Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-12-22
# Different Christ
mas Story From the Pen
Of One Of the Leaders
Am0ng Wr1fers Of Short
Fcti0n-4nother First
Run Story BY Miss Hurst
mn Be a Feature Of
The Stars Maga&ine
Next Sunday.


more so than in the old days when
there was an air of lurid festivity to
this down-at-the-heel section of the
greatest metropolis of the world All that has
gone now. There are no more knee-high swing
Ing doors to invite the sordid reyeIer or the
threadbare celebrant. All that remains of a
picturesque yesterday are the rows of lean and
iusterless buildings which house petty shops and
lunch counter eating places and mems hotels
where the wayfarer may obtain a cot for Is
cents and a cruller for 5.
& Tom Mason, who had three DAYS growth If
beard, turned-up coat-collar and a pulled
down cap-visor, and who walked close to the
sordid buildings, as If for their sorCid protection
was one of hundreds who presented almost pre-
ciSely his personal appearance as Christmas
week descended sootily upon the Bowery
TRY as you would, however. it was impossible
to keep out that permeating sense of hoIi-
day. There was tinsel-fringe already dangling
In the sooty window of a secondhand shoe
store. On level with the elevated railroad
rows of unwashed windows showed the dim out
line of holly wreathS. Up in the sleeping ward
OF the mems hotel where Tom Mason was in
the habit of hiring cot for IS cents night
some wag had pasted a red-paper Santa Claus
against the window pane. In spite of ones SELF
even wnen one had every reason to desire to for
get or ignore Christmas week elbowed its way
into these murky recesses of the city
Once Tom lurking along as he was wont to
do, pausing for while in doorways chatting
with the dim outline of figures who joined him
there and then ambling along again, picking up
a wndow-washing or hoor-sweeping job here
and there paused before the plate-glass window
of a telegraph Office.
The Christmas blurbs displayed there sent q
laugh along Toms ironic slanting mouth
Wire to Mother" LET Mother Hear From You
rE1tS Chricf SaVEys-
Aching. Waiting Heart Back There" ITS
Cristmas. Remember the Folks Back Home"
Sentimentally that was revolving to the Sophisti-
Gated mind of Tom Mason. Wire the little
mother. Send greetings back to the doting sis
ter. Remember the forsaken-the deserted wife,
were the phrases that slurred across Mason's
mind; mind not too deadened to function
ironically on occasion.
Nielodramatic appeal like this, Mason rea-
: Scned. had its place after all. More than one
Bowery bum reading these snide reminders
might quite conceivably stink back home to
gladden. some waiting heart. Sentimental ad-
vertising like this was commentary upon the
Sentimentalty Of the country Americans we're
a susceptible species all right easily reached by
way of the most obvious emotion.
: THUS Tom Mason. ambling away his furtve.
meaningless days, was apt upon occasion to
reason or mediate. But most of the time it was
just case Of apathy with him. One had to
pass the days somehow, and one had to eat to
live. SO for the most part life with him consisted
OF working the few hours q day necessary to nut
food in his body and then lay that body on a
cot failure of man If ever there was one
and failure that had come about without any
particular reason.
Indeed, it was failure that was inconceivable
to those who had known him In his YOUTH when
life had promised and even been fulfilled to the
extent of marriage with a woman of his own
excellent social sphere, subsequent success In
business and the establishment Of home and
family. The decline when it began, had beer
relentless and consistent. OF course the element
of drink had started it, drunken father and
drunken husband coming home to intimidate
: children and wife was not conducive to happi-
ness neither was 1t to bring about success i'm his
well established business Affiliations
The decline and fall of Tom Mason was the
old soiled, repetitious one of appetites, the