San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1894-07-06
ON THE LoITER.

DELNOUS.
In hot, dingy little room in the
second floor of an iron clad build
ing on one of the principal streets
of the city, there is an institution
that makes speciality of portrait
and cartoon engravings. The fur
niture consists of table on one
side, strewn with engravers' tools,
plaster paris and chemicals for the
purpose Of making chalk plates.
On the opposite side is rubber
stamp makers outfit, not worth
the storage charges accumulated.
In a west side corner stands
the oven for casting purposes,
and in incidental a very good
means of drying clothes, of which
bachelor, journeymen engravers
avail themselves to an extent, that
a shirt or less respectable article
of wear, which has been carelessly
washed in the bath tub across the
hall way, can be seen at any time
hung over a short Irvine clothes
line. On the east side of the room
is the working bench where the
engraver and his assistants sit in
stopped position apparently hard
at work, but in reality bored or
entertained by the towns young
geniuses who are wont to call in
the course of the day.
The list of loungers is as large
as it is varied, numbering on some
occasions, scores and embracing
all types of aspirations, from the
would-be musical composer to the
pompous, affected youth with a
fiorid and flowing vocabulary and
equally characteristic moustache,
who some day hopes, If he does not
think that he has already reached
that pinnacle, to move mighty
multitudes from the orators plat
form, in a manner that would give
the memory of Patrick Henry
or Daniel Webster, the malarial
ague. Some of the callers are
bright, sociable fellows who, es-
pecially in the blue times of finan-
ciai and other woes, cheer up the
patient artists by their pleasant,
witty ways. Others are loud, foul in
their conversation, aud will even
sink into telling standing stories
that have been heard dozens of
times before. The artists, with a
generosity and mildmannerness of
soul that most have gotten lodged
in this world instead of the next
one, by mistake, listen to it all,
sometimes paling with exhaustion,
and not seldom dancing around
the room with unbounded delight
over some bright and witty perpe-
tration, for the main portion of the
callers are true Bohemian charac-
ters, brimfull of worldly observa-
tious and brilliant fun, the bOres
being mediocre minds from
the common walks Of life, who
strive by studied,affeCtatioD to imi-
tate the brighter lights that rem
devious in this Bohemian haunt.
That even budding genius
must be hard to tow, is quite nat
ural and for this reason there
hangs suspended in the room a set
of framed rules which, If proper
ly interpreted and strictly adj
hered to, ought to make the gay
and noisy crowds that here congre-
gate at different times of the day
an orderly and gentlemanly as
sembly. The rules were drafted by
a reformed hobo and critic whose
speciality, aside from his work, lies
in quiet, calm statements, which
in about five and sometimes fif-
teen minutes after they have been
spoken, will just appeal to you in
all their ridiculous humor and Of
: ten the company will be laughing
over some joke which Jack had
told half an hour ago, and which,
when told, sounded like funeral
notice. The following are his rules
for the guidance of the youth of
genius when congregated in the
haunt:
."On arriving at the entrance do
not hesitate but rush madly in and
make as much noise as possible. If
you can possibly utter one of your
familiar and blood curdling yells
please do so-our nerves were long
since shattered.
Should you feel like displaying
joy at again seeing US since the
day previous, get in one OF your
'strOng-minded' slaps on our back,