Evening star., 1925-03-08
FREE show is always worm
the price of admission. one
such entertainment was sup
piled Monday forenoon by

~ such entertainment was sup
piled Monday forenoon by a
young man who, in helping to
decorate an important business build
4 at the Fifteenth street junction.
stood on the sill of a second-story
ySndow and followed instructions
from master-mind on the asphalt
below.
The window was closed, and with
nothing to catchsonto in case OF diZ-
ziness and with no possible way OF
ESCAPE except by a ledge, seemingly
th. width of a slice of bakers bread,
iutting from the wall and leading to the
next window. which was open ne
handled a fag-sttached rope STOPPING
reaching up leaning sideways and otner-
wise obeying orders from below, flirting
with Eternity as lightsomely as II death
v.r. a happer and the bricks below
ballroom waxed for dancing to the
music of saxophony jazz.
To do him justice, the man, instead
of playing to the spotlight, was SO
interested that 1t Is doubtful IL he even
noticed the crowd that had swarmed
over the small section not given over
to car tracks. He was hanging bunt-
ing. and doing it first class
He must have come through the
transaction with safety, seeing that
the papers said nothing of it in the
next issues. But, as one spectator
her %
charged with thrills, she wondered
why and why man who seemed so
ufce and conventional should be risk
IN e his life-for WHAT
You can go to vaudeville and see
IAN act more dramatically hairrais-
ing. but you know there are safe
guards-nets and the like-and that
trained acrobats are on the job. You
enjoy your academic heart-stops, and
that ends 1t. But there were no pro-
fessional accessories to help out the
man on the sill. 1t was raw danger.
And. to go by appearances, the man
might have walked out of the office
of the big building to lend an i'm
promptu hand, and, having done it,
gone back to a desk and took his pen
in hand.
washer of high-up windows takes
sSchance, but the risk means comfort
for his family, and that gives you a
big respect for him. The stage pur-
veyor of thrills makes his living by
his daring, and Is to be honored for
the danger risked every working day
of his life. But the man on the win
dow sill-allowing him to be the
citizen he looked-was doing a need
lessIy rash thing, for which there was
no excuse. To follow wherever a flag
leads the way makes for man glori-
Gus trail to death, but to chance 1t
merely to festoon a window was to
risk a life that belonged to some
family-now or to be-and possibly
cheat his country should time of peril
come.
All the same, the man on the sill
Iaade a free show that was undoubt-
eddy worth the price of admission.
SLUGGARDs can go to the ant, but
il you happen to be energetic
enough to want information along
certain line, you have to hustle for
yourself. Which Is why a certain per-
son, naming ne names, who was go
ing home in the dusk of March 4,
paused to ask one small question of a
man who was plying his days trade
at the Peace Monument, with no Gus
toner among the crowds that were
corning and going-and not what you
could call crowds, either; just groups.
He was an ancient man, with a
Quaver in his voice, and his clothes
looked old enough to vote. But his
eyes. helped out by humorous
mouth, were as cheerful as il poverty
were a comrade he had known all his
life, And in answering the question
he swas as pleasingly interested as if
he were recording an everyday cir
cumstance instead of a thing that
meant siege of hard work with next
to nothing to pay for 1t.
No, ma'am, ii hasn't been a good
day for any of US. A man who
started out early with soap boxes had
to take them back, with only one
sold, and he only got a quarter when
he was expecting a dollar. Told me
1t was the first inauguration day he
hadn't got his whole stock off his
. hands at good prices. You see there
wasn't any tremendous crowd, and
people back could see between shoul-
ders OF the ones in front.
Same way with my stock. I did
sell out nv balloons in the morning