Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1891-12-27
MURRAY'S MUSINGS.
The Love Of Mystery in Newspaper Readers
Selling Stolen Goods to Pubiishers-How
Men Wear shoes-Tearing Up New
Pavement in Now YorIr

| The Love Of Mystery in Newspaper Readers
Selling Stolen Goods to Pubiishers-How
Men Wear Shoes-Tearing Up New
| Pavement in New York
| rrRoM A STAFF CORRESPONDENCE
NEW YORK, Dee. 26.-The shadows of
metropolitan life could scarcely have more
CHASTITY Illustration than in the case OF the
corpse of the old man at a Greenwich street
window staring into the windows of the ele-
waited cars for two days, the butt of the
trainmen's Christmas time humor. A little
while before was the killing and manelfng
of another man on the elevated almost i'm
mediately opposite window where sat his
wife and child looking innocenty out and
wondering who it was being carried away
under the protecting blanket. We are wont
to look upon the extraordinary situations
created by the novelist and playwright with
satirical severity. But the pen of Sue,
Dumas, Dickens, and Of a host of imitators,
never conjured up from imaginations vivid
with research and practical observation
more pathetically impressive picture than
is presented in the dead maI at the Green
wich street window.
Yet such things are so common in New
York that they are swallowed up in the
great maelstrom of metropolitan events
forgotten in a day. Plain death excites but
little more attention than 4 plain drunk. 1t
must be presented in some novel form TO
claim particular notice in n community
where there is an average of death every
10 minutes of each "a hours. Even deaths of
violent nature must present new phases or
involve people of Importance to be worth
much space in the New York newspapers.
Suicides have become so common and un-
interesting that it is not unusual to see
four or five attempts in that line occupy
not more than as many lines each,
grouped under general head. So
thing is death in r great city. 1t is mys-
terry the living reader loves. Study the col
umns of the great dailies and note this par
features, particularly the horrible and more
particularly still, the mysterious, is what
eXcites public interest. This is inexplica-
PIE: The attempt upon the life OF Million
the discovery of the identity of the bomb
thrower. Ifit were possible for some un-
known bum to annihilate himself in a pub
lie manner by dynamite, the whole civilized
world would probably be burdened for days
and weeks with the desire to ascertain who
he was and where he came from.
Children Doing the Marketing.
One of the most striking features in the I
poorer regions of the city is the early age ut
which children are made useful to the house
hold. In my rambles about town have |
seen ch1ldren-puny, understood children, |
too-of and years of age, carrying milk, |
meat groceries, ETC., having just, performed |
that part of the family marketing. Step |
into any OF the Seventh avenue butcher |
shops bakeries, or groceries and you will |
almost invariably see children of from to |
years old purchasing family supplies. have
seen children whose eyes were still on |
level with the butchers chopping block
buying cents worth of odds and ends of
meat for the family stew, and paying for it
in pennies carefully counted out into the
butchers big, brown hands-pennies, hard
no doubt. One time the child
couldn't talk distinctly enough for the man
to understand.
How much money have you zot'" he
asked.
The little thinly-clad tot opened a chubby
and very dirty fist and displayed cents.
Whereupon the butcher, his diamond pin
sparkling in the rays of his bright cleaver,
scooped in the pennies and chopped her Tor
hlm) off a fragment of bones and gristle and
threw in chunk of fat.
Small?" said he, in response to my COM
children commence running
errands as soon as they can walk. At 6 and
the girls do the marketing and keep house,
While the boys sell papers and play craps.
sir?'
Piracy in Literature.
1.-THE movement of the Harpers and 9TH
rs to protect publishers and authors from
iterary piracy is good one" said q we'll
,nown writer and newspaper manager.
The boldness with which this thieving has
,een done is astonishing to everybody but
writer's themselves. Now, 1 cun scarcely
IDENTIFY my own matter. Nearly every
writer who turns out much stuff forgets
THAT he writes. He dismisses it from his
mind. If he can keep track of it long
nough to get his pay he is satisfied. How
an it be expected, therefore, that any
uman being can be 30 thoroughly informed
nd have mind so retentive that he can
pot n stolen article on sight? Some of
hese readers for publishing houses get very |
xpert, but even they get taken in once in a
Thile. There is II good deal of good matter |
eclined with thanks, even in our newspaper | {
fices. because the contributor is personally :
quite often by magazines. Life | ,
too short to hunt up every mans
ecord for literary honesty. Printers very
ften discover old things after they have /
assed the scrutiny of the editor. I've seen I
rinters who seem never to forget anything .
hey ever worked on. / once passed an
fticle which an old printer identified as one
had written myself some years before 1t
mt safe to buy anything unless you know
IL about the person who offers it for sale.'' {
individuality in Wearing Shoes. I
-"There is more character in shoes than
any other article of mans Dress said "
Broadway shoe dealer, looking out upon q .
he passing throng one dull day. "a man /
my deceive the eye of an expert in every | {
ther particular but in shoes. 1 mean the q
ind and the way he wears them. Walking L
an involuntary performance and is not q
atter of study and stimulation. Every man t
i'll certainly wear his shoes in a certain
ay. And as q rule he will wear shoes that | t
his build, his business and his tempera- c
ent. In nine cases out of ten when he /;
,mes in here for new pair l can tell the "
ind of shoe he will want by the manner in L
hich he has worn out the pair he has on e
neither on the toes, the inside or outside of p
.e heels on the ball of the foot, inside or 1
Inside of the ball, or whether the rest of c
le shoe gives out before the sole. He may }
Ike some other kind, but he'll want the .
loes 1 select.
"Give good detective the imprint of a a
iminals foot on yielding soil and he can Ii
re his man up pretty well, especially if the ii
zoe be rather worn. That is the only thing | W
man can't disguise. Lots of tirst-class n
.tective stories have been written on this, | T
1t there is nothing remarkable about it to ! IL:
e. The individuality in footprint Is the in
dividuality of the wearer ofa shoe and W
We been noticing that for 30 years" SC
Destroying Magnificent Pavement. Oh
Broadway has not quite all been re-
ved but it Is progressing. In the mean
ne that part of the new pavement that
8 been down two or three months, and | bi
Is put down to stay, has been ripped in
If dozen places to the block. The Mayor {
ore IL mighty oath to the effect that no
rInits would be granted anybody TO pull |