Wheeling Sunday register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1882-1934, 1886-10-03

them-to work at cigar-making, rag-pick-
ing. and various other uninviting and I'M
sayory occupations, how they wear u
their young lives in wretehedness, lgno,
rance and filth, and grow old and wlthered
and bent before their time, and wicked,
too, alas! only too often.
But if you should go down to Italy
mean the north end-sOme night, and see a
family sitting at supper-old and young,
big and little, Michel and Michaela, Glulo
and Guilietta, Filippo and Filippina n
all the rest with their lingering soft-sound-
ing names-and. witness the enjoyment
they are getting out of a most unappetlsing
looking dish of sweetened (sic) fish Cts
enough to make one sick just to think OF
it, isn't it?) and the merriment with when
they surround a pot of maccaroni, the long
strings of which they most d~extrousiy
.twirl and swing about till they are at last
safely deposited in their smiling and capa-
cious mouths, you would probably make
up your mind that many are much worse
off, and few, perhaps, so innocently ana
simply happy as these poor foreigners.
Do you ask if they are not all dirty!
Very. Indeed, it is utterly impossible TO
the genuine Yankee mind to conceive oil
domestic happiness coexistent with so much
dirt. But then they are not Yankees
Dirt is indigenous to them, and they are
indigenous to dirt. / don't think cleanlI-
ness would agree with them. Like all
~exotics, they need a rich soil, and they
have it. In fact, they carry it about with
them. y
A very important factor in the body poll
tic is the boOtblack. Probably the boot
black himself wouldn't know what that
means, and would sayi it was q very 'hlta-
Iutin'" way ofdescribing him; but he does
know that he is q most useful member OF
society, and the rest of the world know
they couldn't get along with him. He Is
alwayso on hand, the first thing id the morn
ing and the last thing at night. When he
sleeps, if at all, is a mystery, unless, in
deed, he doubles him selfup inside his own
backing bOx-sometimes he is almost
small enough to do sO-and woOs the
''drowsy GOD in the intervals OF business.
Apparently without a care or responsibility
in the world, and with lie burden in life
but the kit" on his back, this happy-go-
lucky urchin, who's nam is legion, is at
home everywhere-in the hotels, on the
wharves, at the railway station and the
street corners-nO place is complete with
out him, and it can be truly said OF hin
that he "shineS" in any company.
No body can tell what he will turn to as
he grows up, for few of these boys stick to
the trade. They are all ambitious, and
find their fortunes in various fields. Most
of the older bOOtblackS are colored men,
but they don't call themselves simple
''bootblacks." No, indeed. They are all
professors; and one | mind of has a lofty
soul that scars above the English language
altogether, and seeks in the classics the
legend that shall tell TO an admiring world
the gifts in the way of polish that a pro-
digal nature has lowered him with and
which he is willing to dispense to an APP
preciative public for the comparatively
tihing consideration OF a nickel per head
| mean per foot, or rather two feet. | say
comparatively triling, for you must admit
that it isn't every day, and probably no
where outside the modern Athens, that you
can get a cOlored man and brother, or any
other kind of man and brother, to black
your boots in Latin. But when you see
the legend-perhaps the professor calls 1t a
sign; it is in big gilt letters on a glistening
black ground-you will agree with me that
it is legitimate outcome OF Boston culture,
and rejoice that Horace is on speaking
terms with JOY street. Hereit is, verbatim
ct literatim: