Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1892-02-18
Thrown OUTOFAJO
HOW A DISCHARGE AFFECTS DIF-
FERENT MEN IN A BIG CITY.


Heroic Struggle of joe" Who L. but 9
Representative of the Average Unfor.
tunate Fellow Looking for work-Ho~
Others Take the Sad News
Joe's envelope said simply:
The house regrets II can no longer
offer you employment, but its 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 ne didn't
John followed him out and said:
Stout heart. old fellow. You'll have
a better job in a week. If can do you
favor. call on me. My turn next, I
imagine"
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
his iife-be romps and carouses with
Flora until she believes he is as much a
child as herself. and his wife watches il
all from her sewing table and wonders
If she was ever as happy III the old
courting days as she is now.
And Joe's heart is heavy under it all
for he determines that they shall not
know of his bad luck until ne has anoth-
er job He is hurt, humiliated, repulsed
he feels that the house has clipped him
off because it could spare him more cas-
lily than any one of the hundred odd 9TH
ers that it has retained.
"B1t that little wife sitting there with
her head full of belief in me mustn't
know-she must believe me all seemed
to be-
WORK AT LAST
He looks for work ten hours day for
q week and doesn't find it. Saturday he
pawns his watch for a weeks wages and
carries it home. telling them that his
watch had been stolen from him, but
that he had clew to the thief and that
Inspector Byrnes would catch him in a
few days. He says to himself that fate
stole IT from him. but he keeps up the
play bravely 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 a 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 coolness Something asks him
over and over again every day, Where
will It end?" but Joe just sets his lips
little harder and don't reply even in
thought.
His encyclopedia goes next He loans
il to friend down town at the Office, so
ne tells them at home Joe can't eat
heartily this week. He watches his wife
and children's iightheartedness some
thing like brute would do-stoically.
unmoved. He tells Amy to drink his cup
of tea: he has no appetite. and don't want
1t. 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 rs they
sleep. and he feels a heavy weight slowly
settling upon his brain that he cannot
understand the meaning Of.
Nextday he finds another position, and
his wife doesn't understand why he gives
way SO completely for the first time in
his life and cries like child while tell
ing her Of it.
OTHER TYPES.
There are Just few Joes in this world
not too many.
Clarence Harney tells his wife about
il as soon as he gets home. He is sure
he knew the internal job wouldn't hold
out long anyhow. Plenty more. though
you Just have to have 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-In
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 |
spent for anything at all. "Un-
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 a 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 ostensibiy |
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
be had to take it at seven dollars a week |
or nothing when he really receives
twelve. Jimnlie's friends down town
call him smooth"
Harris Russell. who writes shorthand.
loses Job because he is bad speller.
He studies up on his spelling. answers
gets few encouraging
replies. and after moving to a cheaper
room once and going it for week on
Iiiet of crackers and dmilk-occasionally
q nickels worth of hot waffies he gets
another place at one dollar week more
salary. and determines that he will not
dounder on the same old reef a second
tlme. Harris is an average boy-a typ
lcai case
Emmons Holman. bookkeeper. learns
that ne is to be dispensed with soon. 80
very dignifedly RESIGNS He tells his
friends that the firm bucked against it
awfully. but that they couldn't keep
they offered shorter hours and
a big raise, but that it was all no good.
He knew what he was about. 1t is safe
to admit that he did.
Ernest Jenkins is discharged. No
friends. Can get no work. Starves
three days The river.-New York
World.
A Child That Acted Like a Wolf.
A child caught in VOLTS den would
only eat raw flesh, on which he put his
hands as q DOC pr1fe its fore foot He