Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-01-13
AROUND THE CITY
BY MAMIE LANCASTER.

as If the coming of the Christ Child
was verify the Saviour who would soon
translate her world-beaten body into
that place we know as heaven.
And no youthful beauty in ermine
could have a happier thought than
that.
He had mild, absent face, with
| loose lips and slack muscles. She was
a positive bone, with good, red hands
that showed judicial capacity for
houSeWork and the spanking of babies
And both were cumming along in the
pre-ChDistmas dusk, as gay as a pair
of old larks.
The loose lips had quirked into a
humorous remark. and no sleigh bells
that ever jingled. through a poets i'm
| aglnation were ever SO joyous as her
chuckle and the retort that went with
| it. Comradeship!
And comradeship, as you doubtless
know, is the most beautiful thing in
the world It is the loss of comrade-
ship that fills the world with lonely
old men and women. Youth. in its
formative stages, can outlive the death
of parents, husband or best friend. but
as We mellow into age, we want the
understanding warmth Of comrade-
ship-be 1t mate, child or mere soil
tary, like ones self.
And it is because of those who lack
a comrade to companion them along
the Great Road, that we meet so many
iroopy, unresponsive faces on the way.
" X X
A WOMAN was pegging at really re-
Z markable copy that the Sunday edi-
tor would blue-pencil the minute he laid
ewes on IL when.
All of a sudden, an invisible fan whir-
red long, narrow shiver down what
one valued authority defined as her
"suinald colume." Then the shiver
blazed into fiery trail with wiggleS to
it. Next came round pain the size OF
a dime that camped on the back of
her neck. When the dime developed
into quarter she knew it was time to
tidy up her desk and go home, in case
the flu got her.
After she left the street car she had
to pass Blanks Funeral Parlors" In
gilt letters across q window that showed
candelabra and metal wreath, such
as they have in Paris Shops-with a
gray hearSe at the door. And the driver
was SO suggestive of that other person.
age who rides white horse and who
might be coming to make q personal
call en- her that she tried to concentrate
on the more comforting view of ton
of beautiful coal that had just been
dumped across the way.
But you cannot shove away sinister
ideas when your dear back is play
ground for ice and fire, and old man
Pain is hammering at every bone in
your body-So. when buddie woman
happened In by happy chance, the SUI
ferer voiced apprehension.
HNEorfI1nl1oy, ffaf &c a vary Miro FIJI
neral parlor around the way, but If
die I want to stay here in my living
room till the very last second, along
with my old paintings and the rest Of
the beloved junk. will hate to leave
these poor old dolls"
Marthellen, being as cheerful as a
stream in Summertime, agreed that it
would be hard to leave the dolls, but
not worry
I'll put them in with you"
"Oh, will you? That will be great
comfort, only you mustn't-I've got so
used to thinking of them as alive"
That's all right. They will die when
you do. I'll fix them in, all right"
Thank you so much, honey never
even gave it thought. though I have
always intended to have sisters palette
put in with me-and her photo
graph"
mo reason why you shouldn't. I'll
tuck in the dolls and the palette and
picture. Anything else? / can pack a
whole lot of things in with you"
That started the two of them to gig
Cling, though neither will ever know
morbid fear aglimmering, and put the
morbid fear glimmering, and put the
sick one back at her desk the next day.
All of which would be too ordinary to
tell about, except that:
When King Tut's tomb had been
cleaned out like unto New England
parlor and the explorers, artists and
philologiSts had outreached each other
in the making of books and movies and
Sunday features. concerning the val
liable finds lidded in with royalty turned
dust. you couldn't expect such ultra
minds to bother with anything so COM
mon as human nature and yet, why
may not have Pharaoh have said to his
queen:
MY dear, I hate to leave my black
onyx cat and my ebony gods and the
couches and chariots am used to-and
my robes and jewels and food" And
the queen told him not to worry, as
she could pack whole lot of things IN
with him. And 1t was so done.
Just human nature-that inScrutable,
sometimes bad, but mostly good and
never indifferent power, that came into
the world with Adam and will stay
here until it follows the last man to
his judgment day-the longing of all of
US, regardless of time or station, to
take with us on that lonely, scary-
strange journey, somcthing-anything-
that has been part of us because:
Because we are afraid to 90 home in
the dark.