The Austin weekly statesman. (Austin, Tex.) 1883-1898, 1886-09-02
MEDIEVAL observation-disclosures
Certain Ancient Customs Which sos.os
Refuses to Abandon,
Especial Correspondence

Refuses to Abandon. III
Especial Correspondence M
Boston, Aug. 23--The Boston Lancers x
corted the governor the other dav ont e
Harvard college commencement. The Ian,
GERS wear red coats, fiat topped helmets =
long white dropping feather, besides tbar
trousers and other corporal appurtenanees
They are armed with poles On each mole 1
a red flag. Every lancer is packed about on
the street by horse. 1t is q very old mill.
tary organization. Boston is proud of them.
They look pretty and are as useless as thew
are pretty In modern warfare they might
get within 100 yards of the enemy's line he
fore the last lancer was surgically operated
on and tulnneled through by bali from re-
peating rifles. Their principal use is to pro-
tect the governor when he is hauled throuch
the streets on college commencement DAYS.
They fill the bill in Boston that the lord
mayors coach does IN London. Here that
coach would readily pass for a circus chariot
and the newly elected mayor, in his purple
robe as one of the principal performers
Another medieval Boston institution are
the fire alarm bells They ring simultas
neously, though miles apart whenever
hvsterical woman Smells somethin' burnini
ard turns on the fire alarm. To live near
Boston fire bell is to be woke up from one TO
three times per night from three to five times
a week This both tries and develops en-
evangelical patience and resignation A
mania prevails here for bell ringing, In
many of the suburban towns within fifteen
miles of Boston they start the church bell Z
regularly at o'clock at night, rs they hayss
done for the last goo years. There is ks
reason for their doing it, except that theS W.
have always done it. 1t is a necessity, Gus
tom has made it SO In one village, through
the exertions of certain progressiYes, this
bedtime ringing was stopped They were
obliged to resume it. The conservatives
+ couldn't sleep without their o'clock peal
The chimney sweep is another mediPval
feature here. He can be found and hired
from certain dingy cellar in Brattle street.
He can be seen after operating on some old,
aristocratic, blue blooded chimney, like pur-
gative, to clear it of SCOT, returning to his
| hole with his long brush, his short brush, his
scrapers and himself, u walking mass Of SCOT
and dinginess aud terror to light summer
dresses and the wearers inside of them as he IS
wormed toward them by the convolutions o.
the midday crowd on fremont street
house whose head did all he could to discour-
agea stranger from engaging in an enter
prise recurring q certain service from that
house. The stranger was assured that there
was no money i'll it, that scores OF others naa
in the same way tried and failed. The stTan-
ger by his presidency carried his polnt ana
the result is an increase OF business 70 SAD
firm.
The head of the firm in this instance dd
not know that the stranger was the agent q
a company with half million of capital, ana
that the proposition made him was but one Of
several entering wedges, and that the afore.
said company, for good reasons, desired as
little publicity as possible i'll their transa2i'
tions.
The head of that firm imagined at the tllsi'
that he was the dog and the stranger the
tail. He has since found out, from imam
cial standpoint, that he is the tail and the
stranger the dog. Still, as there is money p
it, be swallows his cOnCeit and allows himself
to be wagged when the dog, by virtue OF SUI
perior power, is pleased to send an agltauoh
to the caudai machinery And this IS the me-
dieval Boston business man.
When YOU are very sharp" TO outv1t q
bulldog, look sharp that you don't run plump
on bull. !.
There's great deal of damaging conceis
here as well as elsewhere, on the part OF pusi-
ness 1nen. Yoa will be told here in various
ways that you don't know anything apous
business unless you are strictly in the ilnes
of the business world, and this before tnas
business world has had any chance OF tes1lllB
your capacity Or incapacity. know Of onS
very strict business man here who Is ai~ay'
talking of having things done in strIct ous p,
ness fashion, who Will show by bis answer = Z
anothers business letter that ne has 1orgo..e.
what was written him, if, indeed, ne eva
really got hold of it. know OF greas ~
poration, having scores Of branch offices nels,
whose employees, in self-protection, ~
obliged at times to protest against tne ~ ~.
less method of sending unknown anu ~ ~
authorized persons to collect moneys 60
due, without written orders from heao i,, Il
tiers. PRENTICE