The record-union., 1897-06-07

floors and their brooms have covered
space of thirteen acres before the
close. Shortly before midnight sturdy
scrub women, with dresses that stop at
their shoe tops, appear upon the scene
and make the ghostly silences echo
with their gossip. Theirs is a task that
does not end till the gray morning
light has stolen through the windows
and the red sun has followed it.
"SHoW YOUR PASS"
In big store there is always some
thing still to be done at night by one
detachment or another of the clerks. 1t
may be the draping of a show window
or bit of decoration for department,
and it may be a pressure of work upon
one of the shop rooms. So that every
night there are likely to be forty or
fifty persons working after time for
an hour or two. The departure of these
people from the upper floors gave the
early hours of this evening a little of
the variety that in general the life of
the captain of the watch cannot be said
to possess. He stood near the single
door that all night long is left open for
exits and entrances, his eye alert for
the enterprise of any of the gentlemen
outside to whom the thought of mil
lions of dollars worth of property in
stock lying loose on counters is more
| than common honesty can endure.
From somewhere a man approached
him. A husky young fellow he seemed
What are you doing here?" demand
ed the Captain.
Il am porter" was the reply.
Your pass?'
Here it isl
A moments inspection. "Ah, very
good" declares the Captain, and the
porter thus vouched for joins his com
rades, who are installing furniture two
floors above.
we have to be very strict here re-
marked the Captain. There is too
much property in a big store to justi-
fy our taking any risk Fire, through
earelessness, is a constant possibility.
We have our own engines in the base
ment and tanks on the roof, and are
ready to extinguish an ordinary blaze
as soon as it shows itself With our
watchmen on every floor and compelled
by the regulation to make half hourly
rour DIS and record them by turning q
key which registers upon a watchman's
on every part of the store"
THE NIGHT SCENE.
AS the evening advanced the sound
of far-away voices and the occasional
fleeing glimpse of a form in the gloom
did not make the big building less lone
ly in its aspect. A row of bright lights
still burning in the show window. over
which the vista of darkening street
was seen, gave one the sensation of
looking from the abandoned pit of
theater upon a deserted stage wherein
the night was falling There was a
shifting and deepening Of shades and
the noises from without became more
1nfrequent. Inside, the deep rotunda
was like a well of darkness. The faint
odors OF sandal wood issuing from the
oriental stuffS f1oated up from the
basement. AT intervals there was heard
the musical note of clock chime call
ing the hours out of their order. There
would be little hustle and then the
ludicrously doleful voice of a cuckoo
would take up the work of misinforma-
ton and whoop in unauthorized cele-
bration of the flight of time
Occasionally one of the sweepers
would bring to the Captain a trinket.
bit of jewelry or a piece of money.
Every night something of value is
found in the debris of the floors IF
goes to the lost and found desk to
await claimant. From the floor two
flights below the pavement there were
muff1ed sounds of stocking. 1t took
TOUR tons OF peat coal every night, the
Captain explained, to heat the building
re-
er the furnaces consumed as much fuel
almost as the steamship of a generation
ago.
The first shift of guards We're going
TO their hunks as the reporter was
passed out. Every Waterman gets
three hours sleep during the night. and
he is on duty about ten more.-New
York Mail and Express.