Bismarck weekly tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1884-1943, 1895-01-25
THE SUNDIAL,
Especial Correspondence

lot O. boys heah in St. Louis that hain't
got no bettah business nights and Sun
days than to pound dollhouse dials with
rocks and things jest to destroy them.
"Whcn the othah one was toah down,
sub, I up and kicked. Yes, l did. 1 told
the county authorities that if they wanted
to have my sundial left at all they'd half
to be a Waterman heah nights and Sun
days. You see, tho city p'licc is cahless
about county prop'ty, and they prob'ly
wouldn't do nothing to nobody, not if
they even ca'h'd off the co'thouso itself,
sub, let alone just smashing a sundial or
two. I got tho Waterman heah after a
had fight, sub, and, as you see, I've saved
one of the dials. But me and my watch
a We has to watch out mighty sha'p,
reckon"
This delightful janitor's name is Griffin,
and he is quainter even than the old dials.
In person he resembles our Uncle Samuel,
save that, instead of being thin and angu-
lar, he is round and stout and ruddy.
When l first saw his face, l was almost
surprised because his trousers were not
striped red aud white and his vest was
not blue and star spangled. His office is
IN a big bare room in the basement, where
he sits most of tho time in a thronelikc
chair OH a raised daislike platform alter,
nately chewing shaved plug and smoking
natural leaf tobacco. He must have a
right smart ''pull" of some sort, or at least
be in what in Chicago and St. Louis is
called the 'push," for when during our
chat today a county official entered and
pleaded for a feather duster for his office
the custodian of the building consulted
certain memoranda before replying. Then
he said slowly and impressively while lie
carefully shaved off enough plug for =
fresh guild:
you've had one fcathah dustah already
this month, Mistah Jones. l can't spail,
you no mo- till next month. You must
use the dustahs on youah boots in you;,h
office, Mistah Jones, the way you git away
with Them"
The official bowed himself timidly out
of the presence, and the %janitor explained
to methat he had four reel good grounds
for anxiety.
Pm worried all the time about tho
way them officials, in p'ticlah the youngah
ones, uses up the county supplies. I'm
afraid III boys'n break the remaining
dial. I'm in doubt lest the county'n sec fit
to teah this grand old dollhouse down and
put up a great big steel frame modern
Dulldlng, and l hate to see the paintings
in the doom go to ruination."
1t should be explained that perhaps the
most interesting feature OF the courthouse
Is the mural decoration Of the rotunda.
IF you'll examine them theah paint
ings, sub, you'll observe that they were
once very fine. They cost a right smart
heap of money, sub, when they was paint
ed. 1t was a German gentleman that done
them, sub. I disricollect his name, but
he was a reg'lah old mastah, though, as
you can see fob yo'sel'. Now they are all
peeling off, sub, and the ch'icest works of
art In st. Louis is %a-falling to the floor of
the doom in dust to be tramplcd undah
the feet of men,"
The janitor is right in what he says
about the pictures, for they were painted
by Carl Wilnas, whose paintings of Indians
have long been considered really great as
WORKS OF art. NJ. l. DEXTER.