Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1950-01-27
This and That
By Charles E. TraceapeH
FIFTEENTH STREET.

Dear Sir:
Il believe it is your opinion that SQUIRRELS
are jolly little tikes.
Would you say after the following ex-
perience that they also have sense of
humor. or are just little hams?
While in Macpherson square on Sunday
!. with the usual bag of nuts, I was terrified
to see little black Nellie (who had four
babies in early October) racing across the
street, followed by two gray ones.
Traffic was heavy, and closed my eyes.
with terror in my heart
Somehow they made it safely, and soon
began burying their peanuts in the ward
OF John L. Lewis CLIO Building. For few
moments only tails were visible.
Then they started back to the park. DART
ing back and forth between parked cars.
but not daring to cross.
This went on for few minutes and
I finally had to cross the street and stop
traffic
when the way was clear, did they scam
per back?
mo, indeed. All three crossed at most
leisurely pace. 1t reminded me of the parade
of the wooden soldiers, :
"The kind motorists smiled. and drove IN
Sincerely. H. E."
e
The gray squirrel has made a sure place
for itself in the heart of many Washing
Sonians
People feed them at lunchtime, and enjoy
their antics as sort of payment or, rather
good show.
These little beasts are humorists as well
as acrobats. In fact, they may be called
animal clowns, with all the sense of timing
and balance circus clowns have
1t is difficult to put ones mental finger
yttnA ~
one feel this way. They wear no grotesoue
costumes or masks. They have no paint or
tfnsel, ALI they do is what nature tells them
to do. all they have is what she has given
them. But with these things as standard
equipment, they go on to do show every
I day. with one eye on the audience for pay
ment and the other on some figure in the
wings. This Strange figure must be the great
god Pan, who no doubt would look with favor
on the squirrels, so filled with life, zest and
the comic spirit are they
1t is impossible for one who likes animals
TO repel the insistent appeal of the furry
fellows with the fluffy tails.
Cousins of rats, they belong to the most
widespread of animal families.
They are at once shrewd and incapable
They manage to get a living in even the
coolest winters, but many of them fall victim
to automobiles (After all, this is no more
than thousands of human beings do each
year,
Perhaps it is because so many persons
who like them fear for them, and realize
more than they do the odds they are I'D
against in a modern city, that these small
raScals make such an appeal
It is as If one were looking at circus per-
formers whose time was about run out and
every one in the audience knew it,
Today they may escape-but how about
tomorrow?
Then comes. the realization, at least to
some straight thinkers, that they, too, are
IN the same boat, that all mankind is in
the same boat. The animals know no better:
the human beings manage, by incessant BUSH
ness. one way or another and their periodic
wars, to take their minds off the rapids
below. Heigh-ho!
"Heigh-ho!' seems to be the squirrel motto,
too,
They bury their nuts, and find them gone
when they look for them again.
They have their families and see all but
one of the litter killed in the street.
They watch the moving world of human
beings and wonder, in their small way over
all they see, no doubt. But are no more
able than the rest of us to know what
It is all about. They know 1t Is good to
! have come here, and they hope It will be
good to go. Heigh-hoi