Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1927-08-14
AROUND THE CITY
BY MAMIE LANCASTER.

with. What do you suppose 1 was
princess, mahala, buck or medicine
man-huh?"
The artistic companion spoke as one
who sees visions:
Il think you must have been one OF
81 varieties"
And they let it go at that.
ONE curious thing about people is
~ why they do things you wouldn't
do yourself
A man was leaving a street car at
the New York avenue junction. His
suit was something handsome, in
steel-colored Japanese silk, and under
a Panama hat his plentiful white hair
waved. with well groomed carelessness,
after the fashion of patriarchal
colonel of the Old South. About the
middle of the aisle he noticed news
paper that some passenger had read
and left on the floor and he picked it
UP, tucked it in his coat pocket and
went his way.
Newspapers are the only low-priced
things left on earth-and for a man
whose clothes meant money and
whose air was that Of one who prided
himself on his look of distinction
his ageing bones to nab thing that
might have been q real help to some
poor traveller who might not have had
any other chance to read the news Of
the day?
There are such, we know, since
statistics tell us that our list Of un-
employed registers eight thousand
men, but, anyhow:
No genuine Southern gentleman OF
the old school would have done thing
like that. No, sub. In his forever
gone day, he might have sold his last
slave-or, maybe, his wife's last slave
TO settle a debt of honor; gambling,
most likely, but:
Pick up the leavings of others?
Absolutely not, sub!
The we'll caparisoned reminder of
now vanished colonies must, however
have had dim eyes behind his gold
bowed specs, for the paper was printed
in the fiercely black symbols that
mark the Russian type-or, maybe, it
might have been Yiddish.
And a seated passenger who had
noticed the black-eyed, bushy-broWed
reader who left the paper behind him
wondered how the colonel-man would
explain himself il he should unfold
who might ask for details,
When passenger glimpses his
morning paper on his way to work
you sense the offhand good nature
that makes him leave the copy in his
seat for some other fellow who may
come along. You have doubtless done
the same thing yourself but:
TO carry off such a pape~ to save
a couple Of pennies! No, sub! Not if
you are in the Southern colonel class
THIS came from out of the friendly
unknown:
Mamie Lancaster: Last Saturday,
August 8, about 6 pm, / went down
to Center Market-the open one,
believe they call ito do some buy
ing. I had my two little girls with
me. They were tired and anxious to
get home to eat, so I guess l wasn't
as watchful as l should have been.
Anyhow, the old saying Is There's
been one of them.
To come back to my story, had
purchased quite a few things, had my
arms full, in fact, when l noticed
just about the center Of these side.
walk stands a sign which said Cab.
bage, 2 cents a pound The man was
hollering, Home grown cabbage, >
cents a pound. I stopped, the man
held up a head and said, 10 cents for
this, lady. only 10 cents for this home
grown cabbage l noticed, too, that
he picked it up from the place whore
the sign was. ! paid 10 cents, didn t
| ask him to weigh 1t, and, as I haven't
been marketing very long, I'm no
| Judge of what a 5.pound head should
look like. When l got home I weighed
| the cabbage, and you can imagine my
surprise to see that it weighed 2
pounds.
Now. if that man played that stunt
on me, he probably does it on other
unsuspecting people. Seems to me the
public's attention should be called to
such dishonesty. I was a steno be.
| fore my marriage and I'm too ashamed
or myself to sign my name. l would
| ike TO have an article in The Star
to warn others, but you do as the
paper allows. Many thanks"
The avera~e housewife seems to
| own her marketman just as she owns
| her family doctor and her clergyman
| An ownership born of her faith in
| their perfection-hut, as in everything
| else in this world, there are always
others to serve as exceptions to the
general rule.