Delaware state journal. [volume] (Wilmington, Del.) 1870-1883, 1881-02-03
THE HUB" +"
A CRYING URBAN NUISANCE
p" lends In the Abstract and
"Fiends" In the Concrete.
UBIQUITOUS TRASH HUNTERS
How They Ply Their Fell Trade
Some Remarks on Stamp-CoI-
lectors-- Robin'sp Store of
Precious Trihes.
"D0UBLE-RUNNERS' INHERDICTED


BosTcN Jan % NO flowers, is begin
ming to be quite commonly psrentheszed
in our newspaper funeral notices, and
think have seen the stranger legend, mo
presents received" in wedding announce
menis while mo cards has long been
familiar.
Just before the Christmas holidays, on
entering certain large fancy goods estab.
llshment of this city, a large notice on the
door, bearing the same words, mo cards."
somewhat excited my curiosity, and 1t
occurred to me to wonder whether that
establishment recognized kind of duty
devolving upon it to send out gilt-edged
invitations to the public to patronize them,
but heroicaily resolved to do no such
thing, and so posted up the notice as a
hint to the general shopping public that it
need not stand on ceremony, but might
come right in.
Soon, however, I observed the same.au-
nouncement on other shop doors and
windows, and at last it dawned on my
comprehension that it was with the
deapairing hope of exercising the tiend OF
1SSO-'s1. that mo cards. was emblszoned
on every door-post.
There are, and have been, many species
CT the genus fend. Some of the earlier
known varieties are mentioned In the
Scriptures. Others of more modern
origin, are the lunch fsnd," the
"printsr's devil" the confidence man."
the autograph hunter" the "dress-
maker" Bridget the cook" and the
''piano FOUNDER" But the latest discovery
in this line known to science, is the ''card
fend.'
1t is sprite of most mischieyous,
impish nature and delights In taking upon
itself the guise of bright, rosy, we'll
dressed ohiid-boy or girl, but chiefly the
lstter-who makes the rounds of the
stores In town and begs advertising cards,
to the despair and impoyerishment of the
unfortunate proprietors and clerks who
are driven to the brink of insanity and
bankruptcy by the ayalanchian demands
thus made upon them.
| They are strange little iepds with
leech- like perseverance, they will hang on
| and suck the very hearts blood from the
quivering body of business firm; buzz
zing like whole nest of bumblebees
They will find the most exquisitely sensi-
| tive nerve of the case. hardened profess
sional man by coaxing and wailing they
| touch the long hidden and utterly dis
proved souls of corporations and from
all and every source they extract the busi-
ness card. No matter what its style, tone
or subject matter. The elegant French
affairs with dainty pictures on gold back
| grounds which some of cur more "toney"
houses the ordinary or extraordinary PASTE
board OF the taylor, the toyman, the
milliner, the quGck doctor, the crack
lawyer, the home missionary, or the
lager beer saloon-all is fish that comes to
the nets OF these young marauders.
/ no ms ginr 70 INN INV a,,th hpll
candle 10 the card collector-never could,
even 10 the hight of his uotoristy. l sup
pose there isn't newspaper in the land
that hasn't received hundreds of letters OF
Inquiry &c 10 who the party is that offers
TO pay 500 for 1000 Old postage stamps
saying that the writer hes succeeded in
getting 800, aud wishes to know where to
forward them as soon as the last necessary
| stamp completes the number And stamp
books have been standard birthday gifts
to enterprising boys, while cheap way
of winning the eternal gratitude of all our
small relations has been to give them the
refusal of our waste paper baskets
used 10 know man. great grown man,
with plenty of strength and muscle, who
actually made his living out of this postage
stamp mania in young America, by acting
| rs nliddie-man, collecting and distributing.
His Que big advertisement both with
friends and in business, was an article on
postage stamps or the postal system, or
something in that line, which he once
wrote, and actually got published in
Harper's Monthly.
The csrd mania must have a resl,
genuine fascination about it somewhere,
for before its present mighty hold upon
the millions, some six or eight years ago,
1 I NH kaI IL bnI
dis business necessitated very frequent
Call upon business frms-in fact he was
a csuvasses for n city directory, and every
day he brought home his pockets frll of
cards. His trunk, bureau drawers, closets
were piled with them.
"But what in the world will you ever
do with them?' asked his wondering
wife.
"Oh, keep them, They may come In
hand, sometime was the invariable
reply.
Everyone knows the mania for collect
ing circulars, pamphlets. cards and ell
sorts Of trash, which reened supreme over
our people at the Centennial.
And weli-Gfter all, had q touch of II
myself last summer when in Europe, and
just a. my hand nov in big bundle of
gracious knows what the outer wrap
pjngs OF which ere copy of the Paris
Sp@gtfcItS, liit'e publication devoted to
"FlnRnces-beaux aftS-industre-litera
ture," which l bought for four cents of
some little gamiu outside tine Grand
Opera House, on the supposition and
representation that it contained the pro-
gramme Of the opsEa-but which pro.
gYamme was so daxterously hidden in its
columns that didn't fnd it till week
afterwards
From this mysterious bundle also peeps
out q copy of the 'Orders of the Day" IN
the British House of Commous, with very
much be-scribbled margins, the notes on
which | have yet to write out for your
deieetation at some future time. The
programme of 1.-THE Guy'npr" at the
pretty little London Vaudeville Theatre
protTudas corner, and bit of folded
paper which ] havs the curiosity to open,
7 Gnd is 'notice to the public New
"i4ipooln Restaurant, G,. Turnst;le, Hol-
born' with bill OF fare and prices that
would rather surprise you should quote
il here.
and glance at my mantsl shelf eoross
the room, With its conglon rate collection
OF marble chips from old Roman ruins,
bits Of mosaic pavement for Pompsian
dwellings, chunks of lava that picked up
burning hot on the summit of VesuVius,
tiny Swiss chslets no bigger than
thimbie, yet all carved with knife and
perfect in every part; and The whole
tisnked by q row Of menus, taken from
the tables of hotels all over Europe, on
which are strange foods written in stranger
chirographies-why. / suppose after all,
that we all have more or less the mania
for making useless collections Of useless
things.
Since wrote you last the rights Of one
class OF Bostonians has been sadly
invaded. For, those same boys whose
rights to coast on the Common were
supposedly secured to them
by General Gage, and sanctioned by time
till ii had become prescriptive right,
! have been taken in hand BY the tyrannical
aldermen, and their precious ''double-
runners" ordered off, on account of the
repeated accidents that have occurred.
A delegation OF boys visited City Hall to
demonstrate, but times have changed in
hundred years, and they were not happily
received.
A second delegation of owners Of
double-runners was listened to, 1t seems,
by the aldermen they represented that it
was the single sleds that did the mischief
and another argument put forth by them
proved your correspondent quite wrong in
supposing that the Boston girl did not
, coast on the common, for they held out
that double-runners were safer for ladies'