Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1931-03-24
THIS AND THAT
By CHARLES E. TRAcEwELL.

II is this reason, however, i'll defined
though it may be, which leads hts eyes
every afternoon to look for the little SAIL
boat in the windowsill. 1t was this primary
reason which irnpelled him to look at 1t
in the first place Habit does great deal
now. He recalls his interest, as q
child, in a small wooden doll fixed on
the outside of q window on lower Six
tenth street. That was in the day
when $50 month was a fabulous rent
for q house, and this house remained on
the market for ten or q dozen years
without a tenant. During all that time
the doll held its place, in sun and rain,
in Winter and Summer. 1t may be
there yet, for all he knows.
Just as all good ships 60 down 70
the sea at last, If they can get there,
to the vast bodies Of water which
surround their terrestrial homes. To
thenl-if they have the inquiring mind
every boat, whether steamer or sail,
every small vessel, whether motor boat
or sail. recalls the ocean. All rivers
and lakes, all bays, all brooks, belong
by right to the oceans, and go back
to them for much Of their beauty and
charm. They are, in essence, the old
ocean all over again. Something OF us
mystic surge, its ever-Sounding roar,
he who listens well will hear 1t.
* X \
Life plays strange tricks on human
beings, but one of the strangest Is to
make a clerk out Of a sailor. Yonder
seafaring mans cheeks are pale, not
because of his lack of interest in his
chosen element, but because he does
his sailing In his mind, and smells
salt air with invisible nostrils. Those
- fill 4vf1a@ t.aIEA AvS
resistless will and ruthless aphorisms
will say Of him, "If he had determi-
nation enough, he would be on the
rolling sea now, instead Of rolling
around in an automobile" They re-
duce all life to will power, and will
not for a moment allow that circum-
stances often bend men to their viii,
rather than permit them to make
them over to their own wishes. Yet
1t is fairly certain that there are any
number of would-be boatSmen who
diverse and unseen make certain that
they will never sail, in fact and in
truth as they 50 often do In their
minds. Life, in giving them one or
more things, has taken away the rest.
Down in the heart Of events hides
an evil joke, which is that living takes
all, even memory The cruelest events
ana the Softest Joys alike lead 70 an
oblivion on this earth a forgetting
which Is worse because regret is absent.
The tears which we promised to shed
forever, dry up at last, amid a weak
amazement, which would be insulting,
II it were not absurd.
The little boat will continue TO sail
its windowsill sea, safe behind pro-
tecting glass from all the winds that
blow.
Likewise men with seafaring blood,
confined behind the glass of Jobs and
routine, will continue to long to sail
boats but never to do it.
So much is inevitable, both among
boats and men-boats and men that
do not sail, and perhaps never will
sail. 1t may make no difference, after
all. 1t is said that they also serve
who sit and wait, and it may be
that some Of the best seafarers who
never Jared are sitting snugIy in safe
snug harbors, far from the blast and
cold, the glories and the dangers; yet
are they Sailormen all, with eyes turned
TO the clouds for the state of the
weather. with noses forever tilted to
catch the rare fragrance of salt air,
with minds and hearts honestly In
terested in tiny sailboat model which
sits in a high apartment window and
forever sails a windowsill sea.