The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1896-12-27
CRAY HA1R BIK TO EMPLOYMENT
Experience In Search OF Work OF n Stranger
Who Had Passed the Meridian,

Who Had Passed the Meridian,
A man never realizes that he is growing old
until he removes from n community where he
has lived many years and stops in a community
of strangers and seeks there employment. II
the reputation OF peculiar fitness precedes him
to the now country. the fact that he has an
accumulation of years is no bar to his progress.
Otherwise, the burden OF his cross Is apt to
feel heavier every day. Tho little story that
follows. II combination OF the pathetic and the
ludicrous. one leaf out of the city's big book,
will bear out this statement
A stranger walked into o shop on Fifth
avenue and said to the proprietor:
II came to New York In quest of employment
I had u few letters from people competent to
judge of my qualifications. Physically and
mentally l am a better man than l was twenty
years ago. l have no complaint to enter as to
my reception wherever I presented my ~letters.
On tho contrary the courtesy was marked.
walked from place to place until / was literally
footsore. One day / met o business man who
was more than agreeable. He had me sit in his
office. and after he had questioned me as II he
were q lawyer and l a witness, he told me that
he had suspected there was some reason for my
failure TO secure work. He told me in the kind.
lest manner that @ stranger In New York who
had gray hair was not likely to get encourage.
ment. He asked me IL 1 had stopped to consider
that this city was. in q commercial way, in .
state Of transition. In one respect, he said, 10
was now In the hands of the third generation.
He called TIE first generation that which was in
the lead before the war. The second was that
which grew up after the war; the third 10 the
successor. 1t has grown mp !mperoeptibly and
taken its place in the last ten years.
looked into the mirror. I had never been fool
MERRIAM lne a d but | bad had tried t's TO be 1a a b essseo man nam
in every respect after that passage, and as
had not been guilty OF many Of the indiscretions
of the average young man, | had dRttered my
self that at fifty l was better qualified than the
that maio my gray q. s 6airs w Mre more 40 enr numerous ous tnsn I
had Thought and Il ! had not been a man Of
down. and 1 might have returned to whence I
came, where we had all whitened together.
by your aH's sign sum IN q The SoV widow. '" I have s1S vanity
to CRAFTY: simply want to make an expert
my gray hair-so that the deception will nos
be manifest {"
The proprietor Of the shop had become in
tercsted and agreed to make the deception per.
feet, and without any fee, until it should appear
that the customer had succeeded in what he
was black, and an expert would scarcely have
known that 1t ever was anything else.
Within q week the man had obtained employ.
men,. and In one OF the places where 1t had been
refused to him a short time before,
that i received, the place" he said; Perhaps
not wholly SO. but it had a good deal to do with
that the head had said that he would not ems
ploy a eray-haired man as long as ne could, find
men who would do his work whose hair did NOT
indicate that they were getting old.
"Andn now that i have learned the secret. I
must keep up my deception. at least In the
house where | am employed. And what IL
something should befall me that would prevent
me from keeping up the deception ? II. like
the Mr.. Hyde of Stevenson's strange story, the
elixir should run out, or should lose its ef1-
ctency2 These queries form q procession in my
nina and move before me every night. Would 10
have been better for me TO return to my old
homo with my gray hairs. Or shall go on as I
have begun, and run the chance of being dis
charged when my deception fails Z"
The story recalled an incident told to the re-
porter last summer; 1t does not prove any-
erned by idiosyncrasy. A young man was un.
successful in. his application for work. fog
ported his failure to q friend. who said to him:
You should have worn a pink shirt. I for
got to tell You that"
The young mar went away and thought about
it. He was not sure that his friend was In
earnest. But n week later he bought n pink
shirt, donned 1t. applied again for the place, 70
the same head. and was accepted.