Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1889-10-20
THE JANITOR.
BE COMMANDS THE SITUATION IN
FLAT LIFE.
Though He Rules Over the Tenants His
Life is Not One of Peace and
Comfort.

spelled with capital J.
On paper, he is the Guardian Angel of
the premises, taking down ashes and ref
use, sending up coal and wood, keeping
clean the halls and stairways, caring for
trunks slowed away in storerooms-the
storeroom below being an institution, since
through everything, the typical New
Yorker sticks to his or her trunk. 1t is
the last and safe refuge, because wherever
one may be, no matter how peaceful the
prospect, one anticipates (at least, dimly,)
being obliged to go somewhere else.
The janitor's apartments being located
in the basement, just beside the main en-
trance, from such point of observation
those who pass in and out feel themselves
subjected to an eye which it rests with
themselves to render evil or the contrary.
1t is presumed, usually, that he appro-
pirates certain quantity of coal and
wood. Having access to the coal bins Of
each particular tenant, who is to say him
nay? The tenants do not, and they ex-
pressing no opposition, it is the concern of
none other. Wise people are conveniently
obtuse and presume that blackmail shared
among certain number becomes suffi-
GENTLY lightened to be borne. That and
and other things must be borne, since
what may not the janitor do?
He can, perhaps, pick letters out of let
ter boxes or instill fatal uncertainty in an
inquiring postman's soul. He can make
everything go right or wrong, according
as the occupant above has made things
right or wrong with him. He can refuse
to see sneak thieves as they sneak to ones
apartments or turn sneak thief himself.
He can SANDER delinquent to the land
lord, who usually trusts him implicitly !;
he can forget messages left with him; he
can do fifty spiteful things and his victim
be never the wiser.
What New Yorker of experience, then,
so bold as to quarrel with his janitor
Not one, | venture to say, and the upshot
of the matter is that tenants, one and all,
court his favor, bid for his smiles and vie
with one another as to which shall make
the best Christmas present, Christmas
presents being strictly his due. A busi-
ness man who at his Office may lord it over
his clerks and type-writers grows gradu-
ally in meekness as he approaches home.
If he is not afraid of his wife, he certainly
is of his janitor, and, contrariwise, there
are women who nag their servant girls or
husbands, who, when addressing their jan
itor, put on cloak of politeness.
But ''uneasy lies the head that wears a
CROWN The way of the janitor is hard.
1t is not uncommon for one such dignitary
to have charge of twenty families. four
houses of five families each, or two double
houses wherein twenty (genteeD families
reside, five on either side of the two main
halls
Think then of that mans share in the
burdens of life Between worrying ten
ants he must stand each side pelts him
with their woes; with each must he
sympathize, and in case of hostilities, with
each must model janitor agree. One
tenant complains that the gas burns too
high; another that it is too low; one that
it is lighted too early; another that it is
too late; one wishes more air admitted !;
another complains of draughts; one that
the entrance is to warm (halls and stair
WAYS are always heated; another that
they are too cold, and in case of steam
heated flats, such plants may become
multiplied by ten or twenty.
If ANYBODY runs short of anything the
ianitor is expected to have it. Sugar, but
ter and other domestic supplies are bor-
rowed in emergencies, and he is regarded
as wanting if sufficiency be not forth
coming. If the morning paper does not
appear, the ianitor is expected to explain
the reason why-at least he is often asked
to do so. If groceries or supplies of any
nature are ordered, and do not come, the
ianitor is looked to for enlightenment on
the subject. If they come, and there is
nobody to receive them, the janitor must
take charge of and subsequently send
them to their destination; ditto bundles
from stores, and everything in general.
If anything should be out of order, the
ianitor is expected to rectify or have it
rectifed. All through the day, if any
thing be the matter anywhere, he is sent
for to set it right. In sickness he may be
asked to fetch doctor; in death, he is as
important, or more so, than the under
taker, and in health, he must hold himself
ready at any hour to perform any service.
If anybody locks him or herself out
land people often do), the janitor is called
upon to get them in again. In fact he is
expected to be ubiquitous, and capable of
accomplishing what every one else has
failed to do.
He is late in bed at night and up first
in the morning, while endeavors to
snatch an afternoons nap may at any time
come to an untimely end.
Passersby, moreover, take hand in
matters. There are idlers who be0uile the
time by going over premises where they
have no business, and do not anticipate
ever having any, to say nothing of bona
fde but equally troublesome prospective
tenants. With each and all must the
janitor parley; to each and all must he un-
blushingly repeat the same inviting stories
which have grown stale by years of repe-
tition; on each occasion must he COM
pound with his conscience by setting forth
the good, and vanishing over, if he can
not altogether hide, the bad.
Where the elevator becomes feature of
fiat life the janitor is supplemented by the
elevator boy. The former is not so often
seen and may therefore have more time for
the concoction of nefarious schemes, while
the now doubly- tenant must
run the gauntlet of four expectant palms
III place of two, and like multiplication
of observant eyes. A double risk is taken
as to who may slip in when all are out,
while possibilities of small reveDges for
misbehavior on his part are added to pro-
portionately.
1t is the elevator, however, which forms
the definite boundary between fats of the
| highest order and those of a genteel, vet
modestly genteel status. Given an ele-
vator, ones habitat becomes elevated in
the scale of life, by l am afraid to say how
many degrees. 1t is an elevation, not only
in social estimation, but rise of so many
actual perpendicular feet, until one may
live literally in mid-air; mag tower above
pedestrians until they resemble small fig
ures propelled by machinery. The rever-
enced elevation of the millionaire is
reached A new world opens, and before
ascending to and penetrating those far
away nights the average mortal will do