The Helena independent. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1875-1943, 1890-07-01
Some Of the Very Many Living
Enigmas Of the Great
City.
Everybody Knows Them, and No
body Knows Anything
About Them.
Who are They and How DO They Exc Out
an Existence ?-Some
Specimens.

to live without work, but of people who are
without visible means of support, and who
yet contrive not only to keep af1oat with the
tide, but do it in line style. too. says the
New York News. There is q criminal class
of idlers whose members are we'll known to
the police, who could explain the mystery
of their idle lives to the public if they
choose to, but the class allude to does not
rank with these. The police know no more
about them than thes general public does.
They are among the apparently impenetra-
BILE mysteries of the great city.
Perhaps the most prominent of them are
to be found about the great hotels. Here
you may see, day after day, lounging men
who might be guests of the house from
their regular appearance on the spot and
complete ais of being at home there. They
idle in the public halls and offices as if they
4 had the right of regularly paid bills to do 50:
paper in the reading room, and make APP
pointments with people in the parlors or the
bar room. Many even receive their letters at
the hotel Office, yet neither proprietor, clerk
I nor detective could tell you more about
them than their names.
The free and easy hotel system of this
country makes the public portion of the
house sort of open club room, and these
gentry take advantage of it. They are a.
ways decently and often very we'll dressed.
They do not spend money, but seem on the
other hand to be in no need Of it. They
would be promptly extinguished by the de-
ttectives of the houses they resort to if they
gave any sign or token of irregular prac-
,tices but they do not. They simply come
in of morning from nowhere in particular.
do nothing in particular all day long, and
at night disappear to nowhere in particular,
without leaving clue to themselves out
side the hotel walls.
4e5 They appear to have any number of ac-
quaintances among regular habitues and
guests of the hotels, but when you ask one
Of these who this or that man was he has
just been speaking to he will scratch his
head and answer: "Tll be hanged if know.
met him somewhere or other, but I'll
swear couldn't tell you exactly where"
Even when, as is sometimes the case, the
guest happens to know the mystery by
name that is all he does know about him,
his belongings or his occupation.
Down in the business part of the city 1t IS
the same thing. Among the crowds that
swarm in the great wholesale dry goods
same unemployed fashion as at the hotels.
They haunt the auction rooms sNhere in
voices of goods are disposed of. They drop
in and out at the commercial exchanges;
they hang on at the real estate sales, never
buying or selling, but quite as deeply inter
VA
They use the paper and envelopes of bust
ness houses for their correspondence as
freely as their brethren do that of the ho-
tells.
Il is to be noted, by the way, that the
whether they really write to anybody or
like Mr.. Toots in ''Dombey d SOM address
their letters to themselves nobody knows.
The commercial mystery, like the hotel
mystery, appears to be harmless enough.
f. 1~o Ar, ~ ,101
or predatory arts, and while watchmen and
detectives keep corner of their eyes open
for him. it is not on record that he even
gave an occasion for summary Punishment
from the scene of his daily uselessness.
He is, by all appearances, purely super
mysterious as himself, and kills part of
the time that hangs heavy on his helpless
hands by the delusion of business derived
from contact with busy men. He knows all
the great men of the great mart by sight:
he exchanges greetings and remarks with
half the people he encounters; yet not one
of them could tell you for the life of him
who his queer acquaintance was, or what
he was. or whence he came.
Wall street is full of these mysteries.
Every brokers' Office owns at least one. He
comes and goes as regularly as the stock
market opens and closes, and could not be
more profoundly engaged by the cour Sc of
the days trade if he had millions at stake
on the rise or fall of the stocks. There are,
around Wall street quite lot of beggared,
of their speculative ruin, but the mystery
ia not one of these. He never specialized.
No one can ever recall his having been in
the market, either as an operator or as a
customer. He walked into this, that or
t'other brokers' Office one day, looked at
walking in, looking at the tape and sitting
down ever since. The customers of the
Office know him only from seeing him here.
All that the clerks can tell you is that his
name is so-and-so, and that he sometimes
gets letters addressed to him at the office.
much room, the brokers, who are good
natured lot as rule, tolerate him. Some
regard him as sort of a joke and others
consider him species of harmless lunatic
whose presence may some Gay bring them
luck.
It lie told by one member of the Exchange
that after being haunted by a mystery for a
couple of years he got rather tired of the
infection and remarked to him: II say, old
man, don't you think you would be more
replied the mystery pleasantly, 1T don't
to move?''
The mysteries come out strong about the
law courts of the city. They. provide a
good portion Of every audience that watches
q VI AoA3 CIV ga oAA0lb COAAo dllA0 W tAclUs
They evidently follow the progress of the
dullest civil suit and that of the liveliest
scandal case with the same interest In
cases over which the jurymen sleep they
are as watohful and wakeful as over murder
trials and actions for divorce with spicy
trimmings. They know thecourt officers,
the judges and lawyers, as we'll as if they
were brothers, and while they treat the
former with condescending affability they
salute the latter as equals with friendly
familiarity. Good morning, Officer" says
the mystery, as he glides into the court
room when the door is opened. .Ah, Judge.
your Honor is looking we'll this morning. y
And the officer and the judge alike ac-
knowledge the salutation with the readiness
of long custom. When the court adiourns
for luncheon the mystery adjourns also.
He does not eat any luncheon. In fact no
one evet saw a mystery eat, drink or
smoke. He would probably cease to be a
mystery if he ever did anything but sit
around and do nothing. After recess he Is
back in his seat again, for no matter how
great a crowd there may be in court the
mystery contrives to secure seat.
Witnesses may stand and persons inter
ested in the case fail to obtain admission to
the courtroom, but the mystery is there,
and comfortable. He takes species of pro-
prietary responsibility upon himself for the
case. and when it has been decided he will
remark to the doorman as he walks out:
We did the defendant mp pretty we'll,
didn't veY" or, 1.-The verdict couldn't be
helped with such jury" according to the