St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1890-01-12

lnSulted feet into duadrille. The eX-
element and capers in this was sting
ing torment to mans sense of dancing
and the prOprieties. and my chagrin can
be better imagined than pictured. Bill
was loading up. / had an i'll apprehen-
sion that he, too, might become reckless
and leave me to those fairies of he'll, land
lest might intercept his copiOus imbi-
bition too late, forced the whiring set
of dancers up to the bar and ordered the
only thing which TO them warranted
such action. With profuse apologies
and a liberal expenditure for the liquor,
| managed to get out of the clogging
throng and engage the keeper, my col
league Bill and other notable ranger
devils, in conversation.
That Bill Bricksner was king of any
company on the range was evident.
From where | stood listening to the lie
ing tales which kept the company in
tact and near the bar, had grand op-
portunity to comprehend that vile place
to advantage. The lessons that one can
draw from such scenes were never so
Enthusiastically pictured as by Ho-
garth. He observed such life. discussed
its picturesque side, principled his les
son with reform, and then gave it to
the world in form before or since
unequaled.
The apartment in which these scenes
were being enacted was about eighty
feet long by forty wide. The floor was
OF rough pine, plaster crumbled from
the walls, and boards covered the cell
ing. A continuous wooden bench
around the entire room supported small
but loud companies of swearing men and
half-drunken women, whose only claim to
the title lay in their sex. As | looked
upon these and noticed their brawl and
ichn
to have grown into this life beyond the
chrisom. On one side of the room and
near the door which led up stairs, there
sat woman, whose age was on the
shady side of fifty. Vigorously and
roughly she screetched her fiddlestick
across cracked violin. rendering music,
barbarOus enough for the tumult which
ragged. a base drum, with more holes
than sides, held its place in the orchestra
and was usually operated by volun-
teer During all the uproar, this old
wretch played the fiddle and ionrnalized
the criminaIity on the second floor. Her
eye was lynx, her hands were long,
scrawny and knOtty, and her digitS
CLANS! Wrinkled and dirty, with a
mug of snuff which she eXpectorated at
me when | came too close to her, she
sat, with tiendish greed to collect her
portion of the money to be thrown to
these hounds.
Bill took me up stairs-th that's enough!
Disease was reflected on every wall!
The air was Initiated and every wall!
was repuislve. The ceiling of that dirty
garnet was not higher than six feet, and
crowded in that room, which were but
three-fourthS of the size of the lower
floor. were twenty-SiX apartments for
the polluted dOmeSticity of the inmates.
There were three members of that in-
famous household lying i'll. each in one
of these cramped stalls. 1t would have
been inhuman-almost cruel-tO have
diSregarded the beckOn of one of these
sick wretches when she appealed to me
as passed her apartment. 1t was bed
of the most abject misery to cOntem-
plate this poor reprobate, helpless and
and forsaken-dying by slow, tedious
degrees. Winding well the usual
contagion of such ill-kept quarters,
yet l was forced to bid Bill stay mo-
ment. until l could hand the poor
creature a small sum of money with
which she might procure medicine or
some ministering drug to make her last
moments restful at least. AS l turned
into her cage l was struck with the
modeSty of her countenance. 1t was
the honest, palIid face of young Ger
man girl. Upon my interested inquiry
She told painful tale of how the old
debauched wretch down stairs had come
to her home near Chippewa Falls, Wis,
and had met her, and. promising heI a
lucrative position as domestic, procured
her into this den.
no