Evening star., 1926-01-24

them got off al /1Z[b
the the transfer iunc II :
! t1on just in time
| to see the car they
wanted to take Whizz off without
| them, the younger woman felt called
upon to wall:
We could have caught that car If
/ you weren't such slow pokes. You,
| Tommy, stop dragging that umbrella.
Jean. how many times have I got to
| tell you to keep Your thumb out Of
| YOUR mouth? You've got the trans
! fers, haven't you. Momma?'
/ No. Momma did not have the trans
ferS.
We'll. if YOU aren't enough 90 pro
woke a saint, After I bought the
| tickets out of my own pocket, you
might at least have attended to the
| transfers. All right. We can walk.
| I've got too much to do with my
! money to throw il away on people
| who don't know enough TO appreciate
| what's being done for them-I'm just
mad enough to do
! She looked it. furthermore. she
sounded that way. And while the
| her head as if To an accustomed ordeal,
and the children huddled around her.
| A middle al ged man who had over
heard, along with everybody else for
! IL yards around. was good enough to
| rush back to the car in time TO secure
the transfers. And as he handed them
to the younger woman, he said-like-
| hear:
| You should have asked for trans
| fers when you paid your fare?'
She accepted the slips with the
| boorishnesS which cheap people mis-
! take for haughtiness, and showed the
Youngsters onto a just-come trolley,
leaving Momma to shift for herself.
| And to think-just 10 think-how
many lonely women there are in this
| town. sisters. who would be grateful
| for the smallest slice OF mother and
the merest pinch Of a child,
| SometimeS-of course. il isn't really
! so. but-sometimeS il looks as If a
blindeyed Fate. who couldn't see what
! she was doing. cut US humans out
with dull-edged scissors. hit and miss.
| Sometimes. it SCENE that way. And
then again. sometimes il doesn't.
! Which makes this world such a
mysteriously exciting place to live in.
| OK the morning of our one snow
| ~ a car whizZed around the Capitol
| grounds. otherwise a white vaStness
! set with bone-gray trees. Some pas
! senger called attention to a squirrel
| that had started to hop. skip and jump
! its way across the hardened glaze.
| And while it was doing it, other pas
sengers took notice and banded
around emotions-like this:
| "Oh, Albert. look. The poor, dear,
little thing will freeze. Isn't il too
| pitiful,"
Alphabetically ready to knock a
mystery he knew nothing about. as is
the way of us, by and large, doubt
less for the reason that II requires
no ability to find fault-thus Albert:
And they talk about Natures pro-
viding animals with the instinct Of
preservation-huh. There's a sample
of what Nature can do"
Two good women, who will undoubt.
edly go to Heaven when they die, but
| who plainly were unacqualnted with
squirrels, exchanged sympathy after
this fashion:
Isn't 1t the most pathetic thing
you ever saw. Rachel? That poor. lit.
tie codger has lost track of it's nest
he ii never get across in that snow"
oh. well. freezing is better than
starving g"-RacEel said it with the
certainty Of one who has tried both
methods-"It's a shame the way the
Government neglects these poor lit.
tle-Look. will you?"
|
point In the apparent middle Of the
| white vastness. dived with unerrins
precision to find its cache, hidden un-
der the smoothed- over. hard-crusted
snow.
! Then up spoke a man who sound
ed as If he knew things. One of his
statements. that carried an obvious
meSSage Albert's way. was to the ef-
fectN hat "if humans had the sense of
| >,
place liveNin"
| which, seems to put the squirrel in
| the same\ class with the serpent and
the dove.
WE went down the Rhine in the
rain. The big, open-air steamer
was packed and jammed with pas
| sengers from ManZ; all of them sar-
dined under cover of the top deck,
| leaving the rain-soaked rail benches
| empty, except for more rain coming
down. To plest ones self against the
outer coating of the crowd was to be
drenched. anyhow, and as the running
of travel coat isn't a patch on the
running of a view of the most histori-
cally picturesque river in the world
| you show wisdom by sopping up a
seat with a half newspaper, doubling
the dry half for a cushion, and with a
raised umbrella. Pumping yourself
down and forgetting the weather un-
! til, a couple of hours later. some one
of the party reminds you that the sun
is shining and the rain is over and
gone"
The Rhine is narrow river, a mere
! thread compared to our Potomac, say.
But Europe teaches you not to be too
exacting in the matter of size. Look
at that poor, little, old. yellow Tiber.
moving sluggishliy, like so much mud
Cruel through the heart of Rome-and
the strip of Arno, ripping between
stone walls just high enough for Flor
ence to look over. and London's S
| Thames, and that sinister Seine that
| wriggles its way through Paris-all Of
them baby rivers, but: When it comes
to the romance and history of a past
that can count its centuries by the
dozens-our Potomac dwindles in spite
of it's size. For when you come right
down to it, what can any Of our rivers
| show but a sparse review Of Indian
canoes. the caravels of Columbus.
some Revolution-time vessels, Yankee
| gunboats. greyhoundS and subs Of the
| World War and a few hydroplanes of
| the now?
The Rhenish hillsides, terraced
| from shore to steep hilltops with
| grapevines that give an effect of
| hanging gardens, is diversified by
pleasant little towns. with sudden up
shoots Of rock on which the ruins of
some ancient castle stand: each dra-
matte with the history Of it's long-ago
| time. To keep count would require
! more time than one tourist jaunt. but
you manage, somehow, to get your
| glimpses of such legendary spots, as,
| say, that Mouse Tower you have
known about all your life, still stand
I -
bishop crowded a multitude of women
and children in q barn and set 1t on