Evening Star Newspaper, May 19, 1925, Page 23

THE EVENI Standing Room Only BY IRVIN S. COBB. (Copyright, 1925, by Consolidated Magazine Corporation.) JOne of a series of the | | year's best short | stories. I _(Continued from Yesterday's Star.) He stayed on until late in the after- noon. He forget all about luncheon. A great calm, so pleasant that it cured him of hunger, had come upon him. Te had found one spot in New York where there neither was idle and mless clamor nor vain hurryings and scurryings to and fro. The fune ral processions, motor driven for the most part, which entered here might hasten on eir way hither, might hasten after they had with- drawn, with the now empty hearse rolling briskly on ahead. But once | inside the high walls and all the while they were inside there was a slow and solemn decorum to govern their move- ments. People going along the winding | loitered as they went, spelling | » one another the name on some | impressively large mausoleum or upon | base of some particularly tall| shaft. The loosed yellow leaves drop- | ping from the tr seemed to spiral | toward the earth very, very slowly.| s though they would cover the graves | as not to disturb the sleep ers beneath. But that, of course, was no more than a fanc 1 reason was that not enough wind stirred to the leaves about as they came n through the air. With the calm a great idea came to | the old turtlelooking man who had| been sitting fo® so long on a bench | where the plots climbed up and over| nd on beyond gentle rise in the| land. He took steps in the matter Before he loft he had speech with a | young man behind a desk in a small stone office building near the gate. The building was modeled like a tem ple, but the young man was quite businesslike—oh, quite. He e Mr. Oldham a little {llus- trated booklet and with it an address | where further negotiations might, if | desired, be carried on. This was the idea. Call it fantastic call it morbid, if you want to. Still, | this was it: New York had had its | big joke on him; now he would have | his little joke on New York. He'd| lick her at her own favorite game.| He'd show her there was, anvhow, a | place inside the city limits t s | shut -away from noise and bustle—a | place where an old fellow whose pi were sort of beginning to give out on | him could take his ease and rest his feet. “Tubby sure, there'll be birds around, too, and plenty of nice smooth srass and trees and flower beds and all, but I ain't thinking so much about them. I'm thinking of the quiet and the company there'll be, and the| chance to do nothing but just rest and | loaf for a_hundred year: He said this to himself after he! started back. He was on a surface r again, with one withered hand hooked into a strap, swaying with the motion as the car sped along between | the blocks, jostling against other standees when it stopped or started. This trip he had given his seat to a voung woman all in black and with a baby in her arms. He went on: Yes, sir, first thing in the morning I'm going to that thére address and see about buying a lot. I always fig- ured that when my time came I'd be taken back and lald away beside mother. But mother, she'll understand same as she always did during our married life together. She won't mind. She'll know it'll just be my way of get- ting back at them here in this town, just my way of putting an everlasting laugh on 'em. But I won't say any- thing about it to Gussie and Oscar till afterward. They might not objec seeing that the lot'll b just the same as theirs and ready for their use if either of them should pass on. Still, they might. So I'll just keep quiet about it till the deal i3 closed and the deed’s in my pocket. That'll be best.” The standee immediately alongside zave a_derisive grunt and scrooged away. He was suspicious of these old dodoes who talked to themselves out loud on a street car; probably they | aian’t were crazy or something. Besides, didn’t we have troubles of our own? “Tell it to somebody else,” he said petulantly fo Mr. Oldham. “Me ears is takin' a Sunday oft.” But old Mr. Oldham mnever got a chance to tell it to anybody else. He may have been confused or perhaps he only was abstracted. But going to sleep with your eyes open is a mighty bad business on any one of our more populous avenues. even on a Sunday. Rather stiffiy. his legs being cramped, he stepped off the rear platform after the car had haited for him at his cor- ner, but instead of turning eastward toward the Sultana Court. as he should have done, he turned westward, and just as he came from behind the car another car passing uptown struck him and flung him aside and flat on his back, and his hat flew off and his bare head came down with a knock agalnst the outer rail of the south- bound track. One of the eye-witnesses said that he saw the whole thing, and it was the old fellow's fault, because he didn't look where he was going. But he changed his mind after the attorney for the plaintiff got to him that eve- ning. A socond eye-witness was equally positive that the motorman of the northbound car was to blame for not having rung his bell and for just bulging along as if he was going to a |fire and “never caring nothing about the rights of people crossing the street. It was things like this wot made Socialists and Anarchists out of people™; he sald so repeatedly. And he change his mind, aithough a special legal investigator