The daily morning journal and courier., 1894-09-15
THE F'LEETING SHOW,
Some of Its Facts and Fancies. Written for tho JOURNAL AND COURIER. T

Some of Its Facts and Fancies.
 Written for tho JOURNAL AND COURIER.l BooTBLAcK ALLEY.
 The name suggests place in which a bootblack would never find customer; narrow, squalid passage between di- lapidated tenements, where frowzy wo- men lean and scream from the windows, and unkempt men prop up the battered doorways with their slouching shoul- ders. Fumes of vile tobacco mingle with pestilent odors of the gutter; ragged urchins frolic and quarrel, and misera- ble mites of humanity, unloved and un- tended, are wailing away their wretch ed little lives.
 But this picture does not portray our Bootblack Alley.
 Our Bootblack Alley is spacious and beautiful. It passes through the midst of fine old public square, where there are broad sunny spaces, magnificent trees-magnifcent still in spite of the | wreck and ravage of the Whirlwind and the beetle-some stately churches of ancient and honorable history, and a host of impressive associations. The al- ley is, properly speaking, handsome street overarched with graceful boughs of our famous elms, and by the kindly forethought of our city fathers, provided with divans for the repose of wayworn pedestrians It has also a well surround ing and dignified name. From it pro- | ject other alleys, that are straight yet l also broad, and many there be that walk therein, and that loll in ease upon | the divans.
 | Hither come the bootblacks to ply their trade-a harmless, necessary
 trade. One would not interfere with | this industry or rebuke the active ur- chins who earn their daily bread by l the sweat of their elbows. And yet it is conducive to wrath on the part of
 womankind, and also on the part of some men, to find this pleasant prom l enade transformed into Bootblack AL ley. Given, 1, a bench upon the edge of and fronting the walk; 2, a man with | feet extended over this walk; 3, a boot.
 black kneeling upon the walk, his feet | extending backward, the problem is l to find out how much of the walk is | left for passers-by on business or or pleasure, bound. And, if these condi. tions are met several times while going through the main alley, or any of its | ramifications, what a zigzagging course the pedestrian must take to avoid these Instructions!
 The bootblack is a useful member o1 society. It is his noble calling to polish
 the understanding of men. His position may appear to be lowly but his succes.
 is brilliant, and he deserves it. But fl is to his obstructive legs that we takt exceptions. To avoid them impedes tho
 rapidity of our progress; to walk ovel
 them is an exercise that is neither
 graceful nor free from danger Why
 must we have a Bootblack Alley in thu
 very center of our public square
 Is 1t ornamental? Is 1t neces
 sary? If the benches could b,
 turned about, so that the backs of then
 were toward the walks. neither thos'
 who sit thereon, nor the feet of thos,
 who black, nor the feet that are sbeint
 blacked, would be 50 dreadfully in tn,
 way. Can't something bs do..e sabou
 this? Would the united protest of tn,
 many who are inconvenienced and an
 noyed avail to abolish 'Bootblack Al
 ley?" .t s. <
 CONCERNING MATTERS or. xpoRrANcE
 It may be that the reason why nor
 women do not register as voters at tn, school election Is because of the needles, l F&sEt- x 4E-t |. and undesirable free advertising whicl the ds&ly papers hasten to besteW upoi