St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1886-09-26
SOME PHASES OF LIFE.
A Few of the Variegated Hues of the
Reflections Induced by Life in
Minneapolis.
Generous Trust Reposed In an Honest
Public--Money Lost and Made
in Eating.
Doing UP the Barber Shops--Rai1-
readers Who Like Pie--Confi-
dence by Cabbies.

around town, and the old expression, "there
is nothing new under the sum-" was evil
IDENTIFY not coined by man who kept his
ears or his eyes open. Of late years the
trust that is placed in the honesty
of the general public is becoming
something really wonderful, and an
old man can in many cases look back
on the days when stranger was viewed
with distruSt unless he proclaimed his
name and business the instant he entered a
city. In illustration of the note that the
general public is growing more honest OF
that more confidence is repOSed in it than
in former years take the Minneapolis street
cars. Ride from one end of the city to the
other and not conductor will you see.
Instead you will find little brass Stats into
which you are supposed to place your fare.
| Ii you do not, in nine cases out of ten the
driver will be none the wiser. but he will
have to stand the loss when the COM
pany's clerks compare the fares he turns
in with his register 1t is seldom that the
street car company loses fare by thus
| placing confidence in its patrons, for when
| a man is put on his honor he feels in duty
| bound to show the world that he is honest
In this connection it would not be out of
place among the cabmen and hackmen.
Two OF three years ago the fare
had to be paid before the driver
would start his horses, but now
it is an easy matter to ''hang up" Cabby
for his fare. The coming generation, and
possibly the present one, need not be sur
prised to see the time when on nearly every
corner will be found a cab, and no driver
around. Inside the cab will be a time and
rate card. and the person wanting to use
the vehicle will simply unhitch the animal.
get in and drive around as long as he wants
to. When he returns to the starting point
he will note how long he has been gone,
examine the card to see how much he should
pay. and then deposit the money IN small
box under the seat.
~
The great number of restaurants in Min
neapOlis has always been source of much
wonder to some, and desire to know how
they all subsist is uppermost i'll the minds
of many people. When the city began to
grow THAT was as soon as the survey was
first made) hundreds of Eastern people
rushed in and started restaurants. These
were, and are now, located in the
easements of saloons, under millin-
cry stores. over hardware stores and
in fact in all places where the room could
be obtained. At first the price of dinner
ranged from twenty-five to fifty cents, but
some OF the more enterprising caterers be-
gan cutting prices. Gradually the cost of
square meal fell, until now square meal
can be obtained for fifteen cents. One res
taurant followed another in this general
lowering of prices, and for time fortune
seemed to smile upon the favored person
who wrote proprietor after his name. The
crisis has now come, and one by one the
| low-priced concerns are being forced to
| the wall, not being able to stand it to sell a
| dinner for less than the actual cost of pro-
| ducing it. Gradually many of these So
called restaurants are closing up their
doors, and the proprietors seeking pastures
knew where people can be found who will
| submit to being fed on tough meat. dish
water coffee and sOggy pie. 1t is rumored
around the city that four or five restau-
rants on Washington avenue, which made
some pretension to being frst-class places,
are soon to be closed on account of dizziness
| in the business. With its hundreds of res
| taurants, Minneapolis has not one that can
really be called firSt-clasS. although sew
eral have been struggling to attain to that
| height.
-
Did YOU ever stop and think how easy ii
is to go and get shaved Saturday morning,
since the order closing the barber shops on
| Sunday went into effect? If not, just sit
| down and think it over. The Sunday clos
| ing has. in some rare cases, drawn custom
away from shops, as some diSgruntled pat
| irons have become angry because they
| could not come down town about 10 o'clock
| Sunday morning and find all the shops
| open, have become angry gone OFT and
hunted up the raZors they have owned
since their boyhood days. and sworn
| that never more will they patronize a
| barber. In their first endeavor to shave
| themselves over one half of the rebels will
cut themselves. fling the razor away. and
go back to the old shop perfectly satified if
they can't get shaved Sunday. This Sun
day shaving is time-hOnored custom that
has been handed down to us from generation
to generation and we began to look upon it
as necessary to our existence. But all
bright dreams generally have an ending,
and hereafter Just make up your mind that
Saturday night will do just as well as Sun
day morning to get shaved.
~
What would pay we'll in Minneapolis just
now would be hotel where for moderate
price one could procure good bed and a
meal that is fit for man to eat. At pres
ent the rule seems to be that the proper
thing to do is to charge man 81 or SO a
day for the privilege of repOsing on hard
bed, and eating meals that even careless
porcine would sheer at. If one
wants to secure any sort of
accommodations he has to pay from $3.50
to So day for it, and even then he is liable
to get fooled. If hotel does by any man
ner of means get good custom the man.
ager seems to take delight in letting the
table get poorer and poorer, until at last the
guests leave in order that they may know
how good meal tastes. 1t is well known
that the best way to get at mans heart or
his purpose is through his stomach, and
when some person understanding this,
comes here and starts hotel where one can
secure good room. a clean bed and three
nice meals day vast fortune awaits him.
*.*
When the national convention of the
Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen was
! i'm session in this city popularity was no
ticed about the delegates that no one as
vet has been able to satisfactorily explain
| Ills ID GudO OH VI OliClH diO Wi
fond of pie and pudding, and would leave
the more staple articles of food untouched
if plenty of pie, no matter what kind, was
set before them. 1t is not possible that
this sudden desire for that baneful article
was caused by the healthy, bracing climate
of Minnesota, for the delegates represented
every section of the country. and some sale
| that it was the same way wherever the gen
tlemen went SO far it is one of the uneX
planned mysteries but so long as the fire
men continue to be as fine body of mel
as those who came to Minneapolis. let then
have all the pie they want, even if politics
have to be neglected in order to obtain il
for them.
zx*
AS has been before stated, there is Ger
tain class of people in Minneapolis. that TO
morbid curiosity stand at the head of TIN
list. If a drunken man falls down in TIN
street and lies there helpless until an office