San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1894-07-27
ON THE LOITER.
THE CROWD ON THE BRIDGE.

THE CROWD ON THE BRIDGE.
The apish actions and the parrot
like palaver that so forcibly char
acterizes youth and babyhood,
seems to cling to some people
throughout their lives, with an in
creased intensity, probably caused
by the unbridled curiosity that
grows on some people in the later
days. OF this the inexplicable gath
ering on the foot walks of some Of
the numerous iron bridges that span
the San Antonio river, give am
pie proof. l have often observed
a large crowd of people completely
blocking up the foot way OF the
bridge, everybody anxiously peer
ing into the river below with moth
ing in sight but few small boys
fishing. On one occasion a COM
panion and myself started such
blockade. We halted on Commerce
street bridge and began 20 discuss
the tactics of three little fellows
trying to angle some large fish
that could be plainly seen SWIM
ming about in the shallow
pool. A lantern jawed citizen
with mis- ears, eyes and mouth
habitually wide open, stopped at
the railing. Once he would peer
into the water, and then gaze at us
as if wondering what on earth we
were so intently looking at. A
few small boys stopped next to the
lantern jawed citizen with his
wide open ears, eyes and mouth,
and from that moment the crowd
began to increase, everybody gaz.
ing into the water. Some
of the spectators saw what consti-
tuted the attraction and some
didn't, but by industriously scam
ming up and down the stream,
hoped to ascertain the cause of the
commotion before long. Soon two
rows of people stood on the walk
and every body who passed that
way inquired what the trouble
was, but no one could give
the desired information. At
last persistent and saucy
little knee. breeches chap man
aged to wriggle and worm his way
way through the thicket of human
legs to the railing. Finally he got
to the bridge banister and anxious
Iy scanned the stream in every di-
rection. All this while the rear
rank was discussing the possible
cause of the blockade, suicide" or
somebody's drowned" being the
favOrite guesses. Somebody re-
. marked that he had seen a little
newsboy fishing in the river
there awhile ago and pro-
baby the lad fell in and
had drowned. When a bystander
repeated the story he failed to state
that the version was only given as
probability, but on the contrary, he
stated that the newsboy had really
been drowned. Then no end of de-
scriptions of the boy, together with
three or four varieties of stories as
to how the accident occurred, were
soon in circulation. At last the
knee breeches, saucy little chap
reappeared and as soon as
he could regain his breath, he
gave vent to his disgust by loudly
announcing, "Pshaw,it's only some
boys fishing for trout in the clear
water" The man who said "sui-
eide" very coolly backed out of the
crowd, several others followed, and
by degrees the blockade was
broken. Some who were so un-
fortunate as not to hear the
report of the saucy little
investigator, inquired Of others
equally unfortunate as they, "Did
they find the body ?" and these re-
piled, 81 guess so, see them all
leaving" and many a newspaper
was charged the next day with not
having enterprise enough to report
drowning, which the fooled bridge
blockers supposed to have occurred
underneath the Commerce street
bridge that afternoon.
LOITERER.