Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1925-05-17

good 1t was like trying to GrtVe
back high water with a mop. No
sooner had he cleared one spot than
a fresh wave would pour back over
1T the very minute his back was
turned. There was an awful lot of
curiosity. but there didn't seem to be
much sympathy, If anybody was really
in trouble; and as for impoliteneSs-
stepping on your toes and showing
you out of a good place and never
saying so much as excuse Newell
impoliteness was no name for it!
He did get acquainted with one
mighty nice fellow-a policeman named
Mcintyre. He found out a great deal
about this policeman. He was born
in Brooklyn and he liked up in the
Bronx and he had four children, two
girls and two boys, and his oldest
daughter was trained nurse and his
oldest boy was studying to be law
yer somewhere downtown. He found
these things out a scrap at a time.
Mcintyre was a traffic p--IES:nan on
duty at a corner where ynera was a
public school and what with keeping
track of all those automobiles and
trucks that came helling along, up
and down and cross ways, and what
with holding the road open so the
children could get by without being
or letting out, he didn't have much
time for talking with anybody
well. Grandpops," he would say,
I'm glad to "a had void wit you"
he had a funny way of pronouncing
what he said-'but don't you think
you better be gittin' out of this jam
befSre some smart guy tries to walk
over you wit his car? For this job
here L need four eyes and an extra
mouth. Get me?"
Still, 1t was break in the monotony
to have even fragmentary and broken
conversation with some one who knew
Mr.. Oldham's name and called him
by It, So far as he could tell about
half the people he saw, or maybe two
thirds of them, didn't speak English
at all. If they did speak 1t they mixed
1t all up with Understanding words
or Eyetalian or something.
Say. look here. Mac" he ventured
one day, seeking the answer to a
mystery which was puZZling him more
and more as his burden Of loneliness
grew heavier, "ain't there a place In
this whole town where fellow that's
sort of getting along in life can set
down about once in a coon's age and
gas for a spell and rest his face and
hands, as they ulster say? 1 don't
mean at home-home's all right. but
you get tired of it. l mean some place
where he'd be liable to meet old fell
lows same as him, that amt got much
to do and like to discuss things back
and forth with one another"
Mcintyre shook his head.
Now you're askin' me something.
grandpops," he said. They used to
be places like that before we got pro-
hjtinn--fnrrnr CfnraG-hIft
more. But 1 take it you never was
much f'r hangin' round liquor stores.
anyways, was you, now?"
Yes, I was, too" stated Mr.. Old
ham. and his eyes lit up. Back there
in Tecumseh Center-you remember
that's the place I was telling you
about the other day, where / ulster be
in the retail drug business?-I ulster
drop into saloon quite frequent
Milky Hartman's place. His name
was Joe, but everybody called him
Milky for short. Mighty clever fell
low he was. too. and ran his place
nice and genteel. I never drank hard
Kicker myself; never touched 1t in my
life. as I remember of. unless twas
In medicine for a bad cold or some
thing.
But I'd drop in there sometimes of
an evening when 1 didn't have any
thing special to do. and set awhile in
the back room with Milky and some
other old-timey friends of mine. And
they'd have beer or something stronger
but I'd always take a cigar or maybe
a bottle Of pop or this here root beer.
'Oldham's belly-wash' they ulster call
it and tell me I'd drown myself some
of these days drinking that stuff.
They were great hands for beer in that
town. Not that any of my crowd ever
got tight, to speak of. But they did
get kind of talky about once in so
often. But ! always stuck to my
bellywash." He gave a little sigh.
Il guess that old crowds purity well
busted up and scattered by now
some of 'em dead and one or two Of
'em moved off, like me-
Yes, thin days is GAVIN" said
Mcintyre; GAVIN in your old town
and GAVIN in this town, too. I miss
them meself of an evenin' off post.
I'm doubtful of this homemade hooch.
And the hard stuff the bootleggers
peddle is worse. Well, you might try
settin' in the park, thin? God knows
me own feet ache sometimes till I'd
be willin' to set on the bare earth,
would that. Citizens don't know the
strain that's on fella's feet after he
gets on the cops
Mr.. Oldham had tried the parks
Central Park and another smaller park
over by the river. They were not al
together satisfying either. AS parks
go, they might be all very well; and
certainly he had heard considerable
praise of Central Park from persons
who rarely seemed to go there them
selves. Their admiration was based
on the fact that there was such a
noble park set down SO conveniently
right in the heart of New York, not
upon any personal enjoyment they de-
rived from its beauties. And those
people who did use 1t did not appear to
have the knack of getting together.
In fair weather, and sometimes when
the weather was not 80 fair, shabby
men dozed on the benches along the
footpaths. or when they didn't doze
they read and reread newspapers
opened usually at one of the help
wanted pages, else they just hunched
down and stared, modify at what was
directly in front of them. You rarely
saw two of these brooding chaps in
company: each one had his own bench
or his own end of a bench.
1t was the same with the better
dressed older men who came there on
bright days; they nearly always were
with timid, wistful eyes and he, shut
fling on by. would look back, not
knowing that his eyes were timid and
wistful, too; not knowing that rebuffs
had made them weary of seeking
chance acquaintance out of the seven
millions. only knowing that many re-
Bluffs had so worked upon him. Sweet
hearts did pair off; they were quite the
exceptions. Here or there in some quiet
spot a young fellow and his girl would
be sitting or strolling. but, of course,
their eyes and their minds-and their
arms-were only for each other, which
was all as It should be.
There was an air Of peacefulness
about the big park. with its trees and
it's lawns and its flowers and all, but