Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-04-06

LILLIAN c. DOW & CO., wholesale
drygoods merchants, occupied
I'M 14-story building covering half the
W. block between Commercial and
East River streets. The business
Offices of the firm were on the fourth MOOR
Here were to be found the sales manager with
his staff. the manager of imports with his the
advertising manager with his. The remainder
Of the fourth floor considerably more than nan
Of it. was taken up by the accounting depart
ment o miniature city laid out IN oraerV
rectangular fashion, with marrow paSSagewayS
for streets and wire cages for houses, eacn OF
them six feet by six, each OF them with It's oc-
cupants In one of the cages fartheSt from the
main corridor was man who had been in the
employ of the Dow company for more than
20 wears. His name was Herbert Beatty.
It would be difficult to describe Mr.. Beatty
in any vivid manner. To say that ne was
quietly dressed, that his linen was Immaculate
and his boots carefully polished, Is not 70 as
tineuish him from thousands OF other SELL
respecting bookkeepers. Observing MN In
crowd-but this is unthinkable; the most
curious observer of human nature, touching
elbows with him in a crowd would not have
noticed him, unleSs-which is equally unthink-
able-Mr. Beatty had been guilty of some act Of
gross and unusual conduct, and even then the
eccentricity would have been remembered
rather than the man himself.
He was a lonely man, without close 1rlenos
or any living relatives so far as he knew, ana
his life flowed on from year to year in un-
broken monctony. Although he spent As hours
weekly in his little wire Enclosure, he neither
spoke nor thought of it as cage. He entered
it, six mornings out of seven, as willingly as
bee enters its hive. and much more punctually.
Having busted of his boots with flannel cloth
which he kept in drawer, he slipped into his
black alpaca Office coat. Then he marked out
with a neat cross, in red ink, the date OF the
previous day on the calendar-two crosses on
q Monday. Then he opened the ledgers in
which he took such pride, and was Immediately
engroSsed in his work. This was purely Of
routine nature, as familiar to him as breathing,
quite as necessary, and almost as instinctively
performed. He was rarely disturbed hSd no
decisions to make and was never asked Tor MS
opinion about anything.
At 1890 he went cut to lunch. He pa
tronized always the same white-tiled res
tailrant on East River street, large, clean,
inpersonal sort Of place catering to the en-
ployes of the wholesale houses in the vicinity.
An immense sign on the wall of this restaurant
read: I'VE serve more than 5000 lunches daily,
between the hours of IL and q" During the
past 10 years Mr.. Beatty himself had alone
been served with that number of lunches; 5000
lettuce sandwiches Three thousand pieces of
C,lstard pie, 5000 glasses of milk. But although
his order was the same Summer and Writer,
none of the mattresses ever remembered what
it was or appeared to recognize him as an old
patron.
In Winter he spent the whole of his luncheon
hour in this place reading the Morning Blade.
On fine days in Summer, he would go, after
his meal, to a small park near the City Hail.
two blocks distant. There he would buy bag
Of sailed peanuts and after eating a few of
them would give the rest to the pigeons that
freQuented the square. They would eat out Of
his hand, perch on his outStretched arm, even
on his head. He liked to think that they were
his pigeons, and he enjoyed the moment of at
tention they brought him from other midday
1oungers in the park When he had doled
out the last of the peanuts, he busted the salt
from his fingers and sat down to enjoy his
newspaper.
Mr.. Beatty was one Of the numberless army
Of men and women who have made possible the
success of the modern American newspaper
whose reading is confined almost entirely to its
columns. 1t amused him, instructed him, thought
for him. He found there satisfaction for all mod
est needs, spiritual and cultural. He turned
first to the comic section, smiling over the
adventures Of Mutt and JEFF These people
were real to him, and he followed their for
tunes closely from day to day. Next he read
the editorial of DIR. Francis Crake whom he
admired and respected as q philosopher Of
genius. Another feature Of the Mngntng Blade
was the inuuirer'S column me in0tJl1er