The Dalles daily chronicle. [volume] (The Dalles, Or.) 1890-1948, 1892-03-09
THROyyN0EE oE.As.IoB
How a DISCHARGE AFFECTS DIFF
FERENT MEN IN A BIG CITY.

- -CtosC ShEueSfo VI SOCs VINO Ab Out -
Representative of the Average Unfor-
ltunate' FeIiow Looking for. work-How
Others Take the Sad News
Joes envelope said simply:
The house regrets it can no longer
offer You employment, but it's reasons
do not hinge upon your competency
and we take occasion to thank you for
good work for us. wishing you we'll
Joe thought to hide the message from
John as he passed out-John had worked
at his elbows for months-but he didn't
John followed him out and said:
Stout heart, old fellow. You'll have
better job in n week If can do you
favor. call on me. Ny turn. next.
imagine" Ekf 81
Joe walked the streets for hours. then
went home TO his wife and babies not
less surely years older than when he had
left them in the morning. He has fixed
his purpose, and will hew to it. He
takes the usual trinkets to the children.
"A trifie of some sort to his wife, and
gives her, as is his rule. the weeks earn
ings Then he acts for the first time in
mis- iife-he ronlps and carouses with
Flora until she believes he Is as much a
child as herself. and his wife watches it
all from her sewing table and wonders
II she was ever as happy in the old
courting days as she is now
And Joe's heart is heavy under>it all
Tor he determines that they shall not
know of his had luck until he has anoth-
er job He is hurt, humiliated, repulsed
: ne feels that the house has clipped him
of because it could spare him more cas-
lily than any one of the hundred odd 9TH
ers that it has retained.
"But that little wife sitting there with
her head full of belief in me mustn't
know -she must believe me all seemed
10 be. $50
WORK AT LAST.
He looks for work ten hours day for
Il week and doesn't find it. Saturday he
pawns his watch for weeks wages and
carries it home, telling them that his
watch had been stolen. from him, but
that he had u clew to the thief and that
Inspector Byrnes would catch him in
few days He says to himself that fate
stole it from him, but he keeps up the
play brayely and with fortitude answers
the evening queries of the home ones
about whether they have found the
watch. The next two weeks are tided
over by selling the Building and Loan
stock Then he borrows another weeks
pay of friend
Every morning he starts Ito work. at
the regular hour every evening he re-
turns. They go to the theater; they buy
some needed and long promised clothes;
they pay their regular missionary money
and church fees-for Joe is playing a
desperate hand now. but with an insane
sort of cooIness. Something asks him
over and over again every day, Where
will it endT but Joe just sets his lips a
little harder and don't reply even in
thought.
His encyclopedia goes next. He eloans
it to a friend down town at the Office, SO
he tells them at home. Joe can't eat
heartily this week. He watches his wife
and children's lightheartedness some
thing like a brute would do-stoically.
unmoved. He tells Amy to- drink his emp
of tea: he has no appetite, and don't want
it. Then he is for the first time in his
life affected with satan's specially ex-
ported article of disease--insomnia He.
sits for hours watching his family as they
sleep and he feels a heavy weight slowly
settling upon his brain that he cannot
understand the meaning of
/ Next day he finds another position, and
his wife doesn't understand why he gives
way SO completely for the first time in
mis- life and cries like child while tell
ing her of it,
OTHER TYPES
There are Just a few Joes in this world
mot too many.
I Clarence Harvey tells his wife about
/ it as soon as he gets nome. He is sure
ne knew the internal job wouldn't hold
out long anyhow. Plenty more, though
you just have TO have a little gall; and
next day Clarence has another job. A
little less pay. to be sure. ..but then," he
argues. Its only for week or so-Ill
strike better one the first thing you
know. You don't down me-not this
| year"
Jim Burton, the clerk, loses his job
| He pitches into the whole family and
tells them that there must be no more
money spent for anything at all ''Un-
derstand? The goodness only knows
when you will get any more from me, so
make this last as long as it will" He
goes down town, gets job. tells them
at home that he has not yet found one.
and so spends the entire pay for two
weeks on himself. the while ostensibly
searching for work. and making the home
ones pinch and worry with the lessening
cash. Then, at the critical moment he
suddenly finds work" and tells them
he had to take it at seven dollars week
or nothing when he really receives
twelve. Jimmie's friends down town
! call him smooth"
Harris Russell. who writes shorthand
loses a job because he is a bad speller
He studies up on his spelling, answers
advertisements, gets q few encouraging
replies, and after moving to cheaper
room once and going it for a week on a
diet of crackers and ENTHUSIASTICALLY