Evening star., 1925-01-16
THIS AND THAT
BY CHARLES E. TRACEWELL.

Is Washington an unfriendly city?
Recently in this column 1 wrote on
the abstract subject of friendliness,
citing q few specific cases Of un-
friendly actions to bring home the
point.
H. A. writes: Congratulations on
your editorial of January 2. In dwell
ing on the subject of friendliness in
and around this place you certainly
put the ball over the plate !, there
fore. remove my hat to you!
Having been born and reared In a
Southe9n city 1t is hard for me to be-
come accustomed to the way they do
here. 1t is probably more noticeable
to me than to many others. And 1t is
probably more noticeable to everyday
visitors in the National Capital than
to myself, Because the outside
world, brother, Is not at all like this!
Down South people are not afraid
Of each other. They know how to
You feel more at ease! People greet
you In a friendly way. Good MORN
ing" They are not afraid of you, even
though you are a stranger.
Furthermore, yru do not have to
ask them to repeat WHIST they have
said. They talk more distinctly and
more plainly. There are a lot of p>s-
pie in Washington who do not even
know how to talk. No wonder 1t
pains them to be friendly and cour-
teous to others.
strangers very often ask me the
whereabouts of certain of the Gov
ernment offices. A glance shows that
they are Ill at ease. Perhaps they
think l am a native of this city. May
be they think / will snarl or snap
back like a mad dog. Not so in my
case. / am only glad to be of service.
You may go into a store and pur-
chase a bill of goods. Does the clerk
ask you to call again? Does he even
thank you for the business? Nine
times out Of ten he does not.
Recently l worked on a concrete
road job. The road was closed by
the Maryland Road Commission. Yet
people would dash right through,
ignoring the fiagman and detour sign.
Some even swore there was no nag
man at the end of the line. Nor de-
tour sign, either! One man dashed
around a curve at a 3e-mile clip and
collided with a truck stopped on the
roadside
Seeing the danger many of them
were getting into, at first tried to
flag them down and warn them. But
l soon found 1t a waste of time and
see anything. Pretty soon they would
find the road blocked with a concrete
mixer. Driving up. they 'honked' a
number of times, and. after inding
nobody gave a whoop how much they
honked. they reluctantly turned and
went back. That's how ignorant a lot
of them are.
X X
"On another job a big bridge was
being built" continues H. A. There
was a flagman stationed at each end
of the line to give Information to mo-
torists. While the bridge was under
construction many cars were sent
around via detour.
-Four cars, however, paid no atten-
tion to anything-no amount of per-
went headiong and plunged through
the bridge before they could be
brought to a stop. All four of these
cars were driven by women.
LAS 1t happened, a place had been
fixed under the bridge so as to keep
the cars from going to the bottom
1t just goes to show how careless
and igrorant they are. That's all,
Recently an old gentleman pas
senger on street car wished to pur-
chase few Maryland fares. He was
a stranger. and naturally wished to
know II the tickets could be used any
pose the conductor gave him credit
for being a stranger and smilingly
replied. Yes, sir, they are good any
timer He did not. Yes. indeed, !,
In as harsh a tone as possible. And
with q frown as If II was a terrible
pain TO even have to say that
Another case was on a crowded