Omaha daily bee., 1895-10-06
HUMAN ALARM CLOCK.
4 Man on Horseback Who Has n
Route for ROusinE People.

'" ~ II
There is a man on the North Side, Chicago,
who has built up a novel business. 1t can't
be said that he is growing rich at it, but he
makes a good living and his hours of work
are short.
His work is to awaken the newspaper car
riers, so that they can get down town to lay
in their supplies and deliver the papers to
their customers before the breakfast hour.
To get their supplies in time,
says the Chicago Tribune, many of the car
riers have to start down town between
2 and 3 o'clock in the morning. The papers
are ready shortly after 3 o'clock, and to get
his supplies early the carrier must be on
hand so as to get his order registered with
the delivery clerk, for, to avoid trouble, car
r!ers are supplied with papers in the order in
which they have given their orders.
The carrier doesn't want to stay up all
night Just so that he can leave the house at
2:30 o'clock in the morning. He wants to
sleep in the evening, so that when he gets up
he can stay up for the balance of the day.
And 80, in the old days. he went to sleep,
trusting to habit and his alarm clock to
waken him.
But human nature is weak, and after get
ting accustomed to Its clamor a man will
frequently sleep peacefully through the racket
made by an alarm clock. Many times car
riers have learned this to their sorrow and
have opened their eyes only to find that it
was broad daylight, and that their work
should have been half done instead of unbe-
gun.
What they wanted was a sentient alarm
elock-one that would ring just long enough
to waken them and would not stop until they
were awake; one tfat would arouse them ever.
If they forgot to wind and set it before they
went to sleep. But the jewelers. don't keep
alarm clocks of that pattern. So the news
paper carriers SGT THAR Wits m uorE To And
another scheme. One Of them decided to
have one of his assistants wake him. That
put all the blame for oversleeping upon the
assistant. After a few days the assistant was
told to call another carrier-a friend of the
first one-while on his way to arouse his en-
ployer.
That put an idea into the assistants head.
Why not make SOM money by calling car
riers? That day he visited a dozen of them
living near him and asked II they would pay
him so cents a week for being aroused
promptly on time. Taught by long exper-
fence with an alarm clock, they said they
would gladly.
In a few days the story Of the new scheme
had spread among the carriers, and the
young man was flooded with orders from men
who wanted to get up in the middle Of the
night. He accepted all the orders he could,
and arranged a regular time table, by which
he visited his patrons. More orders came in,
and he found himself unable to get around
fast enough on foot. Then he went to the
stock yards and bought a saddle horse, one Of
the mustang breed-not handsome, but speedy
and enduring.
Within a month his income as an alarm
clock was greater than his pay as a news
paper carrier. Then he remembered that
other people had to get up early, among
them street car conductors and drivers. Re
signing his job as carrier, he canvassed the
car barns, and soon had a score Of men on
his list.
Now, every night, from l o'clock until 6 In
the morning, the young man gallops about
the streets OF Lakeview. In his hand he car
ries a loaded stick, and with this he bonn
bards the doors of his patrons, and doesn't
stop until he sees a light and hears the
sleepy reply Of the inmates. Half an hour
after he has passed his course can be traced
by the line Of carriers wagons, drawn by
sleepy horses and driven by Sleepy men, all
headed for the newspaper Offices in the down
t0un diatript