Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1891-08-16
MURRAY'S MUSINGS.

Rights Of the Public in New York Selling
Whisky at SO Much swallow-Points
on Finance-Newsboy Life-The Kite
| Season.
tFRoM A STAFF CORRESPONDENT
| NEW YORK, Aug. ia short time ago the
| city authorities on complaint of the eleva-
| ted roads, issued a decree against the main
tenance of fruit and boot-black stands in
| the vicinity of the elevated stations. No at
| tention was paid to the order of removal in
many cases and the Bureau of Street In
cumbrances made a descent upon the un-
| happy Italians and whisked their stalls
away, leaving the fruit and backing para
phernala on the curb at the mercy and to
| the infinite amusement of the crowds The
| wagons and police had scarcely disappeared
before the irrepressible sons of Italy had,
| for the most part, reconstructed their side
walk shops around the corner, and were
| doing business at the old stands. Some of
| them actually took up more space than they
| did before the raid.
There is something remarkable in all this.
Not in the contempt of a certain class OF
New York population for the law, but in the
extreme tolerance of the New York public
generally of all degrees and species of in
fringement by individuals and corporations
ments are not only tolerated but positively
encouraged. Your New Workers will climb
skids and dodge drygoods and groceries by
the mile, and If he can do this every day
without breaking his neck or limbs, he will
not complain. 1 really think sometimes
that he would be actually unhappy if he
didn't have to do it. From 10000 to $4,000
people daily will shy out around an apple
stand that takes up half the walk, and, un-
less some particular one falls upon banana
peel. no serious thought is wasted upon the
matter. The single unfortunate is usually
laid up with a fractured skull and can't
think any more about anything II he isn't
he probably thinks Damn" and that is all
there is to it. This is but one stand and one
elevated station, mind you. Five hundred
thousand people use the elevated daily and
the whole number must dodge some stand
or bootblack chair where they individually
get on and. And this, too, is but a trifle and
but small proportion of the inconyen-
ience.
If an alien of five days sojourn would
fence in the entire walk on any street in
New ork believe hundreds of thousands
of people would simply glance at it and
walk around by way of the gutter without
the courage to kick it down. So helpless
and lethargic have the public become as to
their pubic rights. This state of mind is
fattered and encouraged by law. That is,
the law recognizes so many far more objec-
tonable encroachments of persons and cor
porations that the general public become
calloused and Indifferent and hopelessly ac-
metropolis, which sanctions directly or in
directly abuses of this nature that would
not De tolerated i'll any even tenth-rate city
of the Union.
Getting Held Up for Lunch.
AT the Cafe Savarin, that gorgeous midday
resort of the downtown business man, is an
extensive "stand-up lunch" counter. The
"stand-up lunch is the popular thing in the
busy hours Of the day. 1t doesn't mean that
you stand anybody up for lunch, but you
stand up while you throw in few lobster
salads and mincs pies between drink Of
whisky and cigar, all within five minutes,
'and go offabout your busines, allowing your
stomach to do the rest-if 1t can. The Saw
arin sets an elaborate free lunch at a certain
hour in the afternoon when regular lunch
Ing has practically ceased for the day. This
cleans up the remnants while it encourages
the bar trade. The free lunch is just the
same as the regular and is served by the
same walters from the same oynx counters.
NO sign announces it and therefore 1t is
known only to the habitues of the place.
There is much amusement when some
fellow who thinks he has been eating at the
expense of the house gets the cash register
bell rung on him for 81 so. Something like
this occurs daily and the embarra ssment of
the victim is greatly heightened when he is
compelled to scrape around among his
laughing friends to raise money for his
lunch check.
1 WONDER what the boy who reels off a
thousand feet of kitestring across the
meadows and stubble fields would think of
the New York boy, who must depend upon
the tenement house roof and risk the net
work of wires Immediately overhead or go
without a kite. With the first symptoms of
the kite season, that sets in and closes by
some subtle understanding only within the
range of boyhood's comprehension, the New
the chimney pots and clotheslines, and tele-
graph, telephone and the deadly electric |
lighting wires and unfurls his paper banner |
to the breeze. He may have but few yards |
of string and a few square yards of surface |
from which to operate, but if he doesn't fall |
off the root, tumble down the air shaft or |
get struck by lightning, or lose his kite |
among the wires. or get spanked for going |
fed that he hos mad lots of fun.
Unfortunately some one of these misfor- |
tunes is often attendant upon city kite fly |
ing. The kite season is strewn with sad |
fatalities, and the wires of the metropolis |
are besprinkled with the tattered wrecks of |
many boyish hope and pride. The fresh |
mantled sticks, and settled grief plows
many a parental heart Yet the kite season |
comes and goes in New York the same as
elsewhere, and appeals quite as strongly to
the youthful imagination.
Who Suffer From Tight Money.
at is the rich men who are apparently suf-
fering most from the stringency of the money
said a Wall street broker. "There
are millionaires who can't raise S., ,O0O cash |
without borrowing. Now that's fact |
They may have plenty of gilt-edged securi-
ties. There are lots of gilt-edged securities, |
but they don't represent ready money. The |
ready money is not to be had when every
body wants it most Then is when it slyiy |
sinks out of sight. Then is when every
man and corporation with outstanding con-
tracts gets stuck more or less.
The Premium on Gold
''THERE is practically premium on gold
here now" remarked another financier "I
10 not assume to define the causes, for no
man can more than guess at these things
When 1 say there is a premium on gold L
mean this-that a capitalist represented on
The street will offer money at a lower rate of
interest, that interest specifically payable in
ion. This is now observable every day
But 1t is only recent thing. 1t is an inno-
vation. Gold is at a premium now You
amt go anywhere and get gold in any uuan-
ity or gold bearing securities without CON
ideration."
How to Catch Mice
TRAPS? 1 can catch more mice with nv
lands than you can catch in traps" The
Issertion brought outa singular experience |
Yes, 1 can catch them with my hands. 1
whistle and sing to them and they will come
n from the hooks and corners and halls into
Then place few crumbs in the middle of
he floor, just enough for an appetizer
Walk around now and then, or rattle paper
font flnrr