Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1892-11-20
IN NEW YORK CORRIDORS.
rrRoM A STAFF SUPERINTENDENT

fFRoM STAFF CoRREsPoNDENrJ
NEW YORK, Nov. l9.-I met 'Steve" Dorsey
in Wall street the other day, and was sur
prised to see how well he was looking. Dor
sey came out of the celebrated Star Route
trials a bruised and broken man, physically.
mentally and financially. He was probably
more hurt at the desertion OF prominent
men whom he had made and whom he had
thought his friends than from all his mis-
fortunes. Before the great Star Route scan
dal, with which his name was coupled, Dor
sey was a man who made and unmade Presi-
dents. In the long and bitter trial, how
ever, that followed the exposures he found
himself not only deserted, but pushed to the
verge of the prison bars by the very men he
had been chiefly instrumental in lifting into
high official station, He found himself
bounded down by newspapers that had
tried and convicted him before he appeared
before the legal tribunal tnat acquitted
him. Treated as a felon and denounced as
an outlaw on every hand, his naturally open
hearted, genial nature become soured. He
drew into his shell and away from the rest
of the world. ---
Most of his time WAS spent in the solitude
of his far Western ranch, although he had
headquarters and a business connection in
lower Broadway. His occasional appearance
uptown was invariably the occasion for tho
idex finger OF the idler and iOunger, SO he
came up seldom. His habits OF life, very
liberal always, became gradually worse. He
was brainy man of restless energy and
proud courage struggling In vain against
terrible odds-and pretty soon he was down.
He was very much down, too-with suits
knee deep. But Dorsey had lots of pluck.
He began again, at the bottom, by changing
hi I,<~lo To- f@,,
a willie; now he returns to New York look
ing like man who had renewed both youth
and hope. He is interested in Colorado irri-
cation, and it is reported that he will soon
be on his financial feet more solidly than
ever he was.
The Latest Swindling Scheme.
"Jack the Weeper'' is we'll known about
the lower town. He has been exploited in
the newspapers in connection with arrest
and Incarceration, has been interviewed and
had his portrait printed and on various oc-
casions has sworn Off from professional
weeping. "Jack the Weeper" is a diminu-
tive looking specimen of 7.year-old boy. with
Q 20yearold face and a stock OF experience
mankind this side of So, He is
fraternity hold him IN great CON
ttulpt OF KNOW nlm only TO tnunnp HIM. his
racket" has been to get bundle or papers
together late in the evening and weep &C the
loot or the elevated stairs downtown. SYM
pathetic people cast him pennies and n1ckels
ana dimes, and sometimes an occasional
quarter or half dollar found an abiding
place in the weepers inside pocket-alI on
the supposition THAT ne was an honest lad
who had BEEN stuck THUS the weeper
found that tears could be coined into cash
more easily and probably than by the Or
dtnary course of the news trade. But just
as Jack" had worked up q fairly regular
trade In comes policeman-a cold and cal
culating man OF the world with a club-and
broke up business by arrest, examination
and consequent publicity.
At the foot OF the downtown stairway Of q
Sixth avenue elevated station in the most
fashionable part of New York recently oc-
Cured a scene which demonstrated that
Jack the Weeper' had not only not gone
out OF business. but had vastly improved
upon former Methods. s.g5 - . ...-.
It was about the fashionable shopping
hour and the swell women and dilletante
young men were f1ocking to the downtown
trains. A delicate lad with q consumptive
cough and a bundle of cast-of morning
newspapers stood sliivering at tho foot OF
tile stairs, two great big homemade tears
blowing their way through the dirt on his
cheeks, as the muddy waters of the Missouri
seek the sea- Several or us stopped out OF
sympathy and began to question the boy.
At the same time nearly every hand in the
crowd fnstfnctively sought Tor change. An
sharp-eyed lady impulsivefy
pulled out q bill and pushed it into his
trembling fingers, accompanying the act
with an appealing look around upon the rest
of US. And Ii worked.
Everybody in sight gave silver and an OLD
lady VINO came in later on the scene pressed
, two-dollar note upon the child. missed
two trains to note the good1y sight and I felt
proud of my fellow creatures and the beau
Iiful sympathy Of my kind. The boy never |
said q word-he merely coughed and wept
and scooped in the coin. In the excitement |
of the moment forgot an errand 1 had at
the next station and went past it. Then l |
got out, went up the otneY side and rode
back. .-. .--...
There was little mob gathered on the
downtown side at the foot of the stairs. So |
nearly like the other mob was it that at first |
thought had made another mistake and |
gone back to my starting point. But no; 1t |
was the next station.
Well, "shtver my timbers,o as the cid salt |
,ays, II here wasn't the same boy with the |
same graveyard cough, the same weep, the |
'ame old papers, and, what was more aston
shing, here was tho same sharp-eyed
Iympathetic women just starting y liberal |
My first impulse was to jump in and grab |
Ter and yell Ior the police; but 1 conquered |
and walked away, wondering how much i
money there was in this new snap of the |
yoman and the weepcr
A Feature of Metre poIftan Life.
1t must strike any observane person who |
lses the elevated much that some women |
Exhibit q good deal of stupidity. At the |
downtown stations in the late afternoon, |
nd especially at those stations OF the Sixth |
venue line in the great shopping districts, |
women pour upstairs In solid columns and |