain.
This man reading his morning
paper on this street car is not SO
much interested in the news as his
fellow passengers might think. He
appears to be reading, no doubt about
that, but actually he is drinking in
the beauty of the ivy on that old
house on the corner.
What a wonderful thing that no
one can probe our thoughts,
What a naked sort of world we
would live in, to be sure, If our
of dinner plate. Thank heaven for
the inviolate sanCtity of our own
brains!
AS affairs are. we may mentally be
planning our days work at the same
time we are giving seeming attention
to a joke being told by friend. He
is regaling us with a choice Ameri-
canism he read somewhere recently
Who wrote The Hunchback of
Neutrodyne'?" he asks u.s. solemnly
and we, as solemnly-for just then
we are planning the exact tone of
voice we will use in dealing with a
forgotten the author, but l have read
it,"
Yes. it is good for the world that
our minds are veiled with more than
the seven legendary wells worn by
the Queen of Sheba, or Salome. or
Natoma, or some of the rest of those
dancing ladies.
Our street car rider may seem very
staid and business like. as he sits
there solemnly eying the ivy, but he
| is thinking of the romance and his
tory connected with the vine, and
through his thoughts run visions OF
| Iyanhoe, and knights at jousts, and
fair ladies with long yellow braids
adown their backs, in a manner all
| these pictures reel through his miIid
| far excelling any motion picture film
| the world has ever known or ever
! will know.
From Scotts famous novel his mind