Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-01-27

pleted. was vacant ground, and here
the Douglass base ball team used to
play. It was composed of the best COL
ored men of that section. and as no
roWdies were permitted on the nine the
games were always conducted in an
orderly and interesting way. Washing
ton BraXton, Alexander Smoot, Sam
and Clinton Lincoln were among the
players. Samuel Lincoln died only re-
Gently. He was probably the Oldest
route carrier for The Star and re-
umns at the time of his death. Though
he was always known as Lincoln, ~
this pronunciation was only similar n
form to his real name.
The triangular block to the east of
the colored school and to the north of
the eighth police precinct station. on U
street, was where the while boys held
their base ball games. It was in this
block, on the Florida avenue side. that
Bob Odlum, who killed himself in jump
ingof the Brooklyn Bridge, lived with
his sisters.
Where the Eleventh street car barn
now is was then vacant as was also
the triangular block to the east and
Immediately in front of the Garfield
Memorial Hospital. except for squat
ter's shanty. Here lived Harry White,
an old darky Of the Uncle Tom" type;
head whitened with age and shoulders
bent with years of work in the service
of his masters; friendly and kindly.
waiting for the greatest of all Masters
to call him home.
During my mothers childhood days
she had taken dancing lessons at Ca
rusi's Saloon, which then bore high
reputation and which stood at the
northeast corner of Eleventh and c
streets northwest. One day she rec
ognized this old colored man as having
been the one who played the fiddle for
Prof. CaruSi'S pupils, and upon tell
ing him that she remembered him he
became much delighted, and for the
few remaining years Of his life there
was always removal of the hat and a
friendly lowering of the head. peculiar
to the colored servant of that day,
whenever he passed our house and saw
my mother. All Of the fiat ground ex-
tending from Florida avenue on the
north to perhaps r street on the south
and from Sixth or Seventh street on
the east to Fifteenth street on the west
was then called Goose Level
Cowtown itself was not all built up
then, either. and 1t was not necessary
for one to confine himself to the side
waikiki there happened to be one.
| In most cases the paths were just as
good and in many cases better, and of
/ course, decidedly more direct. Indeed,
;, as a lad, when attended school for a
while at Fourteenth and @ streets. !
went by the way of paths the entire
distance, crossing one common after
I another. and when attended the Pres
! colt School, over toward Howard Uni
versity, with Albert s. Galley, now
of the Lincoln National Bank. and q
number of other old-timerS, we never
thought Of cutting square corners, but
simply went as the crow flies.
put about Cowtown; this was not a
large place at all, being Of rather
/ limited area, only extending from
Seventh Street road, now dignified with
the name Georgia avenue. westward to
Sherman avenue, and from Grant ave-
nue-now Barry place--northward for
several blocks. Here everybody had one
| or more cows and as many pigs and
geese as they could afford to keep, and
as for dogs and goats it would have
taken someone with tabulating ma
chine to have arrived at the correct
number. There were many horses, too,
| in this community, for where few
peddled their milk by hand, the vast
majority, with very large routes, were
compelled TO rely upon teams