Evening star., 1935-12-24
BY ALICE ROGERS HAGER.

By Allie hOUEhS hAOEh.
LYING home for Christmas!
! - Sliding over the Allegenies, in
! natty little blue and red
Il streamlined plane that eats up
the miles into Washington, or roaring
down from the North on giant silver
wings of a southbound ship-it's all
the same way home when the Monu-
ment comes into sight.
What far cry from those other
home coming ChristmaSes of earlier
WaShingtonianS, who, en- horseback,
| by stage coach or behind torturous
old Tom Thumbs of the locomotive
| world crawled back to feast with the
| that ranged from weeks of danger
and hardship and discomfort in Colo
| NAL times to days of soot-Streaked,
| cinder- -in-the-eye travel a generation
/ ago. They took their leisurely fun
as they found it and spiced it with
adventurous wayside ale
Today's air traveller Stares about
him with the pride of the eagle and
| finds white Christmas world at his
feet. But his great advantage is that
he can be in California the morning
of Christmas eve and still eat turkey
at the parental board in the Capital
on the day of days.
1t is a glafaorous trail, this home
coming of festal generations. In the
early days when Abigail Adams was
| hanging her tableclothS to dry in the
east room at the White House and
Pennsylvania avenue was a sea of
mud in Winter, the young city's home
corners were noteworthy by their
scarcity. A deerskin-clad figure might
stride in on foot to one of the humber
| cabins on the edge of the new settle
ment or mud-splashed coach stop
before a mansion in Georgetown to
discharge a gentleman in satin small
clothes and powdered peruke-they
invariably caused comment and COL
lected a gogglying crowd. In the
seventies and eighties, after the Civil
War, the men would more often be
lean and hard bitten and marked by
extreme dignity and their ladies
hustled and bonneted and anxiously
shepherding young crew through
the dangers" of the train shed"
The holiday spirit animated them all
but comfort was at premium. Even
as recently as a decade ago, trans
continental homecoming was matter
of almost a weeks duration.
Passengers From Everywhere.
But suppose we fly home today
Let's start in Chicago (it might just
as we'll be Detroit or Cleveland or
any other station you wish, but Chi
cago makes a good central point for
any section of the country. Here
the proud gray skyliners come in from
the West, with trails over mountain
and plains left behind them. Pas
sengers from the prairie States meet
and jostle good humoredly with Anti
podeans who yesterday stepped
ashore at the Pacific ports from ves-
sells hailing from exotic lands below
the horizon. Everywhere in the wait
ing rooms and around the ticket win
dows crowds testify to the correct
ness of the airlines' statement that
holiday air travel has almost doubled
this year over last. especially where
long haul passengers are concerned.
And they are light-hearted crowds,
joking, laughing. many of them col
lege students, many business men,
but all going home"
Our ship is standing on the line,
the trinity uniformed young pilot
waiting to check us in. Baggage dis
appears into its special compartment:
we step up into the roomy cabin and
are enscounced in deep, comfortable
chairs, with wide view windows
through which to watch the world go
by. Shortly, the copilot climbs
aboard, the door is slammed shut, we
fasten our safety belts and are off
into the frosty air, mounting up with
the towering city looming ever small
er behind us.
Boys Entertained.
Two small boys, with pretty dark
haired mother, are whispering to-
gether across the aisle, watching with
fascinated gaze the houses going by