Griggs courier., 1894-08-24
ODD OCCUPATIONS.

ODD OCCUPATIONS.
a Chicago 1rishnan Who Aets - . Rses>
patstie Alarm Cheek.
SWELL. Patsy, stirring 'em up again.
said the officer ON the beat ut Thirty
ninth street, near Cottage Grove ave-
nue..
''Shure an am. Orrah, but they're
shlapy lot in the marnia'. But that's
phat fetches 'em," and the small,
stopped man with the well-developed
Hibernian accent shook . stocky stick
which he carried In his left hand, and
dashed along the street at dog trot
without waiting for further converse
tion with the officer who had accosted
him.
A huge ring of keys jingled at each
step and kept merry time to the mans
hurried gait. Before Patsy had gone
half block he darted up the stairs of
a boarding hoAse, applied key, and
was soon lost to sight. But he was
out again in q twinkling. and cut dag
onally across the street to q cottage,
and again his bunch of keys secured
him entree. Another short interval
and he slipped out of the cottage and
once more resumed his restless way.
Many people in this locality know
the unique vocation of the little man,
but many more do not; and q passing
glimpse OF him has been o puzzle to
numberless unfortunates who are COM
PEELED to rise in the early morning be-
fore the first street cars start.
little Irishman has followed profess
sion. the existence of which is known
only to the few men who have occasion
to need his services and those who
come in personal contact with him.
His general headquarters are Mt the
street car barns, where he hunks. Four
o'clock OF every morning, rain or shine,
finds him out upon the street armed
with his big ring of keys. his trusty
stick, and, in the season Of long nights,
with dark lantern.
If his task should once 90 undone
hundreds Of early passengers on the
grip cars would feel the effect Of such
a failure, for Patsy is the alarm clock
for scores Of conductors who take the
first cars ont Of the burns. However.
there seems to be small chance for such
a contingency, for Patsy is far more re-
liable than any alarm clock yet in
vented. and it is safe to say that gen.
eral failure on his part would shake
the faith of the conductors in the relia-
bility of the sun, moon and stars.
Chicago is prc-eminently the city OF
gri p cars, aud another species of night
workers connected with the great grip
lines may also be said to be peculiarly
a Chicago type. He is the cable repair
cables stop running-at about mid
night or shortly after, There is scarce
ly corner around which the cable
makes a turn where these men, in
groups of four or five, may not he seen
working with their tripod of hoisting
pulleys and fiaring torches from mid
night until broad daylight.
A group of these workmen squatting
in the middle Of the street. working
jackscrews and drills by the light of 4
half dozen torches. presents II striking
similarity to an Indian encampmen.
and but little imagination is required
to conjure the frame of the tripod into
the likeness of the bare poles of Il wig.
wan.
The active operation of the Chicago
university revives in this city still an.
other class of those who gain their live
lihood by honest work while the great
mass of people are enjoying their sweet
est hours of slumber. This night
worker skirts dangerously near both
twilight and dawn, and snatches his
scanty hours of sleep between these
two tleeting and fantastic periods. He
is armed at evening with a torch-tipped
rod, but his guiding light is ambition
and his motto Excelsior" In other
words he is the student lamplightcr.
and the dream of future achievement
always sheds halo over his darkest
path, as he zigzags from one lamp tn
another, lighting or rcxtinguishing them
as the case may be.
The number of students who worked
their way through the old Chicago
university by this means is legion, and
their honorable race is being revived
from among the attendants upon tn:
new and greater institution.
Among the students who followed
this profession during the closing days
of the old university was young man
who now is member of prosperous
law firm in the Chicago Opera House
block. Should some of the clients of
this thrifty and ambitious young law
yer chance to arise early enough and
make careful scrutiny of the lamp
lighter in a certain district they would
probably be greatly surprised. and ii
they held fastidious ideas concerning
the difference between the dignity and
respectability of manual and profes-
sional labor they would doubtless bc
shocked, for they would recognize in
the lamplighter none other than the
prosperous young lawyer. He likes the
exercise, has no scruples against adding
thirty dollars month to his legal in
come. and has, consequently, not yet
reached the place where he chooses to
relinquish the old lamp-lighting beat
which furnished him the ''sinews of
war; for his university course. What
city beside Chicago can boast of a man