The Mason County journal. [volume] (Shelton, W.T.) 1886-1927, 1889-10-04
BILL, THE LINEMAN.
Uhe Friend He Found at the Top
Of a Telegraph Pole.

Of a Telegraph Pole.
Bill was very we'll known in a GER
tain quarter-and not the pleasantest
quarter, either-of a certain great
city. He patrolled the wires of the
Eastern Union Telegraph Company
for about half mile along River
street, a narrow, dirty thoroughfare
lined with tall tenenent-houses, whose
very windows and stairways told of
the poverty stricken condition of most
of the families that dwelt therein.
Bill was a large, lanky fellow, with
big hands and feet and a face that was
as hard as rock and as brown as a
berry, through years of exposure to
sun, wind and rain. The clothes he
wore were not made to order, and by
the time Bill got to wearing them at
his work they were by no means new.
Upon his head in the summer he gen.
orally wore an enormous ten-cent
straw hat and in winter he pulled an
old rabbit-skin cap down over his ears.
His feet all the year round he encased
in monster boots, to which he strapped
his climbers. For the rest of his attire
he usually wore heavy blue flannel
shirt and jean trousers fastened by
broad belt that held his tools, to which
in cold weather he added rough pilot
coat.
There really was nothing remark
able about Bill the Lineman's appear
ance, and yet a keen observer might
have noticed merry twinkle at times
In his gray eye, and kindly lines play
ing about his large mouth-but then,
the denizens of River street were not
in the habit of studying the counte-
nances of those who worked in their
midst. So, to them, Bill was a COM
mon everyday workman, who minded
his own business up in the cross-arms
while they attended to theirs in the
stores upon the street below.
Indeed, all the store-keepers and
their customers were so very busy
that not one of them remarked the
fact that there was certain pole up
which Bill the Lineman stayed every
day, except Sunday, for several min
utes-sometimes remaining aloft as
long as a quarter of an hour-al-
though the average condition of the
wires, insulators and cross-arms at
that pole was as good as the rest of
them.
The why and wherefore of Bills
strange prediction for pole number
IA was on this wise: The long cross
arms of the pole in question were very
close to window on the fourth story
of a shabby tenement house. The
frame of this window was quite
crooked and the squares of glass were
exceedingly small and full of cracks.
while two at least of them had such
large holes that brown paper had been
pasted over them to keep out the wind
and the rain.
For nearly two years the room which
that window dimly lighted had been
unoccupied, and Bill had long since
arrived at the conclusion that it would
never again be rented. But one dav
towards the close of a dreary winter
he noticed that the unbroken squares
of glass had been rubbed bright and
clean. and, looking through the win
dow, he perceived that the floor of the
room had been well Scrubbed.
"Ah!" thought Bill, new neigh
bors, chr Bill always considered the
folks who occupied rooms near his
poles as his own especial neighbors.
''Well," he muttered, pears they
amt fond of dirt, and I'm glad OF
thatr'
The very next day there was another
surprise in store for Bill the Lineman.
On the sill of the crooked window was
a long. narrow green box, and, al
though it held nothing but brown
earth cit being too cold yet for plants),
Bill judged that the new tenant was
partial to flowers. And he was glad
of that too. for Bill liked flowers him
self. because they reminded him of his
old homo in the Berkshire Hills.
see who the new tenant might be, but
his curiosity in that direction was
doomed to disappointment Never, ir
all the many times that Bill after.
wards climbed the tall telegraph pole.
did he once see through the window
the owner of the hands that scrubbed
the floor and cleaned the glass and
placed the flower box upon the win
dow-sill
But before very long he did see a
face at the window-such a wee, wan
little face it was, too-so pale and YET
SO pleasing-the face of little girl.
perhaps seven or eight years old. Bill
saw that she was e. le. lying upor
an adjustable invalid's chair. and. al
the lineman turned his head from thu
white lace With IT. lsrge, sad eyes