The Telegraph-courier. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1888-1946, 1888-11-08
The Wall Street World.
CHAPTER XIV.
sUNDRY OBSERVATIONS.

preliminaries were speedily arranged; he was
to receive small weekly stipend, enough,
with prudence, to meet his household ex-
penses, and was to commence at once. Both
of the gentlemen accompanied him to the
quarter where his labor was to begin. A
large room was hired in a rickety and for
lorn-looking house; the benches for the schol-
ars and small desk and chair were the only
furniture. And such scholars different
from the delicate, curled darlings of the pri-
Vate schools. The new teacher found his
labor sufficiently discouraging. 1t was moth
ing less than the civilization Of troop of
Savages. Everything was to be done; man.
ners, speech, moral instincts, were all equally
depraved. They were to be taught neatness,
respect, truth-telling, as well as the usual
branches Of knowledge. 1t was like the task
of the pioneer settler in the wilderness, who
must uproot trees, drain swamps, burn briers
and brambles, exterminate hurtful beasts
and prepare the soil for the reception of the
seeds that are to produce the future harvest
We leave him with his charge, while we at
tend to other personages of our story.
Mr.. Norcross and his sister, upon leaving
their house, took lodgings, and then began to
cast about them for the means of support
The money he had relied on was gone. His
credit was utterly destroyed, and he had no
hope of being reinstated in his former posi-
ton. The only way he could possibly be use
full i'll the street was by becoming curbstone
broker, go-between, trusted by neither bor-
rover OF lender, and earning precarious
livelihood by commissions. Even in chat DO
sltlon he felt that he should labor under dis
advantages, for he knew that his course had
been universally condemned. 1t was mat
ter OF everyday experience for him to meet
old acquaintance who looked over him, CT
across the street, or in at shop-windows, to
avoid recognition And the f-patronzing,
Neutrality-suspicious. mods he did receive were
far worse to bear than downright cuts.
10 man out of employment, prescribed,
marked, there is nothing so terrible as the
impenetrability of the close ranks of society
around him. Every busy man seems to have
found his place; each locks step with his
neighbor, and the vast procession moves on.
Once out of the serried order, the unhappy
wretch can never resume his position. He
finds himself the fifth wheel of a coach: there
is nothing for him to do-no place for him at
the bountful board where others are fed.
He may starve or drown himself, as he likes:
the world has no use for him, and will not
miss him. What Norcross felt, as he walked
along the streets, may well be imagined. II
he had not been supported by the indomita-
bile courage and assurance of his sister, he
would have sunk to the level of a pauper.
He tried to act as curb-stone broker, as
an insurance agent, as an adjuster of marine
losses and averages, as an itinerant solicitor
for llfe-insurance company, as an account
oI1f oJ16 @lox,
vain. He was Stunned like an ESCAPED con-
vlct; the motley suit itself would hardly have
added to his disgrace No one put faith in
him or gave him employment-save in few
instances, for charity's sake Few men cam
brave city; and Norcross certainly was not
the man to do it. The scowling, or suspi-
clous, or contemptuous, pitying chances he
encountered smote him as with fiery swords
He quailed; he covered; he dropped his
eyes; he acquired STOPPING, stumbling gait.
The man who feels that he is looked down
upon grows more diminutive in his own esti-
nation, until he shrinks into the place which
the world assigns him. So Norcross shr1nk.
until he crept through the streets where once
he had walked erect, and earned support as
meagre and precarious as the more brazen-
faced and ragged of the great family of men
dlcants, to which he was gravitating.
MendlcantS-an exceeding great army
They do not all knock at area doors for old
clothes and broken victual, nor hold out hats
at street-crossngs, nor expose sharp-faced
babies to win pity, nor send their infant tat
terdemalions to torture the ears of the
wealthy with scratchy fiddles and wheezv
accordions. No, these plaques Of society are
only the extreme left wing; the right wing
iS-a very respectable class in the commu-
nifty. The party-leader who makes his name
and influence serve him in obtaining loans
which he never intends to pay-shall we call
him beggar? 1t is an ugly word. The
parasite who makes himself agreeable to
dinner-givers, who calculates upon his ac-
compEshments as stock in trade, intending
that his brains shall feed his stomach-what
is he, pray? 1t is ungracious to stigmatize
such jolly dog. The woman whose fingers
ore hoped with rings won in wagers which
gallantry or folly could not decline. who is
ready by philop@na, or even more direct s1o-
gestions, to lay every beau or acquaintance
under contributions she beggar, too? Tt
is a long way, to be sure, from the girl with
scanty and draggled petticoat and tangled
hair, picking out Jumps of coal from ash
heaps, or carrying home refuse from the
tables OF the rlch-a long way from that
squalid object to the richly cloaked, furred
bonneted, jeweled, flaming lady, whose
friends are all so kind
But the most charitable must feel certain
degree of pity, if not of scorn for those who
like Mr.. and Miss Norcross, contrive to wear
the outwardl semblance of responsibility.
boarding with fashionable people and wear
ing garments a la mode, while they have
neither fortune not visible occupation. Miss
Norcross, to be sure, had few pupils in mu-
sic-young friends, who, as she averred, Sin
sisted upon practising with her, although she
did not profess to give lessons,n not she,
Still her toilet was as elgant as ever. The
first appearance of a new style of cloak, a
new pattern of silk or embroidery. " rib
bons, laces, jewelry, might be obs !. as
she took her morning promenade. The
dealers in rich goods, elegant trifes,
costly nothings, all knew her we'll.
Whatever satisfied her artistic taste
she purchased. To see was to
desire, and, in some way, all she
coveted tended by magical attraction to her
rooms. society" frowned upon her: she
wentto no receptions in the higher circles.
but she had no lack of associates for all that
At concerts and other public assemblages
her brilliant figure and irreproachable cos.