The daily morning journal and courier., 1898-01-28

a basket of glowing fruit of low-priced potatoes Is a welcome visitor on those dingy stair-landings, where the light is really so dim that imperfections do not show clearly. Things sold at less than market prices are attractive.
 The boy who goes to the fire gets paid or bought off, with the partly damaged suspenders, buckles, cravats and the like, and these he sells off in small lots. Occasionally he may hit upon batch of goods that can be sold outright in the lodging-house, among his mates. Because, who minds if the top of a sock is charred or stained, if the pair can be bought as low as three cents or four cents? Certain of the boys devote themselves to searching along the routes of the various railways for old bolts and bits of iron, cast-off horse shoes and nails. These are sold to the regular dealers in sucn collections. These little fellows make a bare exist ence; seldom do they have a spare pen- ny to buy cake or piece of candy.
 T lent two dollars and half to a boy last summer to set up in the lem onade business" said a lodging-house superintendent.
 ''He got two big tin pails, some glass es, a squeezer and the materials with that sum. In six weeks he had paid me my money back. He got some knowl- edge of the value of money, and this winter he has a very good place in a restaurant. In the summer he will take his lemonade stand again. One of our boys watched his chance and bought a dollars worth of stockings at a special-bargain counter on Sixth ave- nue, and has peddled them off to good advantage. He is going to make a splendid buyer for some firm one of these days. Another one saved up money enough to buy push-cart, and he sells odd remnants of muslin, calico, spools of thread, buttons and such mo- tions down on the east side. He is not more than fourteen.
 Some boys who are of quiet, do- nestle turn, wait upon sick people in the poor districts. It would seem that they would be a poor sort of depend- ence, but if man or woman is con- fined to bed, with nobody to sweep or tidy the room, or even hand a cup of
 
 ment of a dime or a quarter to any boy who is willing to be useful is not grudged. Quite a number of boys sell the coal that they pick up along the lines of the railroads or on the dump ing grounds. Some of it is half charred, but it sells readily to the poor at low price. The youngest boys who are looking after themselves in this way are about eight years old. The oldest are. about fourteen or fifteen. They pay us six cents for breakfast, six for dinner and six for their beds. Their washing is done for them, and those who only have one suit can get clothing from the management until their own clothes are ready for them. Those able to pay eight and ten cents for a bed have little place for the hanging of their clothes and a box to keep their belongings in. They also have a curtain drawn between their bed and the next in the ward, so that little more privacy is secured. The six-cent sleepers only have the bed giv- en them and no additional space. Their possessions must be handed in to the matron to be taken care of. No ir- mate is allowed in the lodging house after a certain hour in the morning. They are turned out so that the place can be cleaned, and not looked for again until dinner time Their mid day meal, if they get any, must be picked up outside. If there is any manliness in the boys nature the hard ship and privation of his life brings it out. If there is depravity of the nat,,- ral sort that is developed also; but we find many more bright, manly little chaps than cringing or tricky ones When deserving boys cannot raise their board money we trust them awhile un- til better times. No, they never men, tion their families. guess it would seem odd to them to have father or mother to look to or depend upon Sometimes a mother comes here hunt ing up a boy whom she has not heard of for months, but generally, on inves- tigation, she proves to be not the kind of mother that the boy wants to gc back to; and we don't make him go The majority of these New York boys are far better off to be in ignorance of their relatives and get rid of all past | association. n.'-New York Evening Post