Entertainment begins from that start. But you get history as a preliminary to wealth and fashion, for it so happens that wealth and fashion do not dwell in that part of Pennsylvania avenue.
"Site of first p'lice station in Washington," the young man rattles out through his megaphone. "Oldest hotel in Washington. Washington's Chinatown. Peace Monument. Monument to Albert Pike, Gran' Master of the Southern Masons; only Confederate monument in the city. Home o' Fightin' Bob Evans, there with the tree against the window. His house was--"
"What was that about the Confederates?" the deaf man interrupts from the back seat. The lecturer, with an expression of utter boredom, repeats. At this moment the chauffeur comes into the limelight. He recognizes a girl friend on the sidewalk and in the enthusiasm of that recognition nearly bumps the grandstand into a load of brick. When order is restored and you go forward in a straight course once again, the lecturer resumes--
"On our right the United States Pension Office, the largest brick buildin' in the world and famed for the inaugural balls it has every four years--only it didn't have one las' time. But when Mr. Taft was inaugurated nine thousand couples were a-waltzin' an--"
Some of the folk upon the car look shocked. They come from communities where dancing is taboo, and the lecturer seems to hint at an orgy there in one of the taxpayer's buildings.
"There is also the largest frieze in the world 'round that building," he continues, "an' it ain't the North Pole, either. Eighteen hundred soldiers and sailors--count 'em some day--marchin' there, the sick an' the wounded laggin' behind, the trail of martyr's blood markin' their path, comrade helpin' comrade--all a-bringin' honor an' glory to the flag."
He drops the megaphone to catch his breath and whispers into your ear. He realizes that you have understood him--and half apologizes for himself:
"They like that," he explains, in an undertone. "A little oratory now an' then tickles 'em. An' then they like this:"
"We are travelin' west in F street, the Wall street of Washington, the place of the banker an' broker."
"Ain't we goin' to see the houses of the fashionable people?" demands the wife of the bald-headed Baltimorean. "Now over in our city Eutaw place is--"