Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1927-07-17
BY STEPHEN LEACOCK.

r AM one of the countless people in
| the United States and Canada
1 who come from a Little Home
L Town.
| And it is about this Little Home
| Town as it used to be, lying in the
sunshine, in some lost corner OF the
| country, that / want to write. now In
the good old Summer time. It is the
| proper season for doing SO. It is at
| this time of the year that the business
man pauses in the brewster moments
of a midsummer afternoon. and lifts
his eyes from his desk as his mind
wanders back to the little town that
once he knew before the city claimed
| him.
| 1t doesn't matter whether or not
you know my particular town-Mari-
posa. You probably know half dozen
very like it, and one above all others.
There it lies in the sunlight. slop-
| ing up from the little lake that
spreads out at the foot Of the hillside
| on which the town Is built. There Is
a. wharf beside the lake, and lying
alongside of it a steamer that is tied
| to the wharf with two ropes of about
| the same size as they now use on the
| Leviathan.
| The steamer goes nowhere in par
| ticular. for the lake Is landlocked and
| there Is no navigation for the Mari
posa Belle except to run trips" on
| the Fourth of July and on Labor Day
and to take excursions of the Knights
| of Pythias and the Sons Of Temper.
ance to and from the Dryer and Wet.
ter townships.
| In point of geography. the lake is
called Lake Wissanotti and the river
running out of it the Ossa wippi. just
as the main street of Mariposa is call
ed Missinaba street and the county
Missinaba County.
But these names do not really mat
ter. Nobody uses them. People SIM
ply speak of the lake" and the river"
and the "main street." much in the
same war as they always call the Con.
tinental Hotel, Pete Robinson's" and
the Pharmaceutical Hall, "Eliot's
Drug Store But l suppose this is
just the same in every one else's town
as in mine, so l need lay no stress
on it.
The town. I say, has one broad
street that runs up from the lake. com.
monty called Main street. There Is no
doubt about it's width. When Mariposa
was laid out, there was none of that
shortsghtedness that is seen in the
cramped dimensions of Wall Street
and Piccadilly.
Missinaba street is so wide that II
you were to roll jeff Thorpe's barber
shop over on its face 1t wouldn't reach
half way across. Up and down the
Main street are telegraph poles of
cedar of colossal thickness. standing
at variety of angles and carrying
rather more wires than are commonly
seen at a transatlantic cable station.
On the Main street itself are build.
ings of extraordinary importa nee
Smiths Hotel and the Continental
and Mariposa House, and the two
banks Uhe Commercial and the Elk
change), to say nothing of Mccarthy
block (erected in 1879 and Glover's
hardware store, with the Odd Fellows
Hall above it.
Then ON the cross street that in
tersects Missinaba street at the main
corner there is the post office and the
fire hall and the Young Mems Chris
tan Association and the Office OF the
Mariposa Newspacket: in fact. to the
eye of discernment. a perfect jostle
of public institutions comparable only
to Threadneedle street or lower Broad
way On all the side streets there
are maple trees and broad sidewalks
trim gardens with upright Gala lilies
houses with verandas. which are hel