Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-11-01
THIS AND THAT
BY CHARLES E. TRACEWELL.

Washington. Upper Sixteenth street
constitutes one of these.
The writer here can recall the time
as q child when he climbed the high
clay bluffs where the park now stands
across from Hendersons Castle. The
view TO the south was essentially then
what it is today, with the exception
of numerous large apartments down
Sixteenth street.
The Washington Monument was
there, but not the Lincoln Memorial.
The Capitol and the Congressional
Library lay to the extreme east.
Up Sixteenth street now, however,
there is an entire new city. The same
city extends out Connecticut avenue,
out Wisconsin avenue, so that one must
journey past Chevy Chase Lake almost
to Kensington before coming to rising
ground again from which to look down
| upon this newer city, Maryland's by
right OF location, but in reality part and
parcel of the National Capital Of the
United States.
1t takes effort to look up. but 1t is
easy to look down: perhaps that is why
there is such great satisfaction In a
view seen from a hillside. Below curves
the road, winding down between the
trees; white cottages stand to the sides.
N.
OF trees have a beauty all their own,
nor is their height lost to view by thus
looking at thsm It Is simply matter
of being at the other end.
The general "lay of the land" can be
seen better from hillside than from
any other vantage, not even excepting
an airplane. The plane Is moving. and
most often is too high. whereas the hill
Is stationary, and is at a human height
from the lower levels.
When looking at ones city from above
as hill. one is not engaged in making
survey, or map OF any kind, but
merely i'll enjoying the sight.
lie sits as in theater balcony, look
ing down upon the show. Much the
same view may be enjoyed, of course
from the Washington Monument, and
1t is sight which thousands of tourists
see on their trips here.
There IS something staged, as it were
about these views to the four corners
OF the compass. What We seek is the
lmpromptu glimpse, seized at a mo-
ment OF passing, and made ones own
by force OF will, by deliberate prolonga-
ton.
The will power comes in when one
hesitateS, and stops to look in all
SClemnity. The stopping is what counts.
No doubt many persons look out of their
automoDlles every day as they pass the
high point at the avenues mentioned.
but hardly ever give the view thought.
They see it, but not exactly con-
sciouSly. Now one must realize that a
thing Is beautiful before 1t really be-
comes beautiful to him. In the matter
of a painting, or a statue, or a fine
building, 1t is essential that the be-
holder stand still before it.
1t will not do to study such things
on the run. to glance at them in pass
ing, and say, "Oh, isn't it beautiful"
The truth is that, unless one stops long
enough TO look both for beauty and
uglitness. he cannot be sure whether 1t
Is more lovely than the opposite.
Hence. to be free from ready-made
opinions. forced upon one by others.
the spectator must stop long enough to
see things for himself, as they are for
him. An entire city can call building
ugly, and If he likes it, that is suffi-
cient-for him.
In getting impromptu glimpses of
Washington, from points sufficiently
high to give it unfamiliar aspects, it is
necessary to carry about with one a
Willingness to approach the familiar as
II it were brandnew. This is difficult
approach. but it may be achieved, and
brings with IL mrny rewards