The sun. [volume] (Morris, Stevens County, Minn.) 1882-1895, 1885-08-20
WHAT A GENT WILL BUY.
Tho Meagou Expenditures Possible with q
Solitary Copper-Tramps and Beggars
Object to It. Street-Car Owners Like
II, but Hunger 1t Can Not Ap.

Solitary COpper-Tramps and Beggars
Object to It. Street-Car Owners Like
IT. but Hunger 1t Can Not Ap.
The man who has only cent is very
little better off than the man who is
without cent. Hardly anything of
value to life can be purchased for
cent, and indeed the familiar copper
coin was not inaptly described BY
Washington street tramp as "a coin
OF exceptional aggravatingness." The
wandering gentleman had seen better
days, and, although there are doubt
less times when his mouth can equal
his nose in disreputable demeanor, the
polite overtures and the cigar of the
newspaper man were received with
sentences of appreciation betraying a
past which included education.
"As take it, said he, "a cent is
just the amount of money the street.
car people swindle out of every pas
senger-and cents in piles are not to
be despised,-or else you can buy an
evening paper with a murder in it,
that's about all. Now, as l don't ride
in cars, and l don't care much about
the new police regulations which l
read in the paper, always wait until
l get another cent, because with two
cents can get dip of rnm. It's bad
liquor, but don 1t tickle your throatp"
and the wandering gentleman chewed
for while on his tongue.
IA cent is the meanest coin on
earth," he continued with vehemence.
"Old ladies would always give you
nickel, and so would benevolent old
gentlemen, only the cents come handi-
est-of course you say thank you, SIR
and 'Gawd bless you, num- but you
feel inclined to chuck it back, anyhow.
What can you get. with itp Nothing;
not even enough bread to kill hunger
for a while-thank you, SIR" and the
tramp slouched away with an cleo
mosnyary dime, down Seventh street,
slumwards, and disappeared through
the portals of the "Blazing Rag"
Close to that unsavory hostelrie there
are several little stores called general
shops" where the very poor buy near
" ali their necessities. The news
paper man entered one of the stores
and, finding an old acquaintance of
former stories behind the counter, was
soon in discussion on the cent and
what can be obtained for that coin.
II guess good many of my custom
ers are cent Ones" said the store
keeper, brawny Irishman, "but it's
precious little that they get. You can
buy this roll" showing very diminu-
tive loaf, "but there amt more than
four bites in it; or you can take your
choice of crackers, two of them, or
four of those, or one of them, but
they'd be no use to a hungry man.
You can buy head of cabbage for a
cent, but cabbage amt no use without
a fire to cook it, unless you're goat
or rabbit. Then you can get bit of
soap, brown, coarse stuff, which makes
everything smell what it washes, or
cents worth of snuff, or tobacco, or
skein of thread, or two needles, or one
pickle, or one onion, or apple, or five
sticks of wood, enough to start a fire.
or short tallow candle, or paper of
pins, or two ounces of flour, or little
vinegar. or some coal oil. The oil is
about the best thing you can get, as it
is enough to keep lamp burning all
night. Then you can buy two envcl-
opes or two sheets of writing paper,
box of matches, six gum drops, mon
key on stick, shoe-lace, small
package of pepper, starch, or a good
lump of salt, or large handful of
soda, and that's about the list.
cts the fve-cent piece that is the
coin of the poor in this country, not
the cent. In England penny can buy
good meal. There are soup kitch-
ems all over London where you can get
bowl of thick pea broth or stewed
GELS for one copper, or you can buy a
large piece of fried fish or bag of
fried potatoes, or half pint of beer or
porter, or half pound or more of
bread, OF rasher of bacon, or
sleeps tongue, or a big plate of Irish
stew, made of potatoes and Australian
mutton, or thick slice of plum pud-
ding, or plateful of pease pudding.
You can quite satisfy your hunger for
q penny in London, just as you can for
five-cent piece here, but you can't do
it for cent, and hope you will never
have to try"
A young woman entered the store,
dirty and unkempt but good-looking,
and purchased cents worth of snuff.
That's the former wife of the old
blind beggar," said the store-keeper.
"The Press wrote all about the mar
riage three years ago, She's left him
now, got divorced, she says, and now
she's taken to snuff and young man
as mends umbrellas. 1t was all on 40
count of the yellow dog"
Chow do you meanT
s.Why, when the baby of the blind
man was christened last winter, as you
remember, cause you was present,
Mrs. Flanagan, the mother-in-law,
threw 1at-iron at the yellow dog and
broke it's skull, just because the poor
animal felt deserted that evening and
took to bowling. The blind beggar
valued that dog an awful lot, loved it,
so to speak, and wouldn't believe but
what his wife had egged her mother on
to killing of it and they never were
friends again. The baby died and he
didn't 20 to the funeral, but the fuss
he made over the body of the yellow
dog was trying, You see he and that
dog had tramped lots of miles together
and quite understood each other He
took the dogs carcass with him to a
vacant lot some where near Manayunk,
and there he got friend to dig hole
and drop the dead animal in 1t. He
tramps up, they say, to the place, now
and then, where the dog lies, and
heard as how more than once last sum-
mer he gathered big lunches of pansies
in the park just to place on the spot.
They are building over the lot now,
and should not be surprised if the old
blind beggar has the remains dug up
and put somewhere else l guess he
regrets he hasn't no family vault. Still,
human nature goes out to dog some
times-even yellow dog. No" Ito a
would-be customer), 1--WE don't make !
no cents worth of ham. Philadelphia
Press.
Kings with PetticOats.
It is a remarkable fact that tho pet