Juniata sentinel and Republican. [volume] (Mifflintown, Juniata County, Pa.) 1873-1955, 1888-04-18
METROPOLITAN SCENES.
Glimpses OF Loafing Life Revealed
in New York Strets.

In street In Boston, through which
1 pass daily some old buildings were
recently torn down. A plank cause
way was built over the sidewalk while
the cellar was being excavated. Foul
weather or fair this bridge would be
packed with idlers until one had often
to take the other side of the way In de
spair of forcing passage. There was
nothing to be seen at best but a lot of
Irishmen and Italians digging dirt and
weary cart-horses hauling it awav. In
wet weather the work was suspended.
But in the wettest weather, when the
rain was pouring in pailfuls. the bridge
would still have its unresting force col
lected. in triple rank of wide-eyed
stupidity, immersed in the absorbing
employment of looking at some muddy
pnddles down in a pit. One streaming
morning. when the icy rain was freez-
Ing as it fell, L asked a man whose
overcoat had been turned into sheet
what he was looking at SO earnestly.
He replied, in hoarse and awful tone
Of voice, nodding at the pit the while
They're diggin' sullar."
''Well," said I, "what if they areP"
responded irrelevantly, but solemnly.
1t was not too wet for him to remain
on guard over the deserted digging,
though, and l left him, one of many
who were gradually stiffening into icy
pet-ifaction for the pleasure of doing
nothing, or not being called upon to
think while they were doing it.
i have a friend of the clubs-as mad
a wag as ever lived when the humor of
his before dinner absinthe Is upon him.
We were crossing a public square, one
balmy evening last Spring; g O'Clock
hal JusL been screeched at us by every
factory whistle within hearing, and the
sidewalks were aswarm.
-'I'll lay YOU the dinners" said my
fdrce1lr, THAT l can create a riot here
inside of i've minutes"
He stopped at the public drinking
fountain. and took up the tin-cup that
was chained to it. The passers-by
started little TO see so elegant a gen.
teman stop to drink at a common
fount of cheap refreshment. Several
halted, after going on a few PAGES, to
look back. He filled the cup deliber
ately. The wait ng several had become
a score. He raised the cup slowly
toward his li.s. The score grew to
fifty. Sudden'y he dashed the water
into the basin and filed the cup again,
only to empty it untouched. BY this
time We were encircled 10y so many peo-
pie that they could not be counted, and
] could hear such observations and In
Quiries all around us as;
''He'l drink it this time"
"Bet you the drinks he don't"
"Must be dirty"
'What is it'p'
"Maybe the cup leaks"
"He must be some crank"
"W hat ails him, anyhowP'
MAYBE common water isn't good
enough for him."
There were also addressed to him,
through this running fire of comment,
many more or less friendly and disin-
terested suggestions and Instructions,
like
Wrench the cup out" from a
mOtherly fat woman, poking her um-
brella at him.
Have stick In it," by man with
a shiny black hat and a shiny red
nose.
Tell the waiter to open another bot
tle"
This sally, which proceeded from a
young man IL cross-barred trousers,
with very large and massive cane,
which he carried like yardstick, was
hailed with such applause that park
policeman fo and himself called upon to
interfere, whereupOn my friend hurled
the cup into the basin with an express
sion of the face ind cative Of great dis
gust and loathlng, and showed his way
out of the crowd as quickly as he
could. We could hear the roar of vol
ces and the sharp rapping of the police
mans club when lie turned into the
restaurant, a block and more away;
and L learned by the papers the next
day that the shiny red nose aud the
shiny black hat slept in a station-house
cell on a general charge of disorderly
conduct and The utteTance OF muIdeous
threats against some person or persons
unknown.