The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1890-07-23
along to what he hopes will prove his
fame and fortune.

along to what he hopes will prove his
fame and fortune.
AS the rag picker is. legitimate
companion of the old-clothes man, so
music would seem the proper accom-
paniment for flowers. All large cities
abound in professional street minstrels.
Many of these are bearded men, quite
capable of working for a living, whose
principal patronage is found in saloons
which they serenade, and where, in
addition to little money secured from
customers about the place, they are
generally treated by the proprietor
and are. In consequence, maintained
in a condition for numbering" the airs
they attempt TO render
Italians are natural and almost uni
versal musicians, and it is from their
ranks that the great majority of street
organ-grinders, fiddlers, and other
players are drawn. They often travel
in sets, with full complement of in
struments of different sorts, and pro-
duce quite tolerable music. They SER
enade residences, and are often en-
ployed to furnish music for an UMPIRE
tending little party of q socia. nature.
Small boys and girls often travel about
together and deliver concerts on harps,
flutes, and violins. Their music Is not
always of the best. but their size makes
up for any deficiencies of that kind,
and trio of little ones will often re-
turn home at night to their parents, or
PROJECTORS, with more money than
could be earned by six strong laborers.
Efforts have been made by the $50
ciety for the Prevention of Cruelty 70
Children" to abolish this latter phase
of street minstrelsy, but without any
very marked results.
To a.close observer il is n matter of
wonder how an umbrella member man
ages TO live. He is always tramping
his weary round with his kit of tools
and bundle of old umbrellas to be
used in supplying missing parts. He
calls at innumerable houses, from the
doorways of all of which he seems to
be repulsed. OF course he secures an
occasional job, otherwise he would
abandon n business so Improbable,
but one will watch long time before
he is seen plying his trade. First cou-
sin to him is the umbrella peldler.
1T is an i'll wind that blows nobody
any good" and the tempest that
comes accompanied by rain, and
makes light the hearts Of ducks
and boys whose duty it is to
drive sprinkling wagons through
dusty streets. is n God-send to the
umbrella peddler. who is then able TO
ply his vocation with hopes of suk-
3D. l. 4 L, II, a
cheapest grade of goods, and when II
rain suddenly breaks out in city, ap
pears as if by magic, with numbe
of umbrellas under his arm, and begins
crying his wares. With the cessation
of the "down-pour" or "drizzle-droz
zle," as the case may be, he disappears
from view to reappear upon the next
rainy day.
1t must not, however, be supposed
that he depends upon the rain TO bring
him his livelihood. He is generally
street peddler, or more properly, "fakir"
of some sort of goods, from patent sus-
pender buttons to clothes wringers,
who, for the nonce, drops his regular
line of goods for the better selling UNI
brella. At the doors of theaters
when the performance Is well-nlgh
over, she" may be seen in force. The
young gallant who has come without
a thought of the rain which is
now falling, has the alternative
presented of paying two dollars for
carriage or fifty cents for cotton UNI
brella, and often to the chagrin of the
accompanying fair one" generally in
vests in the latter.
The stroller through the streets of
Chicago sees many peculiar ways of
earning a livelihood besides those
enumerated above. Indeed, but few
things in the way of business are car
ried on within doors but find some sort
OF an imitation in the streets. The
theater is mimicked by the Punch and
Judy show the merchant by the fakir,
and the clergyman by the street
preacher and Salvation Army
DWIGHT BALDWIN.
CUrClGO III