Eureka daily sentinel. [volume] (Eureka, Nev.) 1871-1887, 1877-03-14
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waits CdSb upOu tllO OCdCD vi utlIldII-
ity, and compelled to work out his
own salvation, with no hand to guide
him to honorable manhood; nothing
but a poor little bootblack whose
bright ways and sprightly actions
called forth a smile from those mo-
mentarily attracted by him, an inter
est as soon forgotten. Fortune driited
him to Eureka, and he is as much at
home here as in San Francisco, Chi
cago, or New York. Used to the
hard knocks of life, experience has
taught him all the tricks worth know
ing, or at least enough to enable him
to smooth away the stony places. His
living is assured as long as he can
keep up his stock in trade-a pair of
brushes, a box of backing, and a
wooden footstool. Man, in his eyes, is
a mere machine, to whom the wear
ing of foot covering is a necessity, and
which pride induces him to polish,
and as boots are made to be blackened
he IS ready to exchange the due
amount of manipulation necessary,
intermixed with a running fire of chat,
for the quarters which he earns by his
labors. We interviewed the last gamin
that put in an appearance here, and
give the reader his story for what it is
worth: He was born in Buffalo; his
mother died when he was nine years
old and his father took to drinkingand
left him to make his living as best he
could. His first essay in business was
in the newspaper line, and he man
aged TO subsist on the profits for some
time. The Ministries and music halls
furnished amusement, and his one
ambition IN life was to become a song
and dance man. He vigorously pros
ecuted his studies III this di-
rection, picking up all of
the fancy steps and breakdowns
incident to that profession; an
art that he often practiced for the
amusement of his fellow-news boys.
A wandering circus turned the current
of his ambition, and a few visits to it
fired his breast with the thought that
he, too, after years of labor, might as
pire to the giddy height of life attained
by the great men who dressed in silk
and spangles and urged the noble
steed around the circle of sawdust.
Dropping his newspaper business, he
followed the menagerie in its devious
wanderings, and TO his great delight
was attached to the circus in an hum
BILE capacity, selling a vile detection
called lemonade, and was held strictly
accountable for all funds accruing
from its sale. Wages were no object,
in fact of so little object that he never
got n.y.. The season soon came to a
close and he was out of business once
more, but a kind clown set him up as
a %bootblack. 4 winter spent in New
York exhausted all the excitenients of
the metropolis. Having gone through
"A course of reading-dime novels were
his literary pabuluIn-his mind was
divided as to whether he would be-
come a pirate and carry devastation
the high seas, or go into the
" Wild Bill" trapper line, and devote
the remainder of his life to rescuing
innocent maidens from the clutches OF
the ferocious Indian. The latter idea
finally prevailed, and he set out on his
travels. He has had a great deal of
trouble with the obdurate conductors,
but says he has got II dodge that in
variably procures him a free ride, the
adoption of the role OF a deaf mute, an
assumption that appeals to their sym
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ticket. He has wandered yer every
point of the country, from New York
10 New Orleans, taking in Chicago and
Louis, penetrated the wilds of Col
orado. hob-nobbed with the Mormons,
played keno in Virginia City, and
shouted "he! hill" in the galleries of
the California Theater in San Fran
He is now on his return trip to
the East, and has taken Eureka in in
cidentally. Not finding the typical
Indian so graphically portrayed i'll
these parts as in the blood and thun-
der novels, he has given up the
thought of becoming a frontiersman,
and at present rather inclineS to the
business, and builds castles
in the air as to the future proprietor
ship of a solitaire diamond and a faro
bank. Cankering care has not touched
him, and the future he only sees
through the medium of boyish dreams
and hopes. Bred in life's sternes
school, his habits of self-reliance may
stand him a good part as manhood
creeps on him, and if chance but turn
his capabilities into the right channel,
he may live to forget, or at least look
back without regret to the time when as
now he cried out with merry tongue,