Evening star., 1944-10-29
lust Between
Ourselves.
By Philip II. Love


Sitting at my desk, going through
my notebook preparatory to writing
this column, happened to glance
out the window. It had been rain
ing when I came to the ONCE; in
fact, 1t had been raining off and on,
as the saying is, for two or three
days. Now, however, it was clear,
cool and windy.
I think it was the wind that
caused me to look out the window.
1t was open few inches at the top,
and the wind reached In and set the
shade to tapping furiously.
But didn't look at the shade.
The dome Of the Capital distracted
me.
From my particular window on the
seventh floor of The Star Building
the grayish white dome of the Capt.
tol is always beautiful and in
spring sight. But this time it
looked different.
1t wasn't that the dome glistened
In the sunlight. Except when there
isn't any sun, 1t always does that.
Maybe it was because the sky was
dark and threatening. Or maybe it
was only my mood. I'd just been
reading about Gen. MacArthur's
dramatic return to the Philippines.
And l felt warm and tingley with
pride and satisfaction.
He said he'd go back, I thought,
and now he's done it. And then !
became aware of the Capitol.
Against the dark blue of the heav-
ems, it looked more white than
gray, and the Statue of Freedom
seemed as green and promising as
the first shoots of grass in a new
lawn. Two flags near the base of
the dome fiuttered in the wind, and
the red looked redder, the white
whittier and the blue bluer than I'd
ever seen them before.
And all that, for some reason,
reminded me Of girl once knew
1t was about 10 years ago, guess,
and she lived next door to me for a
couple of months, until the Govern
ment transferred her father to
California.
Her name escapes me-all but
the first part, Ann-because, as I've
indicated, I knew her only briefly,
and it was long time ago. But I
do remember that she was IA, and
that she'd come here only short
time before from somewhere out
West
Anyway, I gave her and her older
sister a lift" downtown one day,
and as I swung my car around
Stanton Park and back into Mary
/ land avenue NE, she exclaimed:
"Oh-there's the Capitol"
| I had never thought much about
the Capitol. I'd been driving past
it for years, I'd even been inside of
it many times, but-well, I sup
pose I just took it for granted.
You sound thrilled" observed.
Thrilled" Ann repeated. Il
never get over being thrilled at the
sight of the Capitol"
You should have seen her the
first time she saw It," AIMS sister
put in. I'm fact. you should have
seen both of us"
Yes" Ann said, you should have
seen us. I guess you won't under
stand how it is; you1l think we're
silly, because you're used to seeing
the Capitol. But to us it was just
a word, just a picture you see on
postcards and in newspapers and
magazines. 1t wasn't really real.
And then" she went on, I'VE
came to Washington, and we saw
the Capitol, and it really was real.
There it was-right before our very
eyes. And you know what we did?
We cried!"
didn't think Ann and her sister
silly, but I didn't understand why
the sight Of the Capitol made them
cry, either.
I didn't, that is, until the day the
wind set my window shade to slap
ping, and I looked out the window
and got to thinking about Gen. Mac
Arthur.
It's been long time since he's
seen the Capitol It's been a long
time since lots of other Americans
have seen it. And when they do see
it. the sun and the wind and the sky
may not be the same as they were
the day 1 glanced out the window.
But, even SO, I'll bet they'll under
stand what Ann and her sister
meant.
One Of the most interesting fea-
lures of last Sundays Junior Star
was q story headed, Fairfax High
School Has It's Own WPA, and It's
Fun, Too" 1t was the work of
Jacqueline Monroe OF Burke, Va.
Jacqueline wrote the story in long
hand and it had to be retyped. The
only trouble was that for some in
explicable reason the typist mis-
took the words Burke, Virginia." for
the name Of the writer, and alas
the story came out labeled by Vir-
ginia Burke" The error wasn't dis
covered until We tried to send Vir-
ginia Burke the 81 prize; then
little research disclosed that Virginia
was really Jacqueline, and vice versa
But Jacqueline got the prize and
this is just to let her and her friends
know we're sorry she didn't get the
credit, too.
Uncle Rav'S Co.