Evening star., 1925-02-01
AROUND THE CITY
BY Mamie Lancaster

altar. And, most Of all, the music,
especially when the little children
| ing-and it's lively for me with so
many men and women always coming
| in and going out. The pastor told me
to make myself at home: that he
knew just exactly how / felt. /
can't get around far, SO I spend most
OF my evenings here until the sex
ton comes to put out the lights. It's
company for me-
Not a big event to recall, but
you will wonder at things, So when
the old pilgrim failed to go to church
the other evening. the mountaineering
why--wondered, as she heard the
bells and noted the shadow figures
trudging through night all the
blacker for the deep-bedded snow. II.
in a brighter world. he missed his
nightly way to church, for COM
pany"-or. II life eternal has given
him back his youth that earth took
away?
We will have our wonderments,
you know.
LIE was tiny enough to be dressed
like a snow baby in white knitted
leggins, sweater and peaked cap. AND
he was frisking along in the sun
shine with a. stylish young nurse in
tow. AS they reached a corner OF
the Library of Congress they came
across two larger boys shedding up
and down a biggish bump or dis
colored snow that had iced over. And
the snow baby wanted the sled. The
boys laughed at him, but paid no
attention. The baby stamped a foot
and began to say things that can't
be detailed because no nice paper
would put 1t in print.
While he was voicing himself in
louder and louder tones a young
man and his obvious wife coming
down the Library path stopped stock
still in appalled, astonishment. When
he got a chance, the young man
saluted the boy with laughing con-
sternation:
''Why, you old piratel Where did
you get all your cuss words?"
The question was put as man to
man, and the boy responded, man to
man:
My momma tole me-"
The nurse pounced down on him
with a denial. The man chuckled
appreciation of the fib. but shook his
head and pointed a finger of warming:
Look here, young man, If you
don't stop saying bad words some
thing dreadful is going to happen to
careful"
The child whimpered like a hurt
cherub and clung to his nurse:
"Tate me home-I fink l don't like
here any more"
And that was all there was to 1t,
except that the man said to the
woman as they started on:
He'll get over it-all children do
but where babies learn to cuss
like troopers is mystery few
parents are ever able to solve. And
and will keep on pretending inno-
cence until
Which shows the inscrutable human
nature of child. Also OF man. And
woman.
A WOMAN forgot her glasses and
had to go back and get the darn
things. There was work piled on
her desk and more coming in-snow
falling and more on the way-wind
blowing-time and tokens wasted
and a really good disposition mussed
up-al because Nature seems to
prefer humans in glasses and we have
to stand for it because we can't help
ourselves. And, as IL that wasn't bad
enough, by the time she had skated
her way from office entrance to plat
form she had to wait fully a minute
before a car came along-and even
then she had TO put up with half
seat instead of being next the win
dow-not to mention other thought
up ills too numerous to mention.
The window passenger was an
oldtsh, small woman who somehow
suggested a dried apple-the old
fashioned dried apples that were
,-i, IL ladl hut Slr in
Her coat was a long-worn tragedy
and she held a cord bag choked to
the brim with frtzzled celery tips, a
ba,d-headed cabbage and the hook
end of a ham, And one big sweet
potato. Also she made such earnest
effort to take up less space that the
woman who had glasses on her mind
had to tell her she had plenty of
room. The statement emboldened the
passenger into a shy excuse for being
all over snow:
1T was so dark when I started to
work that didn't know It was snow
ing until l got outside, and I didn't
go in for an umbrella, because it
might wake up some of the others
and. besides, / have to be at the stall
by $50, SO I didn't really have time.
Even now I'm afraid I'll be late for
my washing. 1 help lady once a
week"
The little confidence sort of jolted
the self pity of the woman who had
to go home for her glasses. and when
the bag woman got out at Peace Mon
ument to tag across the trackless
snow of the Northeast she began to
absorb additional realization that go
,ng home after glasses wasn't exactly
the cruelest ordeal that a human is