Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1884-1886, 1885-09-06
THE "WANT" COLUMNS.
SOME OF THE QUEER EXPERIENCES
OF THE COUNTER CLERK
Strange Things Found by Close Ased-
ing Of the Small Adverttsements-
Smart Business Schemes Hunt
ing Q Job MlstakeA


ing . MistakeA
rSt Paul Pioneer Presal
There is a favor of personality. an els-
ment OF unity, about the little announce
ments in the want, columns not SO notice-
able in other class s Of advertising In The
ma iority Of them the advertiser is calling
for the DO sible one who will sustain salts
factoriiy the relation Of master and servant,
landlord or tenant, landlady or consumer OF
pancakes, debtor or creditor, buyer or ssiier,
returner Of the lost or the rewarder OF nom
esty 1t is a popular intelligence bureau,
successfully aiding the personal, and, as
rule, more petty transactions OF Individual
business sort Of modern town-crler It Is,
minus the noisy round, and prociaiming
daily to thousands the lost and found, the
auctions to be held tomorrow, sundry par.
gains in land and wares, and other matters
OF more or less pith and moment Soma in
terestiny pointers regarding the practical
features Of this sphere of journalism were
given a reporter by one of the attaches VINO
has charge of this department
"Yes,D he remarked, @the wan. column
bushes, brings US in contact with good
deal of human nature, and We hear all sorts
of odd questions and remarks, and good
MANY interesting stories. Take the 'Hslp
Wanted department for instance. That Is
scanned by hundreds every day. There Il
some fellow looking for Q job at the public
file. on the counter yonder, at most any
time of day, and sometimes there are sew
eral waiting for q look, especially IN
the morning. There's hardly morn
ing but somebody is here to look
at the files by O'Clock. II l have times
and feel the itching Of curiosity, I can gem
orally get the story and circumstances OF
the caller if We are alone They are often
shabby-,enteel fellows, who arc educated
and have seen better times. but drink or
circumstance has left them without money
or prospect, and they turn up here Tor
awhile and then go, God knows where. Most
of them belong to that large and helpless
class who are educated, perhaps, but have
10 special calling. and the world don't seem
10 have much use for them.
@When people advertise for help they
generally want skilled labor Of some kind,
and when there is one opening for handy
fellow. or one with simply general intelh
gence,' there are twenty ready to drop in.
Some of them have trades or professions,
but seem 70 be victims Of bad luck bad
luck is simply q constitutional weakness,
man will have bad luck at anything, IL he
goes at anything he amt fitted for, and q
cool many don't seem to be fitted Tor
amounting to much in this world. They
often ask me about getting a job. or
whether it would pay to advertise for
| situation. don't generally give them much
encouragement in that direction l tell
them the way to get job is to get out and
| rustic for it But tine word rustic isn't in
| their lexicons, as a rule, l guess IL the
man has a trade tell him to go from shop
| to shop until he strikes a job. II he simply
wants job at nything,' l tell him to go
around to where trey are digging cellars or
stone, or anything of that sort, and ask
every boss for work, and to keep going until
he finds it.
1t is surprising how many men there are
| who can't take care Of themselves half rs
well as the average street Arab. II run
| across one Of these shabby genteel fellows.
| looking for something soft it does me good
to tell him to be a man, to get out and take
| Of his coat AMI so to work at the first thing
lie finds Some Of them come here day
after day for a long while. look over the
| paper, aud PERHAPS answer an ad once in a
while, and then slowly disappear until the
next morning. Suddenly he'll quit coming
teen, perhaps, I'll sec him at work some
whers or meet him with lunch basket on
| the street"
DO people, as rule. get what
they want this wayl' inquired the reporter.
w ell. that's ali owing to what they want
| As rule, yes. Sometimes they might a.
| well save their trouble, hut often they get
| more than they want
Il have known of a number OF instances
| where 20o or 800 answers were received
| Sometime, a man will advertise for boy
| or man to take care Of q horse, or q similar
| lob that anybody can do. and hell find q
| regular mob at his store or office in the
| morning. firm out in Dakota sent in an
| advertisement to run few days some time
| ago, calling for a workman OF some Kind,
| and in a day or two they wrote IN to take
out the ad, as they didn't want to hire phi
| vaue secretary. Then, again, some people
are too hard to suit. A man here adver-
tisei for a room for several weeks last
| spring. and lie is at a hotel yet
| sometimes smart business schemes lie
| under very innocent looking ads U
course we decline anything that We know
| to be fraudulent or Objectionable in any way.
| Tho other day young man came In win
an ad saying that three bull dogs were
1 wanted at tine central ilre null " eho
chief of the fire department. l 'smslt q rat,
| and he reconsidered Once in a while a
| spry young fellow will tender an ad offer.
| ing his company to young lady Of refine,
ment,' or something of that sort: object,
amusement etc.-but they are promptly
| refused
| Il notice that good many ads are fol.
lowed by private addresses" observed the
| reporter.
| .Yes, cool many don't like to
step out before tie public, as it were. with
! their name or residence. and announce that
they want this or that, and SO We give them
| q card, with certain letter and number,
| emitting them to anything for that address
left at the offics Generally, though. it is q
matter of bu ,insss policy. or to save the an
noy ance of personal application. The adver-
tiser gets the move on them, you see.
Nearly every day somebody CONES to the
| office inquiring for H 50, or whatever it is,
| thinking that it means somebody in thii
Office. II it happens t. b, r Isl they want
| room Is, or address their letters that way;
| or, if its b s. they write il box 5. instead
| of to simply b s. Take it all through, We
| find considerable to smile At, and some
| things 10 swear at Every day somebody
| wants to b lrrow our only pencil, and some
| fellows will be two full hours writing two
line adj
jus, then a man stepped in to advertise a
house convenient TO all parts OF the city,
| and the reporter went his way rejecting
| that the want column had become one OF
the necessities of human existence
Il