Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1875-01-06
SOUR BOYS

Our boy!
Now perhaps some people of philo-
progenitive proclivities may be led to
imagine that tender gush of paternity
is TO follow here. Not bit of it.
Three years ago, when [ first clapped
eyes on "our boy suppose he was
fully twelve years old. Who might
have been Clarence's father [ have not
the least idea about. / suppose some
one cared for the boy, because oc-
o asionally [ had noticed pale young
woman in dingy black gown come
furtively to the front door of the Office,
and pass in to ''our boy a package
done up in a bit of old newspaper, and
t rom the fact that the parcel was
gr easy, was sure it contained food for
eur boy. But who the woman was was
no business of mine, nor of the Office
Clarence got three dollars week, and
wa the errand boy. When he was not
running about the streets he sat in the
darkest part of the dingy Office, before
q ram-shackle table, on which stood
a copying press, for making copies OF
cur correspondence was one of his
fun ctions.
~ wish I could make the boy an object
of sympathy, but if [ tried my very
best I could not. When it was bitter
cold, some three winters ago, and our
boy had on miserably thin jacket,
size too small for him, and when the
E.on-1 md b1o Cl,noc
out at heel and toe, I never committed
greater piece of stupidity in the
world than when I lent him my over
coat and Arctics. Such rank ingrati-
tude on the part of the boy Would
zany one have believed it? In the side
pocket found bit Of cheese, and of
course a grease spot came of it, and my
shoes were run down at the heel
Of course [ rarely exchanged any
words with our boy. Between the
fourth clerk in our office and an errand
boy, the gulf of demarcation In the So
sial scale could not be too strongly &C
centuated. OF course [ was forced
from time to time, to point out to Clar
once his line of duty, and had to ex-
plain to him that tendency to whistle
surreptitiously 10 the Office, or even on
the landing, or to wet the leaves of his
copying book too much, or to blur the
correspondence, or to put three cent
stamp on foreign letter, would inev-
ittably end by his becoming a forgerer
or murderer.
If Clarence had been even cookbook
ing, | might have expatiated on that [
am not, suppose, much of a Judge of
beauty, and suppose, that some lads
have curly hair and blue eyes; but
Clarence was not so favored. His eyes;
were dull ond heavy and In chronic
state of redness, and the hair on his
head always looked to me like widowed
hay. One thing that was commendable
was his punctuality as to luncheon.
Exactly at II o'clock when not running
about, he commenced his repast. His
food was invariably, dry bread and a
lump of putty -like cheese. What the
boy ate or did made, of course, no diff
ference to me, though the monotony of
the meal irritated me. From the zest
with which ne ate it [ was led to suppose
thai 1t was Breakfast and dinner Of
course, to q growing boy, with plenty of
exercise, it made little difference how,
when, or what he ate. [ am no Spartan
nyself, and sandwich and piece of pie
suffiees me any day in the year,
but [ must acknowledge to be
singular as to pies, and vary
that portion of my luncheon with the
season Ten cents, for fourth
clerk of an economical turn of mind
who desplses waste, is a sum of money
mot to be carelessly thrown away. I
knew it was a weakness of mine, when
IL once gave our boy the above men
TONED amount, and [ ordered him in
Ehe most positive terms to lay out the
whole amount in cakes. Separated as
we were from one another by sheet of
ground glass, as | used to be busy over
my books, [ could not help watching
she boy, as the shadow of his head
often came in my way, obs,uring the
dim light. i sat at exactly the same
table some fifteen years ago, and [ sup
pose was an annoyance to the clerk
who used TO occupy my present desk,
Just as Clarence was to me. Over the
errand boys table there hangs to-day,
Just as there had, [ suppose. for the
last fifty years, colored print of
brig, with all sails set, skimming over
Che seas, bound for Funchal, in the Ma
deirae, that port being visible in the
istanse. You can't. see the picture