Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-10-01

The visitor stepped forward to go
down flight Of stairs only to pause on
the brink, as he discovered that there
was only removed railing there to
give the illusion of steps. A 5-foot
tumble, when one is not expecting 1t, is
no light thing.
| Luckily he drew back in time, recall
| ing as he did SO the famous scene in
one of Robert Louis Stevenson'S novels
in which the young hero climbs a pair
of stairs in the darkness, to discover,
just in the nick of time, as the heroes
! usually do, that one more step and he
had landed in purgatory.
r II X
| The visitor walked around to the
back, where he found the open door.
Gingerly he trod across the porch and
pushed it open. Yes, it opened. He was
sure that it would. Somehow the ex-
perience would not have been complete
If the door had been locked 1t is a
curious feeling. this of sequence, in the
small things and happenings of life.
It was an old kitchen. Kitchens, like
human beings, are young, have their
middle ages and then grow old, and it is
not with them so much a matter of
lack OF strength as a question of being
outmoded.
This was an old kitchen. The way
the gas stove was backed up to a Chin
ney was old. The large cracks in the
ceiling were obviously old. The laun-
dry tubs were at one side, maybe be-
cause the basement would not drain
The visitor stepped almost timidly
into another room. 1t was very dark.
A queer fabric, almost a tweed, covered
the walls. Huge chandeliers of past dec
AIDES hung from the center of three
ceilings he could see from where he
stood,
He walked into another room. Curl
Gus wall lights huge, ugly, stood forth
prinlly. Sadly the visitor thought that
in their day they must have been held
to have been beautiful, or they never
would have been permitted there.
For this house obviously was a home
Of culture and wealth. The pine floors,
in such a large house, spoke of past
days, when pine floors had not given
way to the vogue for hardwood.
These rooms were 'parlors," not liv-
ing rooms. The visitor shuddered,
How could any one live here, amid these
memories, these gloomy memories? Like
wave, feeling of sadness crept over
him.
Those who had gone had left their
sorrows and sadness behind them No
dulOunL Oh paluC, lie 1elC, WOuIQ DlOL II
out Surely it would be an interesting
experiment, to come in with 10 gallons
of cream-colored paint, preferably of a
dull finish, and try to tighten the whole
place with the magic of the painters
brush.
1t would take more than 10 gallons,
he kept telling himself, rather sadly
There are some things that cannot be
blotted out by paint. This house was
good house, no doubt it was held at a
very high price, but time had over
taken it, and left it behind
1t was outmoded. Houses built
within the past 20 years looked differ
emily. Here was q home which had
passed its prime, and was now very
old, ancient in those subtle things which
go to make up the mind and soul of a
house, rather than its muscles, bones
and sinews. From the exterior it APP
peared good house, but one step with
in brought the visitor to a realization
that, had he wanted q house to rent,
this one would never do-for him.
Carefully he closed the back door, and
went down the steps. It was good to
get out beyond those hedges, into the
clear atmosphere of the street, with
its sunshine, its clouds overhead, its
roaring motor cars. Is happiness, after
all, based on motion, rather than 81
lence? He did not know.