Evening star., 1946-05-24
This and That
By Charles E. TraceueU.

Templeton Jones manages to get more
sheer fun out of nothing, or almost
nothing, than any contemporary man
alive
Most persons in his shoes the othe,
morning would have had to see the faces
OF the participants to have enjoyed the
affair.
Jones did not
Four pairs of shoes were all he had
to see, to be able to stage drama in
his own mind.
Pedal extremities usually are not very
interesting, except to boot manufactur-
ers, chiropodists and the like.
What attracted Templeton Jones at
tention was the color of the mans
shoes, as he stood in the crowd on the
public vehicle.
They were of fine light brown, but
their feature was the series of holes
which punctured the fine light brown,
These holes were for the purpose of
letting In air; Jones remembered the ad
IN the paper. He had been attracted at
the time, and had determined to buy
himself a pair.
NOW here were the very shoes. on the
floor in front of him, visual demon
stration unplanned by any selling art
Jones looked over the shoes, and as
much of a pair of gray clad trousers
as he could see
There was not spot on the shoes.
not mar, nor a mark.
Nobody had stepped on them. or
scuffed them, and here was their owner
as casual as could be, standing there
without a thought to his unmarried
SHOES, while scores of feet trod bv him
narrowly missing.
Templeton Jones sighed.
II he-and he accented the che " so
let us do 1t-had on new pair of shoes
they would be stepped on. kicked
trampled, trod on, buffeted. slugged ali
within two minutes
BY the time his turn came to get off
each toe would show the marks of
trayei' one where the fat lady put her
Dig loot down, and the other where q
schoolboy scuffed over them.
Between fat ladies and schoolbovs
1empleton Jones shoes had a hard time
of it. " i''''o u 'i''ie
This guy was standing there without
care In the world; as the blocks passed
Jones, the watcher, envied him. He
watched particularly the high heeled
snoeS OF young woman in black This
glris heels were so high that the man
IN the light brown shoes was able tn
slloe one immaculate rim of sole
squarely beneath them.
Inc slightest motion of the bus and
sle might step backward. marring those
virgin soles.
Jones held his breath
linen She did it-back she went-hut
we man was not there. In moment of
aoScractlon, he had pulled his own feet
oack"aro bit. The lady missed bv half
an inch. W 1'"ii
90 IL went, all down the long avenue
tne Drown shoes never getting so much
as smudge on them, while their owner
totally unconscious of both them and
iempleton Jones' fascinated gaze ch,no
to his stanchion. --e
The question which will be nertnrb-
-s Lii1 reader as 1t did Jones, is how
much longer could it 60 on
Jones knew that the chances were Inn
70 l-or, better, about "A to that
SOMEBODY would step on 'em.
Jones felt sure that if they had been
MS precious shoes, they would not have
gone block without fat lady
just at this point in the Jonesian MUS
lngs, the man in the light brown shoes
decided to get off, so he made for the
back door, as transit officials urge YOU to
90. And Templeton Jones never knew
whether those shoes got smudged or not
but he was willing to bet that they
didn't, and are still blithely going their
unsullied way in crowded town.