Charlotte messenger. [volume] (Charlotte, Mecklenburg Co., N.C.) 1882-18??, 1888-01-21

would not keep the pot boiling. Whether
man gets his eye blacked in friendly
bout with gloves or by slipping on ba-
nana-peel in the street or in an alcoholic
brawl the resultant discoloration is
always unwelcome. 1t IS also slow to
cure, but not to be disguised. Next
morning he can slip away and have the
marks so skillfully hidden under coat Of
paint that even his wife or landlady can
not perceive any evidence of the ordeal
through which he has passed.
If you die in New York, the notice of
the fact has scarcely appeared in cold
type when your friends will be visited
by alert canvassers who are prepared to
! give life-like portrait or other memento
of you. Close on their heels follow the
energetic scouts of some florist, who are
dismally anxious to provide a wreath,
harp or pillow of appropriate blossoms at
the lowest market rates. Usually these
/ purveyors are escorted to the door with
impressive speed; nevertheless they con-
trive to drum up trade and make liv-
ing.
Should the owner of asaloon or Office
be dissatisfied with his laundress, he car
changed by supply company.
Some wiseacre has said that New York
wastes as much food as Paris uses. This
is not altogether true, at least in our
day. We do not cook as skilfully and
frugally as the French, but we utilize
our scraps and remnants more carefully
than of yore. The material sent away
from the tables of big hotel is now in.
dustriously garnered and carted off to
some of the minor restaurants, where
| it is reconstructed into toothsome and
wholesome dishes for habitues who
count their pennies before investing in a
meal. Many savory morsel that fails
to tempt the palate of millionaire thus
/ finds its way under the belt of tramp.
New York is great depot and mart
for statuary. Here you can have any
conceivable idea wrought out in bronze,
marble, zinc or plaster of Paris. Most
| of the elaborate designs are still import
ed, but standard originals are repro
duced among us in endless variety Of
material and size. One is liable almost
any day to meet in Broadway or the
Bowery a squad of men carrying objects
that rudely resemble the human form
and may remind you of primitive
| Egyptian or Aztec statuary. The OBJ
| jects consist of wooden frame-works
padded out with hay or shavings or
rags, and covered with stout bagging or
canvas. Some represents men standing,
others men sitting or reclining, others
boys, women or girls in various attitudes.
All of them are duly clothed in fine ap-
parel and do duty as dummies in cloth
ing houses.
Still another form OF sculpture now
! gone to desuetude and decay is that of
ship carving. With the departure of
our merchant marine the old-time figure
head has also departed, and but two
establishments now remain wherein one
can procure. if desired, grand old Nep-
time, or smiling Aphrodite to deck the
PROV of gallant clipper.
Talking Of aquatic matters, some men
contrlve to earn their bread in precarious
or gruesome occupations along the river.
They gather up the flotsam and jetsam
which the tide brings in or out, and not
infrequently they grapple ''meat for the
| Coroner "by recovering the bodies of
suicides or persons accidently drowned.
They have their feelings like other men,
!
/ Log of wood or lifeless corpse-their
bu-iness is to clear away all such encum-
brances and incidentally make the opera
ton as profitable as they may. A guild
of specialists in the same element is that
of the divers who go down amid the
bones of shipwrecks
Rat-catching is queer avocation
which has its experts and votaries in the
big city. The rat-Catchers have differ
ent methods for Kidding a house or ship
of these pests.
Our city furnishes profitable occupa-
tion to many lapidaries, but there is only
one large establishment wherein precious
stones of all kinds are cut and polished
as well as mounted. The experts who
do this work are mostly men who have
learned their craft in Amsterdam.
Within the past few years, however,