The San Francisco call., 1898-04-03

nere for business? That's what l m here for. Are you waiting for better jobs and more wages. or ain't you got your money spent yet?" Then the Cicero grows pessimistic: T tell you, boys" he asserts, T never saw the outlook for work so bad as it is to-day. You want farm work, eh? Well, where are you going to get 1t? The grain crop Is gone; all down the San Joaquin 1t won't pay to cut it. They ain't had no rain, and only a little around Sacramento will be saved. If you're waitin' for the grain crop to carry you out you'll Starve first Now, maybe you're waitin' for the fruit crop to take you out We'll that crops gone, too. Didn't you read the papers about that big frost on last Monday night i; well, that killed all the apricots and all monds. Look right there on the wall: that's a bank in the city here wantin' to let a contract to cut two thousand cord of stove wood; it's apricots and almonds; and they're cutting out an orchard because the trees ain't profita- ble any more."
 That's so," interrupts a scared faced man with a black mustache. T went up on a ranch last week to work apricotS and was let out with six oth- CTS when the frost struck" Groans from the crowds follow this statement and f1orid Celt with a voice in high
  booster for the house. This is indig- nantly denied by the owner of the scar and the pipes of the auctioneer start up again leaving the quarrel to bevel down to subsistence in groans.
 Presently the voice stops and the hum of conversation which resumes from the crowd indicates that the auc- tioneer has retired. He has disappear ed, indeed, and 1 seek him in side apartment, where he materialzes at a disheveled desk in the midst of a bevy of laborerS who have drained them selves out of the company in the ad- jacent hall, and have come to apply for some of the much praised jobs.
 You're a Swede milker," says the Crier, now transformed into bustling man of business, as he looks down up- on the hands of the first man beside him. A moon face, brushed on the top by whisp of yellow hair. breaks into curving wrinkles at this remark, and a strong Morse voice asks, How you know dat?"
 T tell by that knot on your right thumb" says the man of business. You strip the teat with your thumb when you milk. You want that milker job, don't you? Well. where did you work last?" and so a formula of Ques- tions and answers are rehearsed, the Swede pays g and is given the address of the employer. with letter of intro duction from the house.
 And what do you ant?" asked the swift man of the scowling young coun- tenance next beside him.
 Want that buggy-washing job," is the reply made with a swagger of the head and a scuffle of the foot.
 Are you a buggy-washer?"
 "Yes"
 Where did you ever wash buggies?"
 HC0oifh .2- MahOnpv'S
 How do you go about washing a
 Well" with another swagger and scuff, T jack up the axle, take the wheel off the box and see if 1t needs greasin'."
 ''You won't do; take another job,' and he passes to the next man.
 ''Why didn't YOU take that man who wanted the buggy-washing job?" I aske the hustler, ter he Lad gone through the company with much of that expedition and success with which a circus rider gets through hoop.
 "Why didn't I take him? Because that job is a crank. That fellow is an American and he's bad tempered. He wouldn't last with that crank two days. Besides, -le didn't know his work; he's never washed buggieS, and there'd be a row between them before they'd been together twenty-four hours. I'll have to put an easy-going German on that job"
 How do you know he never washed buggies ?" I asked.
 Because he didn't know how to start the work. In washing buggy the first thing you do is to take out and dust off the cushions and carpet"
 ''The jobs you offer" I remarked, "are pretty good, are they not? Why Is it you must spend so much breath in getting men to take them? I have heard it said that lob # any kind was hard to get in San Francisco. yet you seem to have plenty of work to offer men and you find few takers. How is that?"
 "Well, you see,' returned the Crier, "those men out there are waiting for higher wages. They make the rounds of the whole street, read the signs hear the talk and see what is offered They are just as emphatic connois- seurs in selecting a job as your wife is in buying tea. They don't pick up anything that comes along: oh. no; they're after snaps: and they are will- ing to wait for them. They won't take any old thing unless they have to. and