The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1890-04-21
TWO ro1s OF ECRu PAINT,
a bicycle, n nlcyclist. n Painter and q
. CDIIisOu,

. .t..., .. ." SOIIlsOns .|
It was in the balmy spring time-in
|act 1t was April 10, 1890.
The poor peoples time piece on the
Building had Just struck one,
indicating 10 those who arc onto the
vagaries Of the City Hall clock that 1t
was midday.
The sun shonc brightly on South
Main street, rs II did on every other
street In the city except Eleventh street,
where the tall buildings keep out the
SUMS rays III winter and spring while old
Sol Is on his annual tour below the
equator. Un
But 10 return to South Main street.
The bright eyed, rosy checked pottery
girls with their shimmering hair licked
with white clay dust were hurrying
home to their MONDAY meals. They
were hungry, but happy visions OF pork
and beans, and appetitea whetted by
honest toll, caused them to hurry on
unhaltingly. Beside this throng Of
toilers there were two other persons in
the vicinity. Ono was d painter; only a
painter; al ordinary striking house
painter. He had been a,rikiug, owing
to the demands Of the Builders' Ex.
change that they DO allowed to manage
their own busincss, since February |.
lle was n stnunch union nan aud his
collabora!ors bad decided that until the
planning mill owners would allow the
carpenters 10 say to whom they might
sell lumber, they would not collaborate,
hence no had ceased bis collaboration
and had been iucollaborate since the
strike began. The usufruct Of his labor
had ceased ut tho time he put his brush
TO soak In n can Of benzinc. and when
the bright eyed children OF. his house.
hold clamored for a "piece" and the
piece came not. he felt himself sorely
afflicted.
He hied himself out into the high.
ways and byways and sought whose
cracks no might putty and whose house
he might paint, lest the wolf at the door
might enter inside and cause conaterna.
ton in his once happy homo. BY hook
and crook, by borrowing and promising,
he had each evening chased the wolf
away 10 q sale distance for the night,
until on the morning Of April ~ he had
gotten a job covering the weather worn
surface OF a house on Main street near
Twenty-seventh. His breast WIS inflated
with hope. lie went to a vendor Of
paints, oils, glass and putty who is not
in The. Builders Exchange, and pur.
chased the Ingredients needed in the
preparation OF q beautiful shade OF ecru
pigment. He took these things home,
and with a light heart and a clean pad.
die proceeded to mix them. He first
poured in the oil, then the lead, then
the lacquer, then the t%urpentine and
knot.killer, and stirring them bri.kly,
soon had an article Of paint which, when
put on with his dextrous touch, would
withstand the weather till it wore of.
All these things OF course took place
prior 10 the time he was introduced into
this narrative. At that time he was in.
the act OF crossing Main street at the in.
tersection Of Twenty.third. He had two
pots OF the ecru paint, onein each hand,
and being under no restrictions to work
only eight hours on Saturday when not
in the employ Of . member Of the
Builders Exchange, he was hurrying 80
that he might put in the dinner hour
and credit himself with time and a hall
for overtime. His eyes were riveted on
the house in the distance upon which
he expected to so soon be snearing the
ecru paint, and his eyes being the win.
dows OF his soul, and they being open,
his soul and all his thoughts went out to
that house.
Just as he steps across the street car
track the second actor in the too-soon.
ended drama appears. He is a clerk in
an uptown mercantile establishment and
is astrtde q bicycle. The clerk is a good,
docile clerk, and enjoys the confidence
OF his employer, who is rich, having
seventy.ilve cents aside from the money
Invested in his business.
The business man when quite young
was allowed to make his choice between
assoGiating with MECHANICS whose in
comes were commensurate with his own,
or with the wealthy classes who wear
white shirts and the same suit Of clothes
seven days a week and keep books or
keep store fifteen hours a day and snub
the greasy fellows who work nine hours
a day and wear good clothes on Sunday.
The business man chose the wealthy
and adopted their code of ethics. Like
them he hated the greasy, dirty, paint
smearcd fellows, and his clerk having
come to him while quite young, felt thai
to merit his good will and remain in his
good graces, he must adopt his plan Of
thinking.
The clerk vas twenty.one years old a
few days before this narrative opens,
and he expects to cast his first ballot at
the fall election. Since he was taken
from school at the age Of sixteen, he had
led a sedentary life. He spent his time
from a. IN. to 0 p. m. in a dark back
room where the gas was kept burning
all day, working oyer a set Of books. At
the age OF twenty, he found himself pale
and thin, the ruddy Irish blood he had
inherited from his mother and the
bright red Scotch blood from his father
having lost nearlyiall ofits red corpuscles
and many OF the white ones. He had
grown to- the full heighth nature had in
tended him to reach, but he had not
spread out. He had grown like a sap
ling inn shaded wood. He was long
enough, his feet and hands we3p well
developed, hut his trunk was slender,
and his limbs had the appearance Of
equality signs connecting them aud in
dicating that his hands, feet and body |
were equal in weight.
His physician, for every man Of any
style must have a physician, had recon.
mended a bicycle. : Ife had bought one
on tho installment plan, and at
the time this narrative opens
he was becoming a moderately ex.
pert rider. He was hustling down
Main street to his cheap s%econd.story
home on the South Side when he saw the
and his pots, crossing tho street.
The thought Titled through bis mind:
a painter; what business has he
to be in my way? Shall I ring my bell
for him" There was not much time
for thought. He was almost unon him.
The patnter's' mind was still on The
weatherlbeaten HOUSE and he heard not
the silent rubber tire as it rolled smooth
|y over the beautiful brick street of
which Wheeling is Justly go proud.
and nearer the wheelman cane. !
'Twas too late ta soYAd tAp gong, 50 he
suddenly to pass the PAINTER. An