Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1931-12-02
THIS AND THAT
BY CHARLES Z. TRACEWELL.

air, but even more to the earth and the
growing things, in washing them free
of accumulated dust.
This is the housewifery of Nature
| There Is no bath as complete as an
all-ntght rain, sluicing away the grit
and CRIME of civilization, leaving the
urban scene as clean as the proverbial
| pin.
The householder hears it dripping in
| the trees, and slapping against the
! window panes, and his heart is glad, for
| he knows it means health and happiness
to growing things innumerable.
| We are not inclined to stop TO con-
slider. ordinarily, that there is no sub
Stitute, in any real sense. for the vari-
GUS manifestations of Nature.
Nothing has ever taken the place OF
sunshine, for instance.
Life has grown up as it were, with
the rays of the sun in mind.
The eagernesS of men, women and
children of all lands to don bathing
| suits. rs scanty as possible, happily, and
bask in the sun on the beach is not to
| be accounted for by fashion, merely, but
| is due mostly to primitive urge.
No light better for the general health
can be conceived than the light Of the
sun Science, in presenting it in boil
doir form is simply being true to 1t the
best it knows how.
There is nothing which will take the
place of wind in its healthful action
on plants. its bendings and twistings
and tuggings. which it gives them, thus
exercising them In every fiber. There
is nothing. except rain, which will so
sweep the atmosphere and clean up
the Soiled hauntS of man as sweet
wind.
Water, like sunshine, is an essential.
Whether a human being uses 1t in a
shower, or the plant roots drink 1t in
as it falls in the garden, it comes from
the sky. 1t has known the earth be-
fore, however, and is accustomed to its
ways
Rain is not stranger. therefore,
but very part of us. These very drops
which fall upon us may have bathed
the face of great Caesar or SWeetened
the roses OF centuries gone
} When we take rainy day into our
| hearts and minds, as well as into our
! shoe soles, we are greeting an old
friend again.
Children, it Is well known. show no
fear OF rain, but willingly go out into
it. sometimes at their own peril, If they
are left to their own devices.
Civilization has not wrapped them
around and made them cautious: they
are unwary of the perils Of elemental
things; they see straight lines in beat
ing rains and trains of drops in slow
ones; they want. to get out and play
with the water.
*
Those few remaining city people who
groWl at rainy days should be some
what ashamed of themselves.
They should realize that they possess
unparalleled ways of getting around in
rains, and that rainy day means, at
the worst, but slight inconvenience to
them.
What more ordinary city folk need Is
better gospel Of sturdy overshoes and
umbrellas and raincoats. They must
, realize that it is neither unseemly nor
unmanly to wear 'rubberS, but merely
sensible.
This rain which falls upon the city
is a decree from an unknown 1t is not
to be Sneezed at or treated with indif-
ference or contempt.
Mighty forces. far greater than CIV
ilization. have prepared and matured
this rain. and here 1t Is at last drop
ping upon u.s.
Let us hail it and be glad for it. 1t
is plain and common, but it carries
divine messages in its wings