Evening star., 1925-02-08
AROUND THE CITY
BY Mamie Lancaster

AxItCCIStcI
some and stylish and so arrogantly
aware Of both facts that she could
she had been, say, the Kohinoor in
an F street window or headline
chorus girl on parade And, of course,
she had an escort-an outstanding
young fellow in the best of clothes.
but whose step and expression some
how conveyed sense of not being
used to gallivanting around with girls
in work hours. And it might have
been his brisk air of wanting to get
back to business that rasped the girls
nerves, for she was swapping out
words and f1inging her head up the
way girls do, either naturally OF
from initiating movie queens, for
nearly a half square before she un-
pinned the orchids and tossed them
in the street.
And the street was filled with peo-
pie. You never saw F street at 3
o'clock in the afternoon that it
wasn't. And equally. Of course,
passing men and women. the young
ones, timed their steps to take the
incident in.
The young man made no sign that
he had seen the contemptuous throw
ing away of what must have been
his gift, but walked beside the girl
without a word in response 10 her
| temperamental fling. What dramatic
result there was expressed itself In
the action of a dozen or more people
following after. each of whom walked
so as to give the orchids the right
of way. Not one expressed an opin-
| ion, in any way, but looked at the
incident as If 1t were a moving pic
ture where an audience is expected
to keep quiet. A couple Of callow
girls did giggle, and looked with
such covetous eyes at the splendid
castaway that. without being a mind
| reader, you could tell that, If i,
| wasn't for the crowd, they would pick
up the bunch, as If II belonged to
| them, and divide.
Finally, one man lifted the bou-
que' from the street and placed IL
| on tie ledge of a store window, as il
| to save 1t from the ignominy OF
being trampled III Ter foot. Then he
passed on. And by that time the
mink-jacket girl and her escort haC
| turned the corner-and that was the
end of the incident-unless you felt
| to figure out what was going to hap
pen next.
| A lovers quarrel may be all right
1 in the romance game, but to throw
| away beautifully fresh flowers that
| cost money and loving thought seems
| somehow like slapping any other in
| nocent thing that had not harmed
you. And made one witness, anyhow
| feel that a real man had given his
heart to woman who wasn't worth
| 1t.
| Then, again, he may have deserved
| what he got by telling her he didn',
| believe in equal rights for women
You never can tell.
A GUN shot means excitement. Ex-
citement is the salt of life, and
| all of US must have salt Which
| shows the necessity of excitement.
1t wasn't gun shot after all
which didn't matter until the crows
| found it out.
Bang! 1t was such a sharp, sud-
den report that everybody in the
street stopped short before turning in
| the direction of the sound.
The next instant more men and
women began to swarm out of stores
and around the corner in a mad ske-
daddle to see what was wrong, and
| a policeman cropped up from dear
knows where. Then a voice was
lifted, Saul-like:
Busted tire"
ana a woman VINO was skirting the
edge of the commotion noticed that
| as the crowd broke up into human
| bits to scatter in individual directions,
| the face of nearly every man and
| woman was labeled with the same
| expression:
Disappointment.
|
HER fur wrap was unbuttoned to
IL show tomato-colored dress,
| and. February being the open season