Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1928-08-24
THIS AND THAT
BY CHARLES 4. TRACEWELL.

The water at night has a charm all
its own. No matter how glorious the
sea or bay with the sunshine on It, the
same expanse Of water possesses Won
derful appeal when night comes down
and the stars shine darkly.
We stood beneath fringe OF trees
| along a narrow beach fronting the his
toric Chesapeake Bay, which had now
disaupeared to sight beneath the all
pervading darkness. Rain dripped
drowsily through the branches, In that
half-state when Nature seems undecided
what to do
The sandy ground was wet. no stars
shone, only afar twinkled several lights
Down yonder cleaned fixed beacon,
in the direction OF the sea; up the bay
shone another fltfully, toward old An
napolis.
Far In the distance glowed a deep
enine light that lit the heavens miles
away. Was IT. a fire. One could be-
lieve he saw smoke. but calmer iudg-
ment decided against II. What, then.
could 1t be-
It might have been the famous north
crn lights It seemed rather the high
lights cast by the illumination of a
great city. but Baltimore was too far
away. and there was no other metrop-
oils to account for It.
Then II began to sink lower and
lower and gradually died away altoeeth-
or, leaving the horizon as the immediate
vicinity drowned in darkness. struggling
against night and clouds and rain.
X " n
Those moving lights were steamers
Gradually they had crawled at least six
inches in the dark and we're on their
way for the conquest Of another six
inches. II was hard to realize, stand
ing there under the dripping trees By
the bay. that those lights we're not lust
lights. but were great vessels. probably
crowded each one with hundreds OF
people.
There goes A steamer"
How little the words meant. until one
stopped to conjure up the picture Of &
boat such as one had known. with it'
decks, and its ratings. and Its rusf
Of wind. and its lights. and It's crowdins
excursionists. and It's camp stools or
the lee side Of the pilot house.
Out there In the darkness there was
light. as Young people went up anc
down stairs and felt the keen wine
whin into their face as thew climbed
- the hurricane deck. as the larger
has IL.
Hats were being grabbed tightly, out
there. and hobbed hair was being blown
around smiling faces
But to us. on the shore. all that was
only represented by what seemed to be
a row Of indistineuishable dots Of light
moving ever so slowly across the deer
blackness We knew IN be the bay.
x ~
IT was uncanny there in the dark
to BE- able to see nothing Of the water
at all. The light from a cottage did not
penetrate to the beach. which was down
cliffv hill Is or SO feet high.
BY grasping an old root and swinging
down 1t was possible to get onto the
narrow stretch of harsh sand which
passed as beach. It was not much
Of beach. certainly. as beaches go
vet 1t had held some beautiful feet in
its time. and would know many more
Whispers there came of mermaids
who had plunged into those dark waters
as II into sanctuary, sure Of the dark
ness which yelled them. Suppose a
steamer had played a great searchlight
upon them from out yonder?
What then? No doubt there would
have been great scurrvirg and splash
ing Of tanned arms. which would have
looked white then. and swimming would