Evening star., 1927-08-14
BY BEN McKELWAY.

In 1899 that section of ''X' street
to be discussed here was some distance
"out in the country" 1t was bor-
dered by fields which turned yellow
with goldenrod about this time OF
year, and a small stream in one OF
them provided an ideal site for bull
frog and tadpole round-ups by small
boys out of school. The street runs
north and SOUTH, competing, as a
short cut, two big traffic arteries. The
distance between these two arteries Is
about half a mile In 1899 it was de-
cided, on account of the trafhc, 10
macadamize this half.mile stretch OF
"X" street and to cobblestone the gut
ters. This was done by the DISTRICT
and for 20 years tx" street performed
it's duty as a short cut. Trees planted
about the same time grew to maturity.
providing it with border such as
those for which the District Is famed.
Four wears ago construction OF
homes proceeded briskly toward the
west. and soon TX" street found itself
running through brand-new com
munity. But the houses were extend
ing west and had not yet begun to
run north along tx" street. Then.
one morning, gangs with PICK ana
shovel appeared on * street ana De-
gan stalking out plots Tor a Diock OF
so along one side. They were fol-
lowed bV steam shovels, and soon the
foundations for a row of houses were
being laid. At the same time other
gangs of workmen appeared on *
street and dug long. narrow trench
that ran along one side for its entire
length. Pipes for water, gas, electrlc,
ity and telephone wires were placed
in the trench and 1t was covered up.
Presently a repair gang of the DISTRICT
government appeared and took over
the Job Of smoothing away the rough
scar left by the trench, and within
a. reasonable time *" street was
pa ssable again. But hardly had this
trench been filled and repaired than
another gang of men appeared and
made a series of short, lateral cuts In
the street. In these cuts connecting
pipes were laid from the houses, 3uss
compEted, to the mains so recently
covered up. When the lateral cuts
were filed in, repair gangs of the
| District government again appeared
and smoothed them over, the reappear-
ance Of the steam rollers affording in
| tense enjoyment to the juvenile citi-
zens of the block.
But the end was not yet. A new
gang was busily at work some dis
tance up the street digging founda-
| tions for another short row OF houses.
And following them came another
gang with more picks and Shovels
and dug O. new set of short, lateral
cuts for connecting pipes. The Dis
trict repair gang came back and duti-
| fully smoothed them over, and while
they were doing it still another set of
men selected another unoccupied spot
along "X" street and began digging
madly for some more foundations
which presaged another series of lat.
eral cuts, later to call out the Dis
trict repair gang again.
| This process has now continued for
about four years. Rows of houses now
border tx" street. The goldenrod of
the fields has gone and the chirping
for the stream that gave them birth
now runs under somebody's cellar.
But in all the four years past "X'
street has seldom been without gang
of workmen either digging or covering
up parts of its misused surface along
| its short half mile Of length.
About year ago. when ''X' street
became well nigh impossible because
of the frequency with which it had
been cut up, repair gang appeared
upon the scene and with many uten-
sils of their trade did fairly good
| job of temporary resurfacing. But
| that had not been long completed and
| the repairmen turned the corner en-
route to other fields of activity, when
another gang came down the street
and with fiendish haste tore up the
newly repaired surface in order to
make some more cuts for connecting
pipes. Eventually, tx" street will be