Evening star., 1896-11-28
DEAD TO THE WORLD.
They Looked Like Suicides, but The
Knew Their Business.

They Looked Like Suicides, but They
Knew Their Business.
Suicides have been so numerous of late
that Star reporter was not very much
surprised the other night when he almos,
stumbled over man who lay on the Nat
or his back at full length on the pavement
at the corner Of Massachusetts, avenue and
l0th street He lay in the shade of a tree,
Dut the moonlight falling through the
branches not only clearly defined the form,
but gave weird and uncanny effect.
Inc star man. startled for a moment,
stopped 10 examine, and when he saw five
or Six more silent outstretched forms rear
the curbstons, although they looked like
SO many ghosts, and made the locality
look like mir iature battlefield the whole
tning wss easy. They were only sleeping
ard although their beds were hard, some
OF them were lying on their coats and sew
erai lay In the gutter with the curbsto
Tor pillow. Three or four of the familiar
street-sweeping carts stood like sent;nels
near by III der the shadow of the trees,
ard the horses in the shafts were sleeping,
100 Just then street sweeper came
alCng dragging his big broom, and The
star man asked. pointing to the silent
forms. WHAT are they doing uncIe?"
IVY, boss. dey is jes' sleepin'.''
No. indeedy. It's too early ter git tiah-
ed. But yo ste TO mount er daylight
sieepin Is as good as little night sleep,
an SO wen de boys gifts chance tween
sweeps. dey jes draps right down an take
rap. Mebbe dis is de onliest one dey'll
git till tomorrer. 1t happens dis yer way
DE machines has come down 10th and
gone up one side er Massachusetts and
)es now dey Is up around Dupon'. Now
we doEe swep' 10th and We has to wait
III dey come back. Den de sweepers will
git In line and de cyarts will foller along
1es like er procession"
but these carts wan't boya ,,,ah ,.,a..
one OF them Is full to overflowing aIreauy,"
said The Star man.
Oats all right, boss, dey all belongs 10
de gang ana dey all sticks togedder, kaze
dey an goes to de 10Th street dump. Now
dat full cyaht belongs to de leader, and de
heaviest sweepn's was on his side of 10th.
and he filled fust. But dey all keeps toged-
"Heah comes de machines now" he ex
claimed, and the familiar swish of the
morse sweeDers could be heard coming
nearer. They were preceded by the in
spector In a light buggy. His quick eye de-
tected the sidewalk s!eepers and his
method Of calling them to duty was To
drive his horse on to the curbstone among
then The men arose one after another
and picked up their coats and brooms. One
called out familiarly: Say, fling us a hall
SOS We kin git pint
After the horse sweepers had passed
they fell into line in the gutter and began
sweeping the dirt into little piles Then
''iS Sai 10 came dlOHS ana tne n.Sht 8 WORK
was continued. AS The Star reporter stood
watching. driver stopped his horse at the
nrst little pile of sweepings. He bent down
ana picked up piece Of paper and care
fuily wiped off his big shovel. which al
ready shone like FURNISHED steel in the
moonlight. Then with one swoop he shoy-
eled the entire pile into his cart.
DO you ever find anything worth keep
ing?" asked The Star man.
Deed / amt n"bbcr foun' nothn' on dis
job. Some of de gang does. One of de
boys picked mp So one night. What did
he do with 1t? Deed ypu's too hard fer me
l doan' know what he done wifi it, cep'n tel
keep it. G'loEg! whoar'
After every whoa and before ever,
glon2 came that metallic ring of the
shovel as it came in contact with the as.
phalt. These are the familiar sounds tina
strike the eGr of the pedestrian every nigh,
as he passes through the streets of the
national capital. and just such unique
scenes as the one described are enacted
nightly. but they are peculiar to Washing
ton ard cannot be found in every large
city.