The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1892-04-29
DECLINE " 49, -~0.-.,-...
Il Tells a Dream OF Peace and CSnesn
ment Cow Faded Into Dust.

! Il Tells q Dream OF Peace and CSncsnG
ment Cow Faded Into Dust.
The decline of the bootjack is sobg that
has never yet been sting.
Il went into one OF your swell New YORK
hotels the other day" said the old timer.
''and after | had wandered aimleSsly
around the lobby for awhile / gazed on the
splendors of the ivory and gold frescoing,
on the paintings and the statuary, and ali
the rest of it, and then let nv eye range
over the Office help, all sitting up like sol
diers, wearing uniforms, diamonds, and
CARRYING handkerchiefs that exhaled per
fume-it was a sight that instinctively
raised in my mind its contrast, way back
in the days of 1S47, when / used TO keep a
tavern on the Albany turnpike, and all we
had was a good square old room, a big
blazing CRATE fire, n couple of negroes for
help and two or three black bottles for the
bar. Then thought of the old coaches,
and how they would drive up with hur-
rah and yell. bringing the old time guest,
with his simplicity of manners, his quaint
baggage and his royal welcome TO the best
in the house, that merry inn on the pubic
highway"
"Yes?"
1T made me feel that had outlived my
time All this spleudor, all this dazzle,
what good was it? Then | went TO my
room. Stranger, if / ever did feel home
sick it was when | sat down in that splen-
did blue and gold room On the silken
chair and Just reached down to pull off
my boots, lo0king in the corner for the
bootjack of my youth"
"And the tootjack?"
''Ah, the bootjack was gone I searched
under the bed, in the closet, beside the
hearth, but all i'll vain. The bootjack OF
the other days had vanished"
He did not speak again for moment or
two. He seemed wrapped in deep thought.
By and by he was saying slowly:
THE decline of the bootjack tells all the
old timers like myself that we have about
outliyed our generation. When we were
young everybody wore boots. There were
the cowhides of the worker, the polished
boots of the gentleman; the royal, span
gled boots of the officer, the top boots of
the horseman and the glittering boots of
the swell of fashion. Every man wore his
boots and owned his bootjack. There was
no rush or hurry in those days There was
time then for the interchange of those
graceful comInonplaces of life that made
existence a charm and a joy.
"Yes, those were the days in which we
lived. With the decline of the bootjack a
newer and different race of people has
come to US. With them all is splendor, all
is show, all is hurry, hustle, business, en-
ergy, ceaseless and deathless ambition to
be rich. The men of today do not even
seem TO have time to pull off their boots,
for in the mad rush the friend of my youth
has been entirely overthrown. 1t seems to
me that the time of my own fight is not
long distant"
Yes" said the hearer slowly, ''that is
true; the decline of the bootjack marks al
epoch in our history"
''It does. indeed. 1t has been said, and
rightly, too, that Americans know the
price of everything and the value Of moth
ing. That X the reason why they have
suffered themselves to be allured by the
mad ambitions that have in the end de-
stroyed ali vestiges of the oldtime spirit of
ease and contentment as found in the inn,
when as yet every gentleman wore boots
and owned his own bootjack. The glass is
nearly run, and the old men of that simple
generation viii soon be gone. New York
Recorder.