Maryland independent. [volume] (Port Tobacco, Md.) 1874-current, 1889-01-11
MR.. WASTE PAPER. VI

! ." S4'SHy lttlj HVuse, IN snaDul
little street, l call it a street simph
out OF complimont-it being in rea,it,
only an alley hat had started out to b
astrect ald filIiag itself too narrow
half hal stopped at tho end of tw.
blocks a1d never gone any further
lived shabby old man, called by hi
neighbors 'AIr. Waste Paper" and b.
rude boys aud girls of the nei1hborhood
Odd Mi'er' and "Qieor Eyes"
lie bought and sold waste paper, and
the four room, il his house-he was
tho only ono ia the street that occupied
whole hou'' AZ vas looked upon with
great respect on Ii ht account-in fact,
thiak If he had only rented room or
two like the rest Of the inhabitants Ii
would have been "Waste Paper John. >
instead of "Mr. Waste Paper"
almost fiiei with it.
'." Ole, indeed, the 1rgcst,' was filed
go tsvefy ceiFinp, oafy arfow path
way being left in thY centre like a
small valley between two steep moua-
tains.
A deep drift like snow lay upon the
floors of two OF the 9th roon2. and
hu dreds of books from which the COW
ers had departed forever, old maga-
zines, usod-up led sers, torn hand -Lills
and circulars, were stacked along the
walls and 10 th9 fourth room, where the
old man ate and slept, all the fur itu-e,
with tho exception Of a tiny stova. a,
sridiren,v l.s ...s,v O.romahs formo-5
out OF newspapers laid neatly oae upon
the othor, a bed built Of some twenty
large bundles Of coarse lrown paper
with an old "WebstcI's U abridged
for pillow; table made by placing
six big account books on tho floor, six
more on the top of them, and so on
uptil enough hal been u'ed. All leg
ess, Of course, but serving Mr.. Waste
Paper as well as though they had any
number of legs.
You never saw such queer place ia
your life, and never heard such con-
,inual rustling and cracking as the
furniture kept up and v1ry likely you
never met such very odd old man.
One shoulder was a little higher
and one leg little shorter than the
other and he had one black eye aud ono
blue one. Aql whoa he was good.
natured he looked at you with the blue
one, and when he was cross he looked at
you with the III OK one, aad l don't
thilk there could ever have been two
more expressive eyes in the whole world
-one could look so cross and the other
SO kind.
Well, nobody in Sam strcet-that is
what they called the ambitious alley,
a ter old Sam Junkman, who tuilt the
first house there fifty years ago-knew
anything about Mr.. Waste Paper, ex-
cept that he hal lived in that four
roomed houIe for the last tea years, and
that the only person that he was at a
friendly with was Mr.. Do!f, the kid
glove cleaner, who lived next door,
and who boiled the water for his
tea on summer evenings, when he had
no fro at homo.
Mrs. Dolts children, Amos and
Cherry, liked the. cid maa very well,
for he used often 60 give them pretty
pictures which he cut from the picture
papers which fell ia his possession,
and, moro rarely, penny or two; but
the other Sam street children celed
him 'old miser," bccause he gave them
nothing, and because they heard their
fathers and mothers say: "Waste Pap r
has agood sum of money in somo bank
or other, you may bet, for HIS been
buying and selling for ten years, and
never had day sickness, and wear
ing the same old clothes, summer and
winter, and not chick or child, or a
dog, or a cat to look after, and never
asking anybody to have drop of beer
or pipe of baccy Hss reg lar old
miser, that's what he is
But the old man paid no attention to
the rude boys anI girls, exec to turn
his back eye on them once in while
when they became too annoying. but
passed his time when at home reading
something from his stock in trade, or,
witf-vyes half closec--1r deep thought
about what no one but himself ever
knew, whom one bright, warm May day,
he came slowly into his liying-room
from the street, carrying a heavy bag
on his shoulder.
He placed the bag upoa a paper otto.
man, sat down on the paper bed besiie
the paper table, wiped his face with q
handkerchief, and then opened the bag
and tumbled the contents out upon the
paper carpet.
He had bought them that morning o.
a school teacher who lived at the other
end of the town, for- miles aw ', and
they consisted of soilei copy books, old
grammsrs, Biographies, ssishmstics,