San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1894-07-18
ON THE LOITER.
A STREET GAMIN RAID.

sandy whiskers and a knowing,
contempt expressing look, $50 COM
mon with the lower class Of Eng
lish immigrants upon his face,
came down East Houston street
near the postof1ice, the other after
noon, pushing his little hand cart
full OF fruit before him. "Happles,
pears, peaches I" he was singing out
in a monotonouS tone of voice so
Indicative of Indifference, when a
ragged little saddle. colored street
gamin, heaven knows where he
came from or how he got there, be-
gan to dance around the fruit laden
cart, watching, with his laugh
ing, mischievOus eyes, an oppor-
tunity to grab a piece Of fruit.
Ere, you little ragamutfin-"
that was as far as the fruit vendor
got, for in that instant, another
gamin, this time of smutty
white appearance, bobbed up;
he appeared there in a most
unexpected manner, dancing like
his Ubiquitous companion on the
other side of the cart. In second
the saddle colored imp snatched a
luscious pear, and as the vendor
made a lunge for him, the smutty
white little spirit of iniquity
grabbed a few peaches and started
down the street to join his fleeing
companion, with the irate, sandy
whiskered Englishman, whose
wise, contempt expressing gaze
had changed to a look of despair,
close at their heels.
Instantly the street was alive
with gamins of all manner and
shades of smuttiness, all con-
ditions of raggedness and OF one
the OBSERVATION-DISCLOSURES Of tough
ness and irrepressibility. Where
they all came from and how they
got there, was still another mys.
terry. Some emerged from the alley,
some from the street door. but the
majority of them seemed to spring,
like the soldiers Of Rhoderick Dhu,
from out the hard and unbroken
soil. All that the spectators could
clearly make out, was that the
juvenile crowd was making raid
on the Englishman's well stocked
cart, and that in the swift and
noiseless scramble that ensued, on
, ly handful of fruit was left in
the cart to meet the irate vendors
gaze as he charged the marauding
mob. The retreat was fully as
cleverly executed as the well
planned raid, some of the imps
disappearing through open
doors, others in the alley,
some around the first corner,
while not few over the
nearest fences, so that when one
of the spectators blew a police
whistle, not street gamin was
any where in shit.
JACK NATIONS WASH DAY.-Jack
Hatton was "a pleasant and cheer
fully inclined a bachelor or "single
sider," as ever trod this soil, and
had the omnipotent ALLOWING
God seen fit to strike him dumb,
no living being would have ever
suspected otherwise than that Jack
Hatton was native born Ameri-
can. AS Jack, however was not
so inflicted, it was very easy mat
ter to see that he was fresh from
the other side of the "herring
pond" for there appeared to be
creaseS and wrinkles in his vocal
chord that gave to his tone of voice
a see-saw sort of rythm which de-
generated at the last word of the
sentence, into wavy triller, COW
ering very nearly an octave and
half of mOnotonOus music. But
that is neither here nor there.
Jack had promised to make me
sun dial, and, though several days
had elapsed, he had not yet begun
work on the much coveted time
piece, and like many
bachelor short in purse and
short of clothing, Jack did his own
washing and invariably-he lived
in a room in our back yard-be-
hind closed doors, in a sort OF
executive session, las one might say.
Jack had been in his room fully
two hours, washing his clothes.
/ conld see, through chink at the
rear door. the whole operation, and
at once learned why he did his
washing in such secrecy. His only
pair Of trousers, Of white cotton
ducking sewed with black thread,
like his only shirt, collar and
socks, were hanging over heavy
cord stretched in front of a fire
hearth, in which vigorous
blaze was roaring. His only
hat, his only coat and his
only shoes alone escaped being