The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1888-05-20
THEY STOP TO GAZE.
How Small Happenings Attract Great
Men

NEW YORK, May 19.-Among the people
who stood with heads thrown back, gazing
at safe that was being hoisted on Nassau
street the other day, were Alexander
McCue, Assistant Treasurer of the United
States, Russell Sage, the railroad magnate,
and Daniel Dougherty, the well-known law
yer, They watched the huge mass of iron
until it reached its proper height and was
hauled III at window, and then
they continued again on their re-
spective ways absorbed again in bust
ness. Daniel Doug herty'S time is
worth hundreds of dollars a day, Russell
Sage has been known to add 100000 to his
fortune in five minutes, and by giving pub
llcity to a change in the financial policy Of
the government, Assistant Treasurer Nc
Cue might shake Wall street in as little
tune; but these busy men who could do so
much in an Insignificant five minutes, find
relaxation and interest in watching a num-
Der or laborlng men hoist Safe--an occur
renee that is repeated almost hourly some
where down town
Small happenings attract great men.
The most common place street incident
Will serve to whet their curiosity If car
horse falls on Broadway, bankers, mer-
chants and professional men will drop all
thoughts of business and hurry to the place,
and stand gaping until the animal regainS
MS footing and the cars jog on. If a danger
sign is placed on the sidewalk in front of a
building and tackle arranged at one of the
windows, crowd will form Immediately,
and there will be more men of prominence
than street urchins in it.
l have seen Ex-Governor George HoadfSey
of Ohio, and Austin Corbin, President of
the Reading road, watching with their
Jaws relaxed the simple card manipuations
OF a fakir who was trying to attract posi-
bic purchasers Of something new in tooth
powder only sc. box" and on another oc-
casion saw Senator Evarts and William
X. Vanderbilt gazing fixcdly at lineman
climbing telegraph pole, when, as mat
ter of lncontrovertible fact, there WASH
the slightest thing about the man on the
pole to make even a countryman lift his
eyes.
A bootblack with an old shoe on the end
of stick walked down Broad street one
day last week, and to my positive knowl-
edge, at least eight of every ten men on the
street-and they were nearly all of them
brokers, and it was the busy hour on
'Change-stopped, and their eyes followed
the boy until he got out of sight. And,
mind you, it was dirty boy, a common
stick, and very old shoe.
BY turning mouse loose on lower Broad
way, the janitor of building caused an
almost complete suspension of business for
nearly an hour. Merchants, clerks and
customers ran up and down the sidewalk
shouting, There be goesln and before a
truck crushed the little fellow the services
of the police were required to dispense the
crowd
A 10-cent rubber balloon broke away
from a child in Madison square, one day
last summer, and twenty men, whom l
know to be worth more than $1,000 each,
and who had business to attend to, every
one of them waited for an hour to see it
come down. They ran around, violated the
park ordinance by getting on the grass, and
conducted themselves just as the children
were doing. Not one seemed to care how
foolish he acted.
And that is the way of New Yorkers-big
New Workers, l mean. Whenever the
street is torn up, or a load of furniture is
being moved from a building. or a truck
gets stalled, or a newsboy drops his bundle
of papers, or anything happens that is the
least bit out of the usual run, men whose
names and achievements will form part Of
future histories of this country will be
found on hand. They have got to see
what's going on. G. w. SUTHERLAND.