Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1892-01-31
GARNERED IN GOTHAM.
No More Fight for Veterans of Blue and
Gray-A Joke on Anthony Comstock-
Industry of the Mongolian-Fellowship

Industry of the Mongolian-FellowshiI
ofSportsmen-
IRON STAFF CORRESPONDENT
NEW YORK, Jan. 30-T see some talk
about the repeal of the law against the e1-
Confederares serving in the United states
Army" said South Carolinian, chewing a
toothpick in front of the Hoffman House
$50 they can take a hand in the anticipated
Chilean difficulty. There is a good deal of
stuff about this. There are plenty OF South
erners, no doubt, who would like to join the
army or navy in case of trouble between us
and any foreign power. but they are not ex-
Confederates. The ex- Confederate and the
G; A r. are out of the ring. The new genera
tion will have to do the fighting, ifany fight
ing is to be done. 1 know we don't like to
confess that we are growing old, buc it's a
fact. Now I'm in pretty good health, but
how would l look on a horse? l was mere
boy during the war, and though was never
sick day while in the service, 1 needed all
the warm blood and vigorous muscles of
youth to stand the hard riding of our cavalry
campaigns. 1 am now 50-some five years
beyond conscription age and at least l5 or 20
beyond the average limit for the most
effective soldiers. Do you remember the
veteran of the Mexican War who so COM
placently aired Ills military record in GIT
Well, he wasn't in it under the new con-
ditions-and yet that was but IA years later.
The man who was born since L last sat q
horse in column is now almost too old to
make first rate cavalryman. L would now
be almost too old for sutler or quarter
master. There isn't any fight in me. But
I've got q son who is boiling over with it
and his boy"
Anthony Comstock as a Reformer.
Things are very much as you view
them. 1t is said of Anthony Comstock that
he was shaved every week day in the year
in certain barber shop. There was a
rather over-ripe picture swinging against
the wall near his chair and one day another
customer laughingly observed that If Com
stock saw that picture it would have to
come down forthwith.
There's where you're making q mistake
about him." said the barber.
"l'll bet you 81 if he ever lays eyes on that
it'll have to come down."
"Why, he gets shaved here-sits in that
very chair every day-he has seen that
picture hundreds Of times."
ooh, is-well-he couldn't have noticed
The next day when Mr.. Comstock was
drawing on his coat after a comforta BILE
shave the barber remarked that a friend OF
his had said so and so about tnat picture.
"What picture?" inquired Mr.. Comstock,
bristling up at the suggestive sound.
This one right here-he offered to bet me
81 that you would order it taken down. said
the barber.
"That is bad picture" observed the
moral censor--!'yor ought not to display
such picture"
why good heavens, You've seen that
hundreds OF times, siri 1-I-you never
seemed to object to it beforeI''
Never noticed it-never noticed it. My
attention was never specially directed to it
before-nOw l see that it is not proper.
You'll have to take it down"
And down the picture came, too, greatly
to the barber's chagrin.
The Dissipation of Work.
-'T know literary man," SAYS philo-
sophie friend, "who works from II to 10 hours
day. He complains-whenh he has time-that
he hasn't half time enough to do what he
would like to do. That man is study. He
is the best read man 1 know-is a living en-
cyclopedia of knowledge. But he doesn't
know enough to come to dinner. presume
such men are necessary to the world 1t is
O curious thing that the man who works
hard with his brains conceives more work
and is inspired by the ambition to accom-
plish it; whereas, the man who hasn't any
thing particularly to do never originates
anything and finds it a task to do anything.
These qualities often exist in the same man.
Now, in my own case, when L am much
driven think of lots of things I'd like 70 do
il had time. l make a memorandum of
them and put them aside, working little
on this and that between times. Just as
soon as am relieved from mental pressure
my thought capacity, industry and ambi-
genial mental LABOR, is a sort of dissipation.
The more you have Of 1t the more yc7' want
and the more you can do-until soJ ng
snaps"
Not an Unmixed Blessing.
The best of the modern New York
hotels have double vestibules during the
winter-or inside as well as outside storm
doors. The visitor or guest enters the out
side box. if he has the requisite physical
strength, lodges the man who has just got
out of the inside box and throwing his
weight on the hotel door proper gets into
the inside box himself. He then forces the
third entrance and is at last in the hotel
lobby. These doors are very heavy and
hung with stiff swinging springs and close
with patent air valves. The man who has
much running around to do can get all the
physical exercise he needs banging storm
doors and preventing the storm doors from
banging him. The storm door barDariSm de-
velops four class of idiots:
First-The man who holds on to the door
until you get within range and then let's it
swipe you one that makes your teeth rattle.
Second-The left-handed man who tries to
come out by the same door you are using go
ing in and at the same time.
Third-The man who, stops in the narrow
vestibule to talk with a friend or to raise or
shake his umbrella.
Fourth-The man who stands calmly in the
corridor smoking a cigar and laughs at you
when your hat is knocked over your eyes,
or when you get the breath knocked out OF
you.
Fellowship of Gun and Reel.
There is but one shop window outside
of the jewelry line that holds it's attractive
ness the year round and that is the show
window Of the sporting goods establish
nent. In midwinter or midsummer, snow,
rain, mud or dust the big windows on Broad
way that display fishing tackle, shotgun,
boxing gloves, foils and other equipments
OF the all-round sportsman have their side
walk friends. Halfgrown boys and grey
haired men stand side by side and gaze upon
the bass and trout rods, take mental notes
of the flies and reels and hooks and lines
and sigh; the boy wistfully and with
thoughts of the possible future; the man
reminiscently, filled with the tender men,
ories of past piscatorial triumphs. There is
a close community of feeling among the
casual knots of these window gaZers, sort
of fellowship observable nowhere else. Con-
yersation is admissible. Strangers talk
with each other without restraint or suspi-
cion. The cold rules of metropolitan social
life relax before and gun and camp
equipage. just for the moment then men
go their several ways, drawing into their
commercial shells again. 1 have seen two
or three strangers stand in front of an upper
Broadway sporting goods window for an
hour and discuss the relative weight and
usefulness of certain rods and reels then
separate with half embarrassed express
sion never, probably, to meet again.
Rise of the Table d'Hote.
The table d'hote, or meal at fixed
price, is spreading to the best New York
hotels. There is no room set apart for such
IN eals necessarily, dinner in courses being
served in the restaurant or cafe if desired.
This is a considerable modification OF the