Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1890-08-17
An Incident of the Strike.


too." she says.
An Incident of the Strike.
WAS one of New York Central trainload Of
Saratoga people who were deposited in
sand bank half a mile or SO above Harlem .
o'clock at night the first day of the strike. 1t
was the maddest crowd of tired pleasure folks
you ever saw. We had received no New York
evening papers, and consequently knew moth
ing of the difficulty. 1t was fully half an hour
before switch engine came out and its crew
gave US information that we may as well walk
home as the train must stop there indefinitely.
Then the old fat dowagers in diamonds, the
Saratoga bookmakers, the swells, the tottering
papas and simpering misses, one after another
filed out of the palace cars, grips, canes UNI
brellas and other unchecked luggage In hand,
and, piloted by a conductor with lantern,
wended their way across the fields toward the
city, swearing alternately at the strikers and
railroad company at every misstep. The car
riages of some of these people were waiting at
the Grand Central station.
Here, for once, everyone, rich and poor old
and young plodded along on foot on democratic
equality. When we struck the pavements at
One Hundred and Forty-ninth street one old
lady drew a long breath, turned and silently
shook her diamond -bedeeked fist at the dark
ness she had left behind, then renewed her en-
forced pilgrimage. The gloomy crowd that
climbed into the surface car at the Madison
avenue stable filled the conductor and driver
laughed myself if hadn't been a victim. An
old man with gold-headed cane was the only
one who spoke for mile. He said he would
sue the New York Central Railroad Company
unless it repaid him the nickel he was thus
compelled to yield up for carfare.
Small Large Business.
THERE are three able-bodied men, two of
whom, 1 am told, have families. who earn
a living on the corner beneath my office. They
get good one. too. Yet they pay $50 a month
rent for the fruit stand and boot-black chair.
which constitutes their source Of wealth. To
the casual observer il would seem impossible to
get enough out Of the business for rent. They
not only do that. but make 500 clear. The
boss who has this business, hires the other
the shade of the elevated stairs. He is said to
be rich. OF course they are Italians.
sTs
ExcIusiveness of Flat Life.
JTis pleasing and yet sometimes terrible
feature of metropolitan life that man or
family can live in fiat almost anywhere
unknown and undisturbed, even by the nearest
neighbors. There may be from five to ten
other families using the same front door and
be total strangers to each other. So far from
breeding that familiarity dreaded by those who
have always occupied their own individual
homes, fat life tends toward exclusiveness.
That is my experience. The very fact that you
are domiciled with all sorts of people estab-
fishes barrier to social intercourse almost un-
known to thosei in private residences. You are
situated as you would be in hotel, and neither
know nor care who occupies the room
across the hail. or above or below you.
Nothing short of conspicuous viciousness, or
little Grape floating from some bell handle in
the vestibule, stirs up any human interest in
neighborhood affairs. have been occupying
ground floor fat in large double fat house
of ten families for two years. During that time
every fat in the building has changed occu-
pants once to five times. have known but
three or four persons in all this time, and these
merely to speak to when an accidental meeting
on the steps or in the lower hall seemed to
exact the courtesy on both sides. Our social
relations never went further. OF the children
have known Maggie and Bessie and Floy and
Charley and Rhody and Daisy and SO on, of the
whole blook and they all know me. OF their
fathers, mothers, what they do where they go
and whence they came know nothing; nor can
call their full names. have every reason to
believe this exclusive don't-careativeness pre-
walls generally. NV own experience is the fat
life is quite as sacred from intrusive neighbors
as any other sort of life. If it were otherwise
it would be unbearable.
A Bit of Grape.
THERE are some features of this fiat life that
are painful. The other day a bunch of
crane dropped gloomlly from one of these little
brass bell-handles in the vestibule. A crowd of
children and few grown people gathered on
the sidewalk, and after awhile blocked up the
street. They we're very quiet for such a num-
Der of little children. A subdued whisper ran
around and the little awe-stricken faces were
turned alternately up the street and upward
toward the many other faces at the windows in
the block. had never seen SO many children.
SO many very quiet and orderly children in the
neighborhood before. Pretty soon an under
takers wagon arrived, and in it was q modest
coffin, which was quickly borne into the house.
Every hat and bonnet, big and little, was re-
moved as the solemn act was done. And there
were tears in many innocent eyes and running
down many chubby cheeks. Because the body
in that modest coffin was the body OF yourg
hero. He was young theological student and
an only adored son of aged parents.
He went down TO the beach but yesterday in
the best of health. While bathing a cry went
up that little girl was drowning. He heard
her muffed skriek as the tide pulled her down
into the sea with remorseless grasp. Plunging
after her without hesitation. he diyed again
and again, fighting the roaring surf with his
athletic arms. while the excited crowd of
bathers and people on the sands breathlessly
watched him and prayed for his success. And
he did succeed and finally dragged up the little
one when all hope seemed gone and held her
thr 6y her tangled gOider % hair IN nigh 2 above the
But the tide was going out and the deadly
undertow tugged at his limbs and momentarily
threatened the life of man and child. He
his apparently 1ifeless burden, but he would
not. 1t was desperate fight. He was bound
to win it or die. He did win, and he died, too.
For the little child was saved and restored to
consciousness and life, while he-well this was
his body just borne into the house.
What lima ginntion Can Do.
IT has been the fashion this summer for Broad
way merchants to expose thermometers in
front of their stores, evidently to remind a
man how hot it is If he is feeling ordinarily
comfortable ON warm day all that Is required
to render him miserable is this confounded