The daily morning journal and courier., 1897-09-01

and several expressed themselves as quite content that the children were shooting Peter Foss' chute. The spirit of happiness and melodious good cheer | seems to be knee deep in the neighbor- hood since Peter built the chute. The children are as happy as the gay sou brette pretends to be, and the parents are amusingly interested and regard the sport as rare good amusement for the little ones.
 Last night a visit was made to the Foss chute, and the sight was impress sive. So was the noise. The chute is just an imitation" of the real thing, l minus the water, Two pieces of scant- ling constitute the piece de resistance of the entire scheme. These are laid , parallel with one another, at a distance of about a foot and 8 half apart. One end of the scantling is placed on top of an eight-foot elevation and the other rests on the ground. At the base of the chute is skid laid flat on the ground and at an obtuse angle to the pieces of | scantling. The boat" is soap box with two pieces of box wood nailed on ] the lower edge of each side. The box f its over the pieces of scantling which l form the slide and the pieces of box | wood prevent 1t from flying off the | slide. That is about the entire equip | ment, yet for a week Peter Floss has been having a harvest in the pin and | button line, and promises to break the entire neighborhood. In fact, so well has he done that the plant has got be- yond his personal control, and he has 1 been forced to take in a partner. This partner Is Willis Spindler, and he is the youngster who sells the tickets for rides on the chute. The tickets are uniform in character and are roughly numbered bits of pasteboard with a peculiar mark on each, for the magnates don't propose to have any "phony" tickets rung in on the ticket taker.
 Prices are trustlike in fixity. Two buttons or two pins is the regulation price, Neither the ties of blood, the bonds of friendship nor the political pull of the gang can bring about a re- duction in the prices. And Floss won't take old pins. either. He is monopolist enough to demand brand new pins which have no bend or blemish. And he gets them, too. With buttons 1t is different. Any old button is accepta- ble, even down to the advertising but I rettes.
 There is a regular system of manage ment at the Foss Chute. His partner sells the tickets and naturally carries the money" of the firm. His pockets last night were bulging with buttons of assorted sizes, shapes and colors, and he had amassed nearly half a package Of pins from the chute mad children of Ina nniohh1rhnnd In, a1 ta Spindler, Foss' partner, the manage ment hires several employees. There is ticket taker who stands at the foot of the chute; there is a youngster who greases the scantling with lard or fat to make things run smoothly. There are two boys who hold the box in posi- tion while the passenger-for there is only one passenger to each trip-takes his seat And at the base of the chute stand two boys who check the box when it comes along wabblingly down | the incline. These employees are paid in pin and buttons, and there is a fixed scale of wages, which is not cut. There have been no strikes at the chute, for plenty of willing youngsters can be found "out of a job' and willing to take the places of any one in the confidence dnu eHlplOy Ol lle HldldSe1lleuJ-
 The chute is not confined to boys alone, but girls partonize it as well. There were thirteen and fourteen year old girls riding last night, and there was, few nights ago, girl of such liberal proportions that she could not get into the box at all, and she was forced to descend and let some less weighty individual take her place. It is rare good fun to watch the boys and girls swarm about the ticket seller and the ticket taker in their eagerness to get a ride The ticket takers job is like that of a man at the door of a local theater on a Sunday night. He is damned up against the chute, and three score of children are screaming at him at once, demanding that he take their tickets and let them ride. And when he does take the piece of pasteboard the lucky individual as- cends to the eight feet of dizzy eleva- ton by way of a small ladder, where sits Peter Foss in all his dignity, and then enters the box. Foss waits till the rider is well seated, orders the helpers to '1et go," gives the box a shove, and down slide box and ride with becom- ing speed and greatly to the amuse- ment of the hundred and one youngs- ters theaeabouts. Every trip is cheered like the advent of a trolley car in a backwoods part of town. There is con- siderable thrill about the rides, for the eighteen feet of incline does not join the base skid with any degree of nicety, and there is more or less of jar when the box strikes bottom. But the chill dren like the jar and cry for it.
 There is no danger about the sport, for even if the passenger were to fall from the chute the chances are that he or she would come down with be- coming grace upon the head of some admiring urchin who crowds about the incline.
 There are marvellous tales told of the Foss Chute People tell in muff1ed tones how rival threatened to erect an opposition plant on Howard street, but had to go to F'oss to find out how to frame his plans and specifications. But Foss' parents declined to give his rival any information that would lead to a possible breach in his power over the neighborhood. And there are other stories of how the boys and girls get buttons and pins; how one girl cut off every button on her basque to satisfy her desire for successive thrills on the