The morning times., 1896-01-19

Thrce young men stood on n street corner
IN the lamp light one bleak February morn
ing thirteen years ago.
They had been It work all night and were
Just parting after having walked together
10 the quarter of the city where they lived
within a few blocks of ea ch other. As they
stopped for a moment II half grown boy
came out of the chill mist that Obscured
everything from view half i block away
and trudEcd by.
He was dressed in 4 coat that was OF a
strictly neutral tint caused by age and
CRIME, and the only way TO tell that it had
been patched many times was to notice the
irregular lines of the seams. His trousers
were short and broad with patch at tl.u
knee, his hat battered.
He had an air OF Cheerless determination
with pinChed look on his face ana a sup
pressed shiver through his whole frame.
He was Il newsbOy on his way to get his
bundle of morning dailieS.
Napoleon is credited with 81 wing that you
never know a mans courage till you turn
him out suddenly at O'Clock on cold
morning to face danger. There was not
danger for this boy bat 4 cold, hard, mat
ier-Of-fact, every day duty. His manner of
meeting it may not have shown any courage
but IL manifested IA degree of resolution
that helps make heroes.
1wO minutes Iajcr Three more of the same
class pushed their way Out of the fog and
hurried on down TO The newspaper offices.
Then came two street car drivers, a hack
man and later a janitor with his friend,
the driver of a milk wagon.
ACTIVITY is CEAsELEss.
The two armies meet" remarked one of
the three young men. Yes" ans wcrcd
another, and how little the world knows
Of the work of the advance guard of the
one or OF the closing line of the other"
Incidentally it may he mentioned that one
OF the three is now United States consul
ut picturesque European town, another
is editor OF great insurance paper III Il
Western city, and tie third is grinding for
a newspaper in Washington. Neither has
much 10 do nowadays with what happens in
the small hours in Washington but they
witnessed that morning a characteristic
Scene which only a small Eer cent OF Wash
ington folks ever see.
There is 10 other city in the world where
everything closes up SO tight with the stroke
of midnight bells, and probably no other
where so many lie till late in the morning.
Twenty thousand government employees,
most of whom need not report for duty
before 9 a. m., form Il unique nucleus for
a population. They do not need to get up
before S O'Clock, and a great many not SO
soon.
And in these hours, when 90 per cent
OF thc washington world is asleep, WHAT
Is the other 10 per cent doing?
AT the turn of the night shutters go up and |
lights go out at the five hundred and odd |
saloons all over the town. There is not |
aOnthcr place of the same size on the globe /!
where dozens OF saloons do not run all |
night. but here it is familiar scene to !
notice little group filing out Of the door |
at the long stroke, while the proprietor
turns out his lights and says good night. /
Also there are few places where the man
that turns out the light VIII SO often he the
real owner Of the saloon. In Washington
the saloon keeper can have 10 other business
The first regiment OF the army OF night
that marches way home is the saIOon-kecn-
ers, butt nustnot be supposed that Il thirsty
citizen cannot get teddy in this city after
midnight. There are n number of places
where the initiated know how to get liquid
comfort day or night, particularly IL the
applicant is willing TO order bite OF food
with his drink.
They are usually arstocratic shops where
the tramp ai,d the rounder find a cold re-
cepticn, but The man with money can have !