Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1889-12-26
lis LIFE AN EyEETFUL ONE,
he STRUGGLES OF HIS YOUKG DAYS

Sunday morning Just at nine. Dan McGinty,
dressed SO fine,
Stood looking up at very high stone wall.
When his friend, young Pat McCsnn, says. 'TN
bet five dollars, Dan,
could carry you to the top without faH"
So on his shoulders he took Dan, to climb the
ladder he began,
And soon commenced to reach up near the
top:
When McGinty, cute old rogue. to win the fve
he did let 20,
Never thinking Just how far he'd have TO drop.
Dan McGinty was no ordinary citizen.
His memory will live in history for years,
not because of great victory on the field of
battle, for Dan was no soldier, nor on ac-
count of diplomatic service rendered his
country while an Alderman, for he had no
political aspirations-but because he was a
victim of circumstances
Born under an unlucky star, SAYS writer
in Pulitzer's World, Dan grew up with his
brothers and sisters, and with the brothers
and sisters Of several other youngsters in his
neighborhoOd. At the age of z years he was
fully years old, and he developed fond
ness for adventure. On several occasions
his doting father found him hanging by his
(Dan's) toes from rudely constructed hori-
zontal bar in the barn owned BY his friend
Terence McCann. Little paddy" Mr.. Nc
Cann's youngest, was Dannie's constant
companion. At 10 Dannie could wrestle
any boy of his size for five blocks around,
and he beat the ecigarette-smoking record in
his ward by consuming three packages of q
favorite brand in l hour minutes and 1S
seconds. This pleased the elder McGinty
SO much that he broke blackthorn shillelah,
which he valued highly, over Dannie's back.
The boy apologized, and from that day
smoked pipe.
DAMS FIRST JOB.
Dan grew and grew, and became great
help to his kind-hearted old mother. who
took keen delight in shying fatirons, roll
ingpins and stove-lifters at him to see how
near she could get at the mark without
striking it. The elder McGinty was
troubled with weakness of vision, caused
in measure by too close application in
looking for work, and in addition to this he
was color-blind. He was, in fact, color
blind 70 such an extent that on several occa-
sions he gave his son Dan 81 bill instead
Of a 1O-cent piece with which to ''chase the
duck, as he expressed it.
One fine day Dannie's papa came home,
and, after supper, took from beneath the
perspiration band of his hat an advertise
ment clipped from Mexican paper offering
~ week for young man who could make
himself generally useful in plaster factory.
The youth tried unsuccessfullT to find the
advertiser, but he was lucky enough to run
against another place where plasters of the
porous kind we're made, and the proprietor,
struck by his manly appearance. engaged
him forthwith at a salary of 81 80 per
month. Bright and early next morning
Dan was on hand, and the kind-hearted pro-
prietor turned him over to a stern foreman,
who took him up five flights of stairs and
handed him package of unporoused plas-
ters.
He told Dannie to bite holes in the plas-
ters, and Dsnnie started in. He didn't like |
the job but be stuck maufuIly and the plas- /
ters stuck to him. 1t didn't take the boy
more than three hours to arrive at the con /
ciusion that the plaster business was not his |
forte, for when he had bitten four. holes in |
one Of the pain-alleviating sheets two of his |
incisois began to ache. Dan threw up the |
job and went home. Mrs McGinty felt for |
her boy and at the same time felt for a can
opener. With motherly dexterity she soon |
pried out the aching iVories and Dannie |
was once more happy.
BORN ON AN UNLUCKY DAY.
Had Dannie been born on any other day
but Friday and a date other than the 18th,
perhaps his teeth would not have ached and
he might have been enjoying a lucrative
situation in that same factory to this day.
But pass over the period of Dams school
days and we find him in love with Mary
Ann o'Brien, buxom lass, whose auburn
tresses were the envy OF the neighborhood
At the time the song written in Dams
honor opens, McGinty was working on Job
in Harlem. His duties were not arduous,
according to his ideas, for climbing up a
ladder with hod on his shoulders several
hundred times day was good exercise and
kept him out of mischief
As matter of fact the very first sentence
Of the song has caused not little specula-
ton and there is even now a wide difference
of opinion as to Macs exact condition at
that time. Some contend that he had been
out all night shaking dice for HambIe-
tonian turkey, but that will scarcely hold
water, for there was not even a feather on .
his clothes at the time. He had attended a |
wake the night previous and stopped on
his way home to admire the architectural |
beauties of the front wall of a building in
the course of erection.
1t may as well be understood right here
that Dan never claimed to be an architect.
but he had been engaged in assisting to con- !
struct walls during the greater part of his
lifetime, and he naturally was attracted by
this particular wall, because it was of i'm
mense height. As be was critically eyeing
the unfinished structure a sound slap on the
back interrupted his reverie, and Pat Nc
Cam. the friend of his boyhood days. stood |
before him with extended hand. Dan was.
Of course, overjoyed at the meeting. and {
after they had talked for few minutes on (
amily matters, Mccain happened to espy a
adder leaning innocently against the build {
ng. That Paddy was of a speculative turn I
# mind cannot be denied, for he bet on horse '
r11u syod nd ind =. |
,ther pleasant diversions, such as handling I
lighting dogs and training pugilists He {
vas, In fact. born gambler, and the sight !
# the ladder suggested novel bet to him.
HE WASN'T A GUTTER.
''I'n go you five I can carry you up that
adder to the top" he said.
On the impulse of the moment McGinty :
ccepted the wager, never dreaming that 1
dcCann had the remotest idea of attempting !
he feat But when Pat soon stood in his | !
hirt sleeves ready to carry out his part of !
he contract, Mac concluded that it would I
'e q bad time Tor him to show the white q
Gather, so, without even removing his coat, 4
e climbed on McCann's back and they be- =
an the ascent. Dan chuckled away as he !,
card the man beneath him groaning and T
ufhng, and expected every moment to hear d
IcCann cry quits. With all his faults. \
i've McCann credit-he wasn't "ouitter." .
[e pufed away after the fashion Of a man :,
nth q tightly rolled cigar, but he was o
ound to get Macs money. When within 2
few feet of the top Dan loosened his grasp 4
nd plunged both headlOng and feetlong q
or be turned three separate and distinct n
,mersaults) into empty space. h
Mccain, at the top Of the ladder, did not y
sar the dull, sickening thud which fol- ;;
wed, but that there was a thud of that kind
generally conceded. al
Dan had bought a new suit of clothes the a,
~ hnfnrn and fnr some nnaccnn nfnhln | u