The Delaware ledger. (Newark, Del.) 1879-19??, 1884-03-01

|
Jerry Barns has been In the employ
of some one Of the Highway Depart
ment contractors in Philadelphia for
thirty of his sixty years. During this
time he has been engaged almost exclu-
sively In the repair of sewers. At least
one-quarter of his life has been spent
under the cobblestones. Through long
association with things oozy and reptil-
ian Jerry has gained himself a some
what oozy and reptilian aspect. His
eyes are bleared. They look closely
down each side of his nose, which is
long and seems to overlap his retreating
chin. There were traces of sewer mud
on the bottom of his trowseIs as he
stood in the courtyard of the Public
Buildings in that city recently. Per-
haps there was an atmosphere of sewer
dampness about him. Perhaps his ap-
pearance only suggested it.
Jerry's life having been spent in sew
ers, Jerry's idea is that great sewer is
the noblest of earthly creations. He
gloated over the building of the big Sc
cond street sewer and rejoiced at the ex-
cavation Of the subterranean Schuylkill
/, on Girard avenue. These things SEEM
ed greater to him than the long-promised
completion of the Post Office or the
erection of the Penn Square sarcopha-
gus. His life is a dream of sewers,
Whan tho orraat Dor;oia,, ea,uora ,,,a,n
exploited and illustrated with pictures
Of parties boating through them and
later on of Gardes Mobile watching,
with fixed bayonets, the advent of Prus-
sian spies and jabbing for fun and a
fricassee the sewer rats, Jerry's eyes
stuck out with delight, envy and incre-
dulity. Lately the desire of his life has
been to visit the great new Boston sew
ers.
Jerry has met and vanquished strange
foes in the substrata. He is a Shiny st.
George with a great many dragons.
The lesser OF these, the small fry of
blind Lizards and big rats, that he
meets daily in his underground rambles
he cares little for, save when troop of
the latter grow bold enough, as they
did last fall, to drive him up a Della.
ware avenue manhole. He has had one
experience, however, which he told on
Saturday for the thousandth time per-
haps.
Back in $50, when it happened, the
|, Callowhill street sewer was clogged in
a nasty bend near Seventh street. Res
idents of the neighborhood told strange
stories of the noises that came up
through the waste-p!pes, and all roman
tic minds imagined the presence of an
, escaped prisoner in the sewer. That
there were something strange in the
: place was evident TO the workman who
opened the trap for Jerry to go down.
e Most of the noise was splashing and
9 stopping. The escaped prisoner idea
I gained ground.
Though no one" said Jerry, "could
: tell where he'd escaped from, unless it
was the Morgue at the foot of Noble
9 street."
Jerry went down with his candle. He
;ame back without it.
81 threw the dip into the things
l jaws and climbed up in the divil's own
hurry" he said. How to get the alli-
n gator, for such it was, out to the sewer,
was the next question. Someone thought
j of angling for it with roast of beef,
but Jerry knew that the monster must
y have grown up in the place and that he
g would therefore be blind. Finally the
bright idea occurred that residence in
S a sewer ought not to destroy the sense
: of smell if it did that of sight. A very
t rank piece of beef was accordingly let
I down.
whether he smelled that or not l
Y don't know" said Jerry, "but after I'd
laid for him for about two hours with a
q gun, he struggled under the manhole
and l popped HIM. He was about half
grown. The news spread all over town,
and pretty soon along came seafaring
> man with fire in his eye. D-n ye,' sez
Ihe 'what'd ye kill my alligator for9'
: at turned out that the sailor chap
lived down near the foot of Willow
!, street and had lot Of young alligators
= that he'd brought back from Florida in
tub in his back yard. This one escaped
and came up the sewer, lilSin' the slime,
| s'pose' and lookin' for pickaninnies.
| s'pose he lived on Lizards. Anyway,
this sailor man was mad as blazes and
said that if we'd sent for him he'd coax
ed the brute up the manhole."
Jerry rid the neighborhood of Seven
, teenth and Spring Garden streets once
! of worse pest than an alligator. This
was polecat that had been depreciat-
, ing valuable property in the neighbor-
hood for about a month in the summer
of 1880. He lived in the sewer and
came out of an inlet atnlght.
81 croaked him just as lie stuck his
nose into the moonlight one evening"
: said Jerry.
The sewer rats are said to be friends
of Jerry. In the heavy sewer freshet of
September, 1882, hundreds of these
4 animals were drowned. Contractor
; Armstrong says that Jerry buried them
q all in Delaware mud and has never been
the same man since.