Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1931-09-30
THIS AND THAT
BY CHARLES E. TRACEWELL.

Get them hungry enough-oh, Of
course, they will eat almost anything.
But that means nc-hing. So VIII hui
| man beings unaeT like circumstances.
The people Of the great City Of Lon
| don, therefore, must regard the house
cat as a distinct animal personality, Mt
to have its own meat in its own way.
There Is something pleasing in the
| picture OF the cats meat man pursuing
| his rounds, probably the same which
his father trod, knowing where his
steady customers are and going to them
regularly.
OF one thing we may be sure, and
that is the cordial reception which the
| fellow gets from the cats. There can
| be little doubt that the cats meat man
is waited for every day by all his real
| customers.
Real customers-of course, the cats.
| No cat is indebted in the least for the
| human assistance which secures him
his daily food The small matter Of
money enters not into his calculations.
Just what goes on behind those two
outstanding ears no human being Is
given to know exactly, but he may feel
sure that gratitude is not present there.
Why should 1t? Gratitude Is o fine
flower OF human mind and heart. It is
not for the four-legged creatures of
earth, except for the dog, which seems
to have some good inkling Of 1t. We
cannot be sure. Perhaps what some
times seems to us gratitude in the dog
Is only another form Of his perpetual
fawning.
Some one of London's very fine
writers-and no city in the world has
more-is going to rise on his writing
| legs some day and give the world q
| book in which cats meat man will be
a principal character.
| We can see him now, compounded e
a bit of Sam Weller brought up to date
and mixed well with old Peter ounce
of Shakespeare's Midsummer Nights
Dream" with q touch of something by
Fielding and favored with Oliver Gold
smith.
He will be a right racy fellow, able
and willing to touch on the frailtieS
of life, both human and animal. His
acquaintance with cats will be large,
| overlooking with the comradeship Of
the stomach, in which all living things
| have part.
| It was Emile lola of Paris who wrote
! the first epic of the human stomach
when he penned the gigantic novel the
| title of which is usually translated as
1.-THE Fat and the Thin" since much
of the story resolves around the differ
ence in human beings when well padded
and underpadded.
M. lola, however, was 700 much Of
an artist to give his book such pallid
title. The French title can be cor
/ rectly translated 1.-THE Belly of Paris, -
which was what lola wrote it, since
his story deals with the great markets
| of the French capital
The London cats meat man, sure to
crop up some day in some exception
ally good novel, will know a great deal
about Authorization and how it reacts
on cats and men, and why certain foods
are good for them and certain bad; and
whether he is correct or not will not
make the least difference in the world,
for it will be the keenness Of his OBJ
! servations and their humanity which
will matter and not his accuracy. Is
that not true for most Of US? Would
we not all be the better off in many
ways If we gave over our talk about
| correctness and just went ahead and
lived humanity and decently?