St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1894-06-17
ODDS AND ENDS.

Who that writes or speaks our incon-
gruous language hasn't found himself
or herself tripped up and stumbling
over these 'nouns of multitude" some-
times giving them the singular and
sometimes the plural significance, and
discovering that he has sent singular
verb in unhappy disagreement after
ing had previously been given. An edi-
tOrial writer in the Philadelphia Record
had sharp reminder of this the other
morning. when he read in one of his
paragraphs. probably hastily written
the night before, that ''if the adminlstra-
ton have determined 1t has
reached wise conclusion"
Our merchants probably have no other
intention in having these large plate
glass windows than to give more at
tractive look to the goods they display
in them. Itcan hardly be that larger
supply OF sunlight is intended, as this is
defeated by the occupation of the win
doWS with obstructive wares. But there
is a use see them frequently put to
that the builders or merchants did not
contemplate. l saw a lady standing be-
fore one of Manufacturers windows the
other day, apparently engaged in eX-
aiming the dress patterns displayed in
it. As l passed her saw that she was
utilizing a dark pattern, which made of
the glass very good mirror. to arrange
her hair, some locks of which
had strayed from thelr fastenings.
l have also made use of these
mirrors to make studies in the ego
tiSm, the standardization OF our race.
Manga young fellow l have seen cast
glance at the window as he passed and
Immediately readjust his hat OF tie. or
straighten out the stoOp that his Shout
ders had unconsciously dropped into.
and as for the girls, bless them. they are
continually looking into the windows
with dark backgrounds. as if the ad
miration our sterner sex willingly and
unstintedly accords them was not suf-
ficient for them. Thinking this over,
it occurs to Inc to suggest to our enter
prising merchants the idea of placing
mirrors, real mirrors, in these windows
with their goods as an additional at
traction. But. on further reflection, it
wouldn't do. Merchants want people
to look at their goods. and not at them
selves, and if mirrors were there the
goods would be out of sight to the
gazers, lost in contemplation of them
selves.
The are some things the price of
which wears a charmed life, unhurt by
all these storms of finance which make
the prices of other things bend and
shrink before their whitening breath.
Rents have gone down until the much
berated landlord is in state of misery
which should excite the commiseration
of those who hold him up to execration
as the embodiment of greedy injustice
and hardness of heart. Real estate has
fallen until it is drug and its unhappy
owners groan as they see the margin
between income and cost of mainte-
nance narrowing to a close. Wages
have gone down and generally what
wages buy has fallen proportionately
But it costs just as much to
ride mile on railway as
it did when times were booming
and every one writing himself up
little richer as the boom carried him OH
its crest. 1t costs as much to carry
bushel of 5O-cent wheat as it did to
carry dollar wheat. Than the bootblack
wants the same nickel Tor shine that
his predecessors did before the war;
lawyers still ask dollar for filling in
the blank OF deed or a mortgage. just
as their forefathers did when blanks
were unknown aud it had all to be writ
ten. Doctors fees have not shrunk in
the least, and dentists pile the price On
trifle thicker, if anything. But the
barber holds his own amid all the ups
and downs of prices. 1t Is dime
shave now. as it was when the boys of
'6l had their cheeks and chins scraped,
and it is still Is cents in the more styl-
ish "tonsorial parlors," while it has cost
one quarter to get his hair cut in any
year since the war. All these occur to
me as read again one of those laments
about the decentralization of silver.
which. in falling, has dragged down the
price of everything with it.
'The papers are full of the movement
of the Coxeyites," said Gen. Becker. as
we rode home to lunch in our carriage,
kindly provided by Tom Lowry, the
other day. But they give small atten-
ton to what is vastly more significant
and dangerous than are all the poor,
deluded fellows VINO are tramping to
Washington. l mean the sugar investi-
CATION in the senate. which shows clear
ly enough, in spite of the guarded an
SwerS and blunt refuSals to answer, that
the manipulators Of the trust can coerce
or corrupt senators to permit them to
rob the people, under law of congress.
of SIS, 100000 year. These men, and
not the poor tramps and strikers, are the
enemies of society, and are traitors to
the government. If could sit in con-
stitutlonal convention 1 would write a
new definition of traitor, and instead
of defining him as a man who took I'D
arms against his country. l would define
him as the man who bribed legislators,
and would provide for him a drum
head court-martial and make the pen
atty that the villain be shot to death. 1t
is these men who are sappipg the
foundations of the republic"
The shifting of the centers of bust
ness and residence in cities is an inter-
esting study, having, as to the latter,
much OF path0s. There is no sentiment
in business It's goal is nroft and If
moves from one to another locality as the
one or the other promises greater prof.
its. 1t probably has its laws, but no
one has formulated them, and fortune
awaits the genius who will discover
them, but keep them to himself. He
will then be able to 20 into any city.
and. applying his law to the situation,
Il oto ", II the crraat ratail