San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1897-02-21

of his trade and he knew when and
where and in what measure to apply
his lubricant. Yet who recognizes this
herOism.
The oil-can-man is not found alone
in the hold of the great steamers, or
in the cabs of the locomotive engines
or in the machinery rooms of the great
power houses, or rolling mills. He is
sometimes of the female persuasion
and none the less a hero on that ac-
count, for there be those in the moral
as we'll as in the mechanical world
who handle wisely and we'll the oil-can.
The social world has it's oil-can-men,
or more generally here the oil-can-
women. If wisdom is required of the
man with his greasy pants and smudg-
ed nose, in the application of his lubri-
cant, much more is it required of the
silks and satins and fine linens, as
well as the Calicoes and wOrsteds, that
pour oil on the i'll adjusted machinery
of social life and aid in making it run
noiselessly and without self destruction
by it's own friction.
The world is as little inclined to ac-
knowledge the value of the services Of
the oil-can-wOman as the Oil-can-man.
And yet she often gives him points
In oiling creaking human joints
And every heart with peace annoints
Who travels with her on the rail.
Perhaps no wiser, but more deft
She gains her point where he gets left
And breathes a blam on hearts bereft
When other helps and comforts fail.
If the oil-can-man is a necessity the
81 N iS InIlh1N- nf oil
the crazy jointed creaking machinery
in this world, the one of all others re-
curing the most persistent, copious
and judicious oiling, that machinery is
the social one. 1t is i'll adjusted, its
parts so evidently out of all proportion,
its motion so eccentric, more than that,
it is a wibblety- wObblety, wObblety wib-
blety kind of a motion that defies reg
ulation, runs counter to all that is eX
pected of it, utterly unreliable and like
the didn't-know-it- loaded pistol
liable to go off wrong and kill some one
in the most unexpected manner. I'm
less this machinery is kept oiled to the
very top of the possibilities there is a
friction that sometimes lifts whole fam
lilies out of their bolts. and turns the
very foundations and framework of the
social system up side down.
No one who has ever aspired to lead
in society, or to enter the swim, or
to be counted among the four hundred,
or to engineer a social function, or ev-
en- give direction to a church entertain
ment but understands how more than
necessary it is to lay in full supply of
the oil of taffy. This is not it's botan-
ical name, but it will be readily recog-
nized by this common every day label
The fact is that the majority of peo-
pie were never finished. They were
left in the rough. They should have
been put in the tumble" after they
were cast, and polished, but they were
not. so they are found with little pro-
tuberances sticking all over them, just
as the castings in the foundry are
when they first come from the matriX.
| 1t takes a copious supply of the lubri-
cant to enable these thorny-sided peo-
| pie to mix and move smoothly any
| where
But the Oil-can will do its work if
| it is in the right hands and judiCiOusly
| applied. 1t is a real luxury to see a
| woman, endowed by nature and per-
| fected by education in the art of had
| ling the social OilCan,as she goes about
| her set, deity cOnCealing her imple-
ment of fabrication, yet insinuating the
nozzle of her little can at every hitch
| in the smooth running of her social
world and creating harmony out Of
| naturally discordant elements. There
| is real artistic work required in doing
this thing, and the mischief of 1t is
| 10 10 diGpnVnrl6 IFS
work of usefulness is at an end. Go
where you WILL enter what set you
please, engage in any work that re-
Quires the cooperation of your fellows,
and there is but one royal road to sue
cess. That road is along the path
way CT the we'll handled oit-can.
1t is worth a whole cargo of brich
rods in the home. 1t brings more or
der out of confusion in school than all
the discipline OF the rod or the hold
over lesson. 1t allays more contention
in the church than all the preaching
OF the gospel of punishment that the
ear Of the world has heard. 1t is the
stock in trade Of the successful poll
tician and without it there is no such
a thing as a successful pie pleader. II
is ear-salve and eye-salve and lip
salve in one, and more potent than all
these combined 1t is not labelled
among the bottles Of the physician, but
the successful practitioner knows
where to lay his hands on it in the
dark. There is no age or sex or con-
dition to whom 1t is not more or less
a means Of grace. Even the under
taker, in the last offices of earth, has
to resort to it or fail. The newspaper
man is alone of all men the one whC
cannot use the oil can, for drop Of 4
on his white paper gives him away.