The Worcester spy. [volume] (Worcester, Mass.) 1898-1904, 1899-10-30
TOWN TALES.

That the pressure of business upon
the railroads is extraordinary