Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1932-01-06
THIS AND THAT
BY CHARLES E. TRACEWELL.

! this variety Washington and vicinity
| had several excellent examples last year
The comparatively mild Winter tC
date has not been productive OF much
choice, but it has furnished one fine
sample of the sort of rain Do choose II
one has the opportunity, for the pur-
poses we have in view.
This rain was the one which began
on the last night of the year and came
down very nicely all during the morning
of New Year day.
The great advantage Of this type Is
that it permits the householder to make
| either the night before or when he
awakens the next morning.
X
eyes" he yawns to himself, "it is
still raining"
Then he comes to his momentous
conclusion, not that he must get up,
whether he wants to or not, but that
he will honestly take the day of to do
nothing but see the rain come down.
This means that breakfast and so on
will be strictly secondary for the day
to the duty of watching the rainfall
| from every angle.
Only the person who has made work
! his god will believe that there Is only
one angle in a rain-the angle at which
it meets the earth.
There are as many angles as there
are points of contact in the mind Of
! the onloOker.
The very sound of the falling water,
| its slap, slap, slap on broad-leaved ever
greens is a point Of interest, even be-
fore the reluctant light reveals the rain
in earnest.
And that gradual dawn, SO slow, al
most painful In its approach to day.
light, is a spectacular sight to the per-
son who wants to get his moneys worth
from this chosen day. 1t does not
dawn, this morning light but struggles
| into existence, as if 1t were an inter-
loper in dark and gloomy world. Per-
| haps many people, watching such a
morning, would not see a thing spectac-
ular about 1t. But that would be be-
cause they were hurrying to get dressed
or too engrossed in the matter of bacon
and eggs, or obSeSSed with what the
broad day held in store for them later.
Such unfortunates would not see any
thing Interesting even in the display Of
rain after full daylight had come. Prob
ably they would be late and worrying
about catching some particular public
vehicle, or wondering where they had
left their umbrella, or why rains had
to come at ALL not remembering that
this was the first morning rain in
months and months.
X X
Rain before T. clear before H." such
is the old saying. 1t applies, however,
to rains which begin shortly before
that magic hour not to those which
had their origin in the night some time
There is almost always a look to the
sky and an intensity of rainfall which
will enable the meteorological amateur
to tell whether the downpour will con-
dnue past noon.
If he takes the day off for the ex-
press purpose of observations, he will
be best pleased If the rain continues
hour after hour.
Then he can watch the progress of
the water into the earth, its coloring of
tree trunks and shrubs its effect on
sidewalks and streets, what it does to
stucco and wood and brick and stone.
A great deal of honest satisfaction
will come from the contemplation of
past leaks which have been fixed and
now leak no more. Walt Whitman
leaned and loafed at his ease watching
a spear of Summer grass our spectator
does the same with raindropS.