Evening star., 1932-04-12
THIS AND THAT
BY CHARLES E. TRACEWELL.

Tigercoat lane is a beautiful road.
We have written of it before and we
shall write CT it again. 1t is pretty
at anv time CT the year. but pecu-
liarly lovely in the Spring.
Especially on a rainy day. or just
before the Tain begins. it is sour g
OF pleasure and pride for any resident
OF the community to walk along it.
Surely there is no other street, road.
thoroughfare, avenue or whatever one
chooses to call it, which quite equals
this in sheer perfection.
The homes along it are good to fine,
but this is not it, The roadway winds,
but 1t takes more than a curve to make
beauty.
The trees are old and noble, the
shrubs manv and large, the flowers
which shortly will be bursting into
bloom. both appropriately planted and
profuse but all these things. neces-
Scry though they are to a noble way.
do not in themselves explain the charm
Of Tigercat lane.
No doubt it is the combination of
them all which makes this at once one
of the most interesting as well as one
of the most beautiful streets which
we have, ever seen. Its very lack Of
perfection in some details renders it
all the more pleasing.
This is no Hollywood street, fair with
plucked eyebrows and a wide smile
showing perfect teeth. II is not Pari-
sian or Roman, it does not remind one
of a slice OF the English countryside.
1t is wholly and appropriately Ameri-
can.
No star-spangled banners are neces-
Sary to prove this.
one has but to set foot at its in
conspicuous beginning because it Is
rather narrow-to realize thGt he is
travelling along the open road OF which
Wait Whitman sang.
Even the automobile has not managed
to spoil it,
Years ago, when this section of nearby
Maryland seemed tremendous distance
from Washington, and street cars and
carriages were the only means OF trans
portation, aside from ones legs. the
pioneers of the section built themselves
homes and laid out their gardens
Although they did not do it con-
sciously perhaps. they were lar IN ad-
vance OF their time, because they held
to every contour of their grounds and
refused to permit the mechanical eye
of the builder to do what is called grad
ing
How the minds of some human beings
revel in grading! They would grade
the noblest mountain that ever thrust
its peak into the sky until it was no
more than a foothill. If they had their
way about such things.
They would reduce home grounds to
a level mediocrity. in the name OF per-
feet drainage and iron out every little
rise and fall in terrain on the plea that
it would make fencing easier.
X +
On Tigercat lane the pioneers left
their trees standing. They failed to
worry because ground surfaces were not
perfectly fiat One homeowner built
one way. the next another, both within
the province of good taste.
The result was that this winding road
must have been a paradise before the
hey-dey of the automobile. One can
see it as it must have been then. with
its fine old homes, its great trees, its
shrubs and flowers, its carriages rolling
along. here and there a dog or cat
ambling leisurely or perhaps stirred to
much running at the sight OF squirrel
or hopping rabbit.
Today the homes are still there, the
great trees. the fine irregularity, the
shrubs. the flowers, the winding narrow
road. but the dogs and cats are gone.
warned away by that higher sense
which tells them Of danger
Zip! Zip! Zip!
Those syllables represent. not bullets,
but passing cars. One can put Tiger
cat lane on paper. to some extent, at
least, but it is impossible to put the
automobiles there, for in some ways