for the trac tion company tried to get to him the next day. The attorney for the plaintiff ch: tered a taxicab and followed the v tim to the hospital. Ie seemed to have an understanding with the po liceman and with the interne who pre- ceded him, humped up in the back of the ambulance.. Statistically speak- | ing, the New York eficiency grades very high. There are 11,500 undis- barred lawvers in New York and 11,700 policemen, and while the figures touch- ing on the average yearly number of street accldents show a constant in- crease, the gratifying fact yet remains that for each there is, sooner or later, a policeman to make a report on it and A lawyer specializing in actionable damage claims against offending cor- porations or individuals. In this case the lawyer was in evi- dence as quickly almost as the officiat- ing policeman was, and some minutes before the ambulance arrived. He bobbed up as the crowd was forming and helped carry the injured party out of the roadway to the sidewaik, and while en route announced his offi- cial connection with the affair. And as soon as his hands were free he pro- duced his professional card for proof of “I'm the counsel for this poor old The Velvet Kind ICE CREAM Jjumpman,” he said in a loud, warning voice. “I'm in charge here.” Stand- ing almost above Mr. Oldham, as though on guard over him, he ‘ook out a little notebook. *“Now, let's see —how many of you ladies and jump- men saw this here injury inflicted on my client here? I'll take the names down. I'm Counselor Pincus, prac ticing in all the courts, so don’t be afraid to speak up; and don't let this motorman here or this conduct or anybody try to bulldoze you. tect you in your rights same as I'm nov:] protecting my unfortunate client in hi Old Mr. Oldham had nothing to ¥ in the matter, being unconscious and breathing heavily. He was dead when they lifted him out of the ambilance. The autopsy showed extensive com- pound fracture of the skull, with spi- nal dislocation. It seemed that Gussie had lately be- come very deeply interested in crema- tion. She hadn’t said much about it, but, really. cremation had appealed to her as the most sensible thing: so many prominent and cultured people had taken it up, too. Oscar agreed with her. Her idea was that there should be a nice simple, quiet service at the bur- fal parlor over in East 69th street, and after that a private cremation out at the lovely dignlified crematory on Long Island. Then, when they got time from settling up estate and arranging about the lawsult against the street car company, she and Oscar would get on the train with the ashes and take them out to Tecumseh Center to be interred in the burying ground there. One of the beauties of crema tion was that there needn’t be any great hurry about it. There wasn't. So may things kept occurring to keep them from making the trip. When she felt stronger, af ter recovering from the first terrible shock of it and all. and was equal to| the trip, Oscar couldn't get off from his business. And then first one thing and then another happened and they kept putting it off. The ashes were delivered in a chuste bronze urn. It was a very small urn Gussie was shocked by the smallness of it when the undertaker brought it One might have thought—did one who lately has been bereft suffer one's self to think such terrible thoughts—that an incinerated cat or a bird even Houses Built On Hope 6-Room Gray Brick Homes Seventh and Hamlin E'VE tried to ) Payable $350 Cash Drive or trolley out N. Seventh Street. 925 15th Street Phone Mam 9770 T'll pro- | gray brick homes all the features of construction that you've wanted but never really hoped to find in houses you could afford—6 bright rooms, front porch, built-in refrigerators, built-in ga- rage, hardwood floors upstairs and down— $7, . Capitol St. and Michigan Ave. to Monroe St., then three squares south om W.X\am&- N 3 STAR, might have made more ashes than a human being did. The urn might be small but it was not unornamental. Still, naturally no matter how deeply you mourned for} a departed loved one and no matter how constantly you treasured that loved one’s memory, you couldn’t have a thing like that around in sight where people would see it and be asking questlons about it. Now., could you? Most of our apartment house dwellers like to move to other apart- ment houses about once in so often; but not so the Oscar Tates; they were different. As Gussie often said. it suited them just to get settled in a cozy ook somewhere and stay settled and not be gadding about over the country. Perhaps that helps to ex- plain further why there were so many postponements of what necessarily would be a very sad and distressing journey back to Missouri. When their lease expired Sultana Court they renewed three ‘years more. Gussie kept the | urn tucked away in a safe place | where no one would disturb it—on the upper shelf in the closet of the spare bedroom. It was the little rear room, | opening on the inner court—the room that quivered more than the front bed. | room did when the “L” trains passed | or the subway trains ran through underground, or whatever happened that caused those little tremors to run | up the back wall of the building. | What with this and that, the shelf where she.put the urn, pushing it well into a corner behind the jamb of the closet door, was pretty well crowded: vou know how odds and ends accu- mulate in an apartment. There was standing room for it THE END. Story and illustrations copyrichted, 19 the International Magazine Co.. In at it the | for | VERDICT NOT GUILTY. Fl_eed_ of Jharge Based on Actress’ Complaint. NEW YORK, May 19 (@ Binyon, who described himself as oil promoter from Fort Worth, Te | vesterday was acquitted in spe | sessions ‘on a charge of possessing a | revolver in violation of the Sullivan law. Binvon was arrested 10 davs ago on complaint of Miss Edythe | Sterling, a vaudeville actress, who | charged that he attempted to kill her in _the lobby of the Hollywood Hotel Binyon's ‘counsel maintained that | the pistol which the police said they | found in Binyon's possession was not | his cllent’s. A charge of felonious as- ! 1t against Binyon was dismissed | last week by a grand jury. 0il Promoter Most of us should carry repair kits to mend our broken promises. ts. N.E. embody in these trim $67.56 Monthly 975 Evening Phones Col. 5335 and Cleve. 1933 Wednesday Last Day of Sale =SS — =3 P! TO 614 ilipsborn 11th ST. NWa - OUR 3-DAY ADVANCE SALE At the Advance Sale Price of M Choice of 15 Beautiful New Styles in Bow Pumps, Buckle Pumps, Opera Pumps, Plain Straps, Fancy Straps, Sandals. OF THE SEASON’S NEWEST STYLES IN MUCH HIGHER PRICED WHITE KID FOOTWEAR Every shape and height heel. Our annual advance sale of white kid footwear ends tomorrow and you may choose from the season’s smartest styles in genuine white kid. Marked for regular selling at much higher prices, at the sale price of $5.95, making the savings most unusual. Every woman who is going to wear white footwear this Summer should by all means attend this sale, as the values are greater, Sizes 21, to 8—AA to’'C the styles more beautiful than ever offered before. We Do Not Quote Comparative Prices s WASHINGTON, D. C., TUESDAY, U. S. OFFICIALS SEIZE CONTRABAND ARMS Guns and Ammunition Consigned to China Found Aboard Liner at Dallas, Tex. By the Associated Press. DALLAS, Tex., May 19 ammunition valued at several thou- sand dollars were seized as contraband aboard the Dollar liner President Lin- coln by customs officials just before the vessel put to sea Saturday, bound (fior the Orient, it was revealed yester- ay. The shipment was destined for de- -Arms and is dead ! —destroys roaches. _ before your eyes. Just spray i roaches. on them. dead! No muss. No mor® roaches. DETHOL every bug. Rid your home o —Sure. spray sprayer, $1.00. Dethol Manufacturing Co., In ( Make sure every ROACH where they hide. Out come the Another spray or two Sweep them up— No bother. IMPROVED is certain death to all pests today. Simple—Safe De IMPROVEDI ' 1f not satisfied with Improved Dethol, favor us by askin your money back. Half-pints, 50c: Pints, 75c Gallons, $4.00. Combination package containin MAY livery in Chinz, presumably to Chi nese revolutionists, and was consigned from San Francisco’s Chinatown, it was said by authorities working on the case. The embargo against ship- ment of arms to China has been in effect for several months, during which several smaller seizures of contraband goods have been made here. A lastminute search of the President Lincoln disclosed several boxes and barrels of rifles, light ma- chine guns and ammunition. The services of a Chinese interpreter were required to decipher the Chinese markings. An oil barrel was found to contain eight shoulder machine guns Authorities are investigating in an endeavor to determine the ideatity of tie consignor. 19, 1925. Il = The sugar crop of the world will be | 14 per cent greater this year than last, according to official estimates. IMPROVED DETHOL, with its wonderful new secret formula Kills them t f | for | Quarts, $125; | pint can and | ., Rickmond. Va JAPANESE NOBLE DIES. Marquis Tokugawa, Brother, Expires in Tokio. TOKIO, May 19 (#).—Marquis Rai- Prince rin Tokugawa, brother of Iyesaca Tokugawa, died here today. Prince’s 23" ant of a former Dalmyo of Kishu, ond of the three branches of the Tokuga- wa family, which ruled Japan for up- ward of iwo centuries. He was born |in 1872 and studied for several years in England. Unlike his brother, the prince, who {s president of the House of Peers and was Japanese delegate to the Washington conference in 1921, the marquis took little part in public for the asking a booklet of unusual recipes WaiTe for this booklet. It contains selected ipes for making sppetizers, soup sand- wiches, salads and entrees that are different, unusual and practical. delightful, tempting dishes. family with luscious olive treats. the booklet. card will bring Learn to make these Surprise your A post- Addre: ion American Importers of Spanis! Green Olives, 200 Fifth Dept. 4. S Avenue, New York City. GREEN OLIVES - S 1010 0 0 0 0 8 R B R P vl i k! e K our Country. Conspicuous Service MERICAN SECURIT S AND TRUST COMPANY o 15th and Penna. Ave. Capital, Surplus an d Undivided Profits Over. $6,000,000 BRANCHES : Towering high above all structures and visible from e very point in the District of Columbia, this monument adequately commemorates the lofty principles of the Father of The far-reaching service rendered by the American Security and Trust Company is evidenced by the increasing number of customers at the five convenient banking offices. Central—7th and Mass. Ave. N.W, Northeast—8th and H Sts. N.E. Southwest—7th and E Sts. S.W. Northwest—1140 15th St. N.W Total Resources Over Thirty-Eive Millio