The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1894-08-16
ODD OCCUPATIONS.
Il Chicago Irishman who Acts as Peril
patetic Alarm CLOCK.

We'll. Patsy, stirring EN- up again.
said the officer on the beat at Thirty
ninth street, near Cottage Grove ave-
nue
''Shure an am. Orrah, but they're
a shlupy lot in the marnin'. But that's
phat fetches EN-" and the small,
stopped man with the well-developed
Hibernian accent shook a stocky stick
which he carried in his left hand, and
dashed along the street at a dog trot
without waiting for further conversa-
ton 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
boarding house, applied key, and
was soon lost to sight. But he was
out again in twinkling, and cut dag
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 knG--'
the unique vocation of the Little ma
but many more do not; and a passing
glimpse of him has been a puzzle to
numberless unfortunates who are CONF
PEELED to rise in the early morning beI
fore the first street cars start
For twelve years this wrinkled, joT |
little Irishman has followed a prof
sion, the existence of which is knon !
only to the few men who have occasn |
to need his services and those 5ho
come in personal contact with i'm.
His general headquarters are atthe |
street car barns, where he hunks. our
o'clock of every morning, rain or slne,
finds him ont upon the street fmed |
with his big ring of keys, hisrusty |
stick, and. in the season of long tights,
with dark lantern.
If his task should once go udone
hundreds of early passengers a the
grip cars would feel the effect 0 such
failure, for Patsy is the alarm clock
for scores of conductors who tale the
first ears out of the barns. However,
there seems to be small chance for such
contingency, for Patsy is far more re-
liable than any alarm clock yet in
vented, and it is safe to say tina gen
eral failure on his part woulo shake
the faith of the conductors in the reia-
bility of the sun, moon and stars,
Chicago is pre-eminently the city OF
bn, f
workers connected with the great grip
lines may also be said to be peculiarly
a Chicago type. He is the cable repair
man and may be seen as soon as the
cables stop running-at about mid
night or shortly after. There is scarce
ly a corner around which the cabE
makes a turn where these men, il
groups of four or five, may not be seel
working with their tripod of hoistins
pulleys and haring torches from mid
night until broad daylight.
a group of these worl1men squatting
in the middle of the street; W.
jackscrews and drills by the light OF a
half dozen torches, presents a striking
similarity to an Indian encampment
and but little Imagination is required
to conjure the frame of the tripod into
the likeness of the bare poles of 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 heeting and fantastic periods. He
is armed at evening with torch-tipped
rod, but his guiding light is ambition
and his motto Excelsior. In other
words he is the student lamplighter,
and the dream of future achievement
always sheds halo over his darkest
path, as he zigzags from one lamp to
another, lighting Distinguishing 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 the
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 a 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 a careful scrutiny of the lamp
lighter in certain district they would
probably be greatly surprised, and if
they held fastidious ideas concerning
the difference between the dignity and
respecta bility of manual and profess
sional labor they would doubtless be
shocked. for they would recognize in
the lamplighter nolg 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 vet
reached the place where he chooses tc
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
who is at once both lamplighter and
lawyer, and who is prosperous in both
vocatiOns?
Each lamDlirhtpr has a routa Of from,