The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1896-09-13
REPoSE OF TEDDY's SOUL.
A STORY TOLD IN A NEW YORK
CLUB BY TOM COLGHANY.
From the New York Times.

In one the tavernkeeper dispenses drinks
and in the back room draughts and do
minos are played. Rarely is there a game
of cards. 1t is sometimes a business con-
ference which is held in the back room
and then doors are closed save to men,
bers. 1t is place of meeting where those
who earn their living as street builders,
stone layers, PAYERS, Jewelers., congregate.
Sometimes the bosses are found there and,
we are pleased to state, more frequently
now than in the past, since the political
"pulr' has in a measure been abolished.
The men are exceedingly well behaved
and intelligent. The topics discussed are
many and ably treated. The question
which agitates the men is the asphalt one
and some take q depressing view of the
future of their business. 1t is, however,
the general opinion that time will show
that asphalt will not stand climatic eff
fects' 1--WE use the exact words of one of
the speakers) NOR heavy traffic and that
just as long as there are steep grades in
New York city stones for roadbeds will
have to be used"
We doubt if taking any set of men as
class there could be found finer physique
than among these street builders. The
calling is one requiring strength and,
above all, endurance. Few know what it
is to ply a PAYERS rammer by the hour or,
in the putting of the stones in place, the
amount of muscle ii requires to lift six
ty-pound block while in a constrained po-
sition. The men, it might be noticed, are
rarely very young or old, for when men
is not 20 or past 80 he is too fresh or too
stale for the business. The elderly men
present are generally the under bosses,
/ who have risen to place through hard
work and experience.
Tom Colghany is Irish born, as his
name indicates. He came to New York
when he was years old and is as good
an American as the reporter hopes he is
himself and the writer of this is proud
of calling Tom Colghany his friend. Tom
must be near 60 and has been ION the
street'-that is to say, earning his bread
by street making-for forty years. Tom
is boss and all the hands love and re-
spect him and are glad to serve under
him.
The reporter never supposed that there
could be anything like a story to be
drawn from a stone or street making,
but a yarn of Toms was so peculiar as
to be considered worthy of being re-
corded.
There isn't much to be found in dig
ging up a street" said Tom Colghahy,
''that IS, when it's filled up ground, which
ii mostly is, but there are some queer
things when you work up old ground.
Sometimes there's bones-maybe old, for
gotten graves-a chap comes across.
There used to be a party as always fol-
lowed us up when we was at work He
knowed a sight more of the geography
of the country or the lay of the land than
we did. We was a-doing some job Of
repairing around Beaver street and the
ov~txr afnIatr nc nd No
Clure he filings out lot of old bricks,
and this here man he takes these bricks,
bats and all, and makes as If to carry
em off Them bricks says the man. is
the bricks a Dutchman imported 200 years
or more ago from Holland when he built
a brewery Den dere amt no beer around
now?' axes Patsy. But there was, for the
party stood in for several quarts when he
struck work for the day
''Then there was another man who as
regular as clockwork went with us to
work up town. l seed him pick up brass
buttons out of the dirt, which we never
noticed, and he'd say they was parts of
the rig of a British regiment as was camp
ed there during the revolution. Once lie
found a regular dhudeen-black as your
hat, with a stem a bare two inches long
which he let on a Dutchman had smoked
when them fellows first settled in New
York. Once he came across deep down In
lllt ulAl al OiNAs SqudI0-AdN6Q bldCh OOl-
tle-and there wasn't crack in it-not
drop of liquor He most went wild over
that because he said that once on q time
it had been full of schnapps.
another time we was working in
side street-most an alley-leading from
Broadway, and there was Teddy that had
her eye on US, and we found out after
ward that she was from Brooklyn and
wrote books. Well. she kept prodding
around with her pRrasol where we was
a-shoveling and presently says she: oh,
myl' and she picked up white thing like
bit of smashed crockery. It's only
broken Jug says l. No. says she, ITS
part OF an old tile. It's Abraham a-sacri-
fcing of Jonah, painted in blue And she
kept sticking her parasol in the dirt and
presently she gets another tile-as she
called it-and it was pretty nearly as good
as new. 1t was picture of what she call
ed Samson on a scrap with a jawbone:
anyways, she handed us over a 81 bill and
said she would give us 81 for any other tile
we found. We dug around longer, maybe
than we should have done, for it was to
oblige the Teddy, and we got four more and
she gave us S.; but we carried the tiles
TO her house. There was another chap, q
German, who worked with us, one of the
gang, who always was finding stone
thngs-arrowheads. he called them--but
we never seed any difference in them from
natural stones. But all that's neither
mere nor NHeTe, dionBSlue OF true story,
as Il happened to me.
"Old Mrs. Shane-we all knew her be-
cause of her husband Mike, who had been
man and boy in the street-laying business
There was nothing serious agin Mike, only
the boys did not take to him. He was a
regular miser and nobody never seed the
color of his money. He was sot on in
creasin' his pile When a chap was hard
up for money. owing, say, to a sick wife
or child, old Mike would lend him So. say
and expect $3.50 when II was returned
Mike was a real usurer. Mrs. Shane. VINO
was a decent woman and hard working
wild her two boys. had hard time OF
II, for he scrimpt 'em In their victuals
/ mostly think he was a leetie off his nut
about money. One boy, that was Larry
by name, turned out bad seeing he took
early to drink, and ne died of too much
bad liquor T~other boy, Teddy, was n
fairish boy wild and didn't get along with
the old man, and after awhile cleared OF
and nobody knew where he went Mike
he died. so they say, sudden, Of a broken
heart but the clear OF the story l never
heard until later on. As for Mrs Shane.
! hadn't clapped eyes on her for years,