Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1925-05-07
THIS AND THAT
BY CHARLES E. TRACEWELL.

There is something about this city
that has never been put into print.
II is- an intangible something that
needs the feeb for words Of an H. L.
Mencken, IL one may phrase it that
way.
These paragraphs today, then, are
only an approximation. Some day l.
am going to get Y, and then you will
say, reading, Yes, this Is Washing.
ton For the nonce, however, we,
must be content with the best we
can do.
/ Yet there is one thing about the Ma.
tional Capital we can say at once, and
that is simply that it is beautiful
in the Springtime. Not a new obser-
walton, truly, yet one that comes fresh
to each one of US once a year.
1t comes when rains green up the
grass and start the flowers on their
way to souls of blossoms, as the poet
said; it refreshes us. this feeling, much
as the rains bring food to the inquir.
ing flowers.
There are other beautiful cities In
the world. and all of them, undoubted-
ly, are prettier in the Spring than at
any other time of the year; yet those
of us who live here may be forgiven
for thinking that not a one Of those
cities is as beautiful as Washington,
D. C.
We have the word of far travellers
for 1t that we are right. Nor can we
overlook the possibilities of Washing
ton. Extensive plans for improve
ments over the years make 1t certain
that the Capital of the Nation will go
right ahead growing beautiful.
1t will not be able to achieve this
result, however, IL 1t ever dares to for
get the trees and the grass.
After ALL is 1t not the green we
love in the Spring?
Is not this mantle of nature thrown
over us from above and this carpet
of green spread for us below the
chief factor in making our city beau
tifui?
To say this is but to acknowledge
the supreme fact shat man can never
make anything beautiful unless he
follows and works with Nature. Just
as health is beauty i'm man, so green
is loneliness in a cltv
What is the most stupendous mar
BILE building worth, as a work of art,
unless 1t is properly Handicapped, sur
rounded by green lawns, it founda-
tions planted with shrubs, hedged in
with trees?
Artifice, though it may be great in
itself, when placed outdoors demands
the browning glory of Gods green.
just as a beautiful woman has her
browning glory.
This browning glory" of a wom-
ans hair may be allowed to grow
long, or 1t may be bobbed-but it
must be there in some form.
So, II we regard Washington as
she" we love her browning glory
of trees, parks. grass. flowers. My
point here Is that ordinarily we do
not stop to consider just the part
played by nature in our great city.
We are proud. and justly so, of our
monuments. our broad avenues, our
imposing bridges, our great public
buildings, including the Capitol, the
White House, the Washington Mon
ument. the Lincoln Memorial
Sometimes we are apt to imagine
that these things, beautiful in them
selves. make our city beautiful alone.
They do not.
Without the green of nature. which
the city planners and their success
sors, through the decades. made am
pie provision for retaining every
where, Washington would be no love-
Her than any other city.
Marble n1ay be cut and hewed into
forms OF art, but these art works by
themselves become cold and forbid