The morning times., 1896-01-24

L
The mail for The Times Charity Bureau
| was almost evenly divided yesterday
between those who wanted work and those
who had it TO give.
There were no choice uositions Offered,
with big salaries attached, but there were
| Openings for good cooks and washer
women and so many demands for capable
needlewomcn that a number of worthy
dressmakers who had applied to the bureau
for relief were able to sleep in peace last
night, knowing that shelter, food and fuel
were realities Tor week ahead at least.
Onesniall woman who showed her months
of illness came TO tie office very early in
the morning TO ask for q machine needle
so that she could begin her task. She
had secured u big bundle OF cbiidren's spring
clothing and was buhbiing over with hap
piness at the prospect of getting TO work.
AS she asked FOR TIE pennies she slipped
worn ring nom her finger and laid 1t
on the desk. She said IL was her wedding
ring, and, If it was all the same to the
manager, she would like to leave il as a
guarantee that She would return to pay
for that needle.
1t wasn't all the same to the MA nager,
and so the POOR soul flushed with happi-
ness as she slipped the ring back 10 its
right place ard went OFF with the assertion
that all she wanted was "A new start, and
that now she was well and on the road
TO work she believed She would keep her
good luck.
BAD FOR LEAKY SHOES.
Even want does not care TO get its feet
wet, for, with but two exceptions. there
were no visitors 10 the bureau yesterday
Until the rain had decreased from Il down
pour 10 a drizzle, and even then the callers
were but few.
The secnnd exception was man who
looked as IL Re had been created by Brooke.
His face was the brown OF 4 cocoanut shell,
and his teeth were as white as its meat.
His blue jeans overalls were spiashed with
Virginia mud, and a good old Virginia
dialect disported Itself in his speech. In
one hand he held an ox-goad and in the
other a bit of paper, torn and blurred with
The rain. His hat was under his arm. 1t
was very, very wet utside, and he was as
wet as the weather.
with the Chesterficldian politeness that
seems TO be inherited by even every corn
field labOrer OF Today whose grandfather
belungcd TO a Southern gentleman, he
drip, drip, drippcd from the doorway TO
the desk and presented his paper with
these prefacing remarks:
"a cullud lady pusson down yander n
Fairfax county wanter know T de Times
viii gimmer divoce.''
IL was well for the colored lady that
her Ganymede knew just what she wanted,
for. what with the rain and an irruption
OF pinholes all over its surface the missive
was problem that no brain on earth could
solve.
NOT THAT KIND OF RELIEF.
The Bureau is, not giving divorces, and
the manager said SO. Apparently. 1t didn't
make the slightest difference to Gany-
mede, fos, with a sheepish grin that widened
and decpened into i chucSle he drifted off
with the announcement that "Twarnt no
count nohow-'' which was cheerful but
rather surprising TO hear.
He is not the only applicant the Bureau
has had for queer favors, for one woman,
also colored, wanted Il piano. She didn't
expectit for keeps she explained, but would
be satisfied If an instrument was loaned
her long enough to train her voice for
church choir, when she would willingly buy
one for herself.
Both men and women, white and black. |
have come prepared to tell weird legends |
about local charities, newspapers and the |
police force, but their weird legends find |
no listener-and, of course, the bureau has |
had its crank.
He was a big, muscular fellow, and his |
clothes were old enough 10 vote. With un- |
kempt hair and beard; with grimed shirt |
and pathetically worn boots, he came to |
the manager with the request that a mes |
sage might be cabIed to England. And |
the message was thus: ITO Albert Ed |
ward. Sandringham, England: Am ill, des-
titute, and in need of financial aid.''
AN ARIsToCRATIC IMPosTER.
The name signed is one of the oldest and |
most aristocratic in the whole German
empire, and he claimed it to be his own.
He said that the Prince of Wales was his
incle and that his message would meet |
with an immediate response. He asked no
other help. He did not wish to send the
himself, but simply wished it to
90. He admitted that appearances were
against him, but wanted to know how he
would profit by '.frauding The Times" as
he would not have the handling of the |
money and asked Tor neither food nor
clothes.
The Charity Bureau did not send his
,ablegram. but the manager suggested the
English embassy as proper place to present
lis claim. He had been to the embassy
md they had refused him. Then the bureau
advised him to write to Albert Edward, and
o saw wood until he got reply.
He did not care to write and apparently
lad no desire to saw. He accepted his
efusal as though he were used to the
process. and then went away. He talked
and he acted like everybody else.
till he had an out-of-;he- story to tell,
md there is only one way of CHASING a
nan who tells an out-of-,he-way story, and
hat is to call him crank.
And the one picturesque feature of the
flair was, that as near as tramp
an look like newspaper cut of a future
,ing the man at The Times Charity Bureau
ooked like England's Royal George.
Misfit Clothing Parlors closed all day.
EIf<oap%I, Djutrto<