Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1928-06-24


II have passed through the KING
embalming house: cannot Gle again.
Incidentally. you may have nouced
that once Is always Sufncient.
liver notice how people change with
~ yearS9
One night. when you and l were
Young. Maggie, electric lights were star
ring 4 dusk that would soon leaoen into
night. and to a passing woman Il
seemed as if the pavements were rest
ing from the grind Of many feet ana
that even the asphalt was taxing
little nap until the next car came
along
INTO the silence of that quiet street
came a heavier step than her own, ana
q man, of the type that orators call "a
scholar and 3 gentleman, paused with
lifted hat TO ask:
IT trust you will pardon my request,
but would you mind posting a letter 1or
me9 If it seems an lincalled-for re-
Quest. considering that I might mail It
myself, perhaps you viii indulge the
superstition of an oldish man, who be-
leyes IN the Cornish folksaw: "A line
to the urodigal viii go better II
stranger posts the letter And my letter
Is to my SON / have written twice WITH
out answer. and was on my way to the
post ONCE. hoping to meet some one l
might venture to ask"
Even q woman too plain for any
orator 70 bother to describe may be
allowed her fair share OF understanding
of the whirns that beSet her fellow
beings SO she took the letter, SAID 10
him. Watch me-" and when she got
70 the mail box. lifted the flap ana
1nSf
he was standing with his hat IN his
hand. q deeper shadow than the dusk
that was leagiening into night. And
she felt that she had served SIS pro-
Iogue to what might turn out To be the
story of a prodigal son.
All right. so far:
The other evening-Saturday, If you
care for detailS-she came across the
same man In the newSroom Of paper
that STAYS I'D until early Sunday morn
ing. He wanted 20 see a certain re-
porter who had not yet come in, and
as the woman happened to go to her
letter box, he asked her how long she
thought he would have TO wAit--ne
was IN hurry. and so on, ana wouio
she take charge Of letter ne was mold
ING. In case he had to 60
He had changed greatly-l0 years IS
n long time. bretlEen-but she recog-
nized his face, resemblance accented
by the request.
So she said all right. and, in a
desire 10 pnlighten any embarrassment
he might have had as TO asking favor
Of q stranger, mentioned lightly that
II wasn't the first time he had put a
LITTER in her care. and that she had
wondered at that time II his son ever
received it.
Ten years, to q man who is growing
old. means more than lines and gray
hair Il somehow seems to take the
SAP from his mental vitality, and make
of him what the old time spelling book
verse called a sluzgard After T1imbling
around in his brain. he managed TO re-
car the incident-after she had told
n oyer carefuily-and then remarked
that his son must have got the letter
though he had been home such a
long time that really it had passed out
Of his mind.
$50 yoa stiIl have faith in the Corn
ixh foIkSaw?"
aEh-Cornish what?-Oh. see-Yes,
YES. Of course"
And that. for some inscrutat,le rea-
son. is what Father Time does TO all
his sonS-and daughters! Which Is
merely set down for the purpose OF
asking once more:
Ever notice how people change with
the years?
A SCHOLARLY lady OF that aero
n batic era known as the Old Re-
eirne vas giving her student grandson
that ether thing We call particular hts
because the y0unggter prefers current
literature to the fiction dignihed as
victorian with Buiwer as a writer in
point. She had caught the boy with a
magazine, and presumably had judged
its contents by the h2Tnboyant young
lady on the cover. The boy is a nice
boy, and, when you come right down
TO It, grandmotf7ers don't know every
thing;
"Euiwer, see myselfl Why, / get
more meat out Of this fellows expe-
renee m wireless than in all the string
Of hooks Euiger ever wrote. All right
for his generation. of course. But this
is another one. And ] am Ii. What
We want today isc lIps-gnov1es-
headlines, and live stuff that doesn't
make you wade up 10 your neck In de-
scriptions that take all the snap out Of
a climax. Yes, / do know, what I'm
talking about, too: Didn't T'have three
years al college when couldn't help
myself? You folks brag about Scot
and Dickens and the rest, but Let me