The labor world., 1898-01-01
The Story Of a
New Years Gift.

| A couple married hut a few years,
who had lost every thing through illness
and misfortune, decide d to come to Chi
:cago before winter set in to try TO Sc
cure some sort of employment that
would yield a living. The husband had
been an accountant and office mar. and
the wife had good general knowledge
Of and experience in Office work
! They rented suit Of cheap rooms on
the West Side, and then followed days
pnd days Of weary seeking, almost q
house to house canvass Of the down
town district, leaving applications
wherever the managers would permit
I'VE can't give you any encourage
ment in these times. We are not taking
on any new men.
"Our business hardly warrants our
keeping our old employees, but we can It
discharge or get rid Of them till they die
off. Your references are all right, and if
times were different, i" etc.
And when Sunday came there was
scurrying for stationery and for stamps
out of the thin purse to answer ads.
Any one who has answered ADVERTISE
ments in the Sunday papers knows what
it means to reply to what seems some
thing promising and then wait, first
with a hoping, then with a sinking,
heart, for the postman Monday after
noon and Tuesday morning When there
were no letters Ivy Wednesday, they con-
soled themselves, scarcely daring to look
into each others eyes, by saying that
the firms were investigating their refer
ences, which would, of course, occasion
delay, but one day was like another.
with its trudging, trying and waiting.
The purse became empty and the
meals scanty, and the rent due, and
after the first month the furnace sent
hp little heat and the landlady's ''good
morning" was frigid. They shut the
doors more quietly as they went in and
out and wore shabbier clothes, and their
steps grew heavier as their faces grew
less hopeful.
One night the husband came home
without his cuff buttons, and next
morning wore pair Of his wife's, but
there were steak and coffee for supper
In few days he left his watch down
town and wore an old fashioned silver
one that had been his fathers, and then
they decided they could get along with
out that too And there was nothing
more to pawn. The man several years
before had helped lawyer out Of a
tight place, leaning him small sums
~everal times. He dropped in to see him
in the chamber Of commerce building
and asked him for dollar or two. The
lawyer stepped out to get the money,
and, strangely enough, forgot to come
back at all.
The wife had packed two pieces OF
rare French bric-a-brac in her trunk,
and if she could sell them-in great
city there were always people who were
glad to get hold of artistic curios, if
you could find the right people.
The pieces of china were worth from
$50 to 500. but husband and wife
agreed to part with them for $25 if
purchaser could be found. A curio deal
er down town offered her $3.50 "They
are French There is no demand at
present for things of the kind, but if
you want to leave them will give you
q dollar and q half or so," said he The
wife next started to visit houses on a
fashionable boulevard, and was either
denied admittanoe by a naughty servant
or supercilious dame refused even to
look at the pieces-the like of which
could not be found outside an art mu-
scum. She never bought from peddlers,
she explained; then a long, weary
walk home, and only bread and tea for
supper
j For two or three Sunday nights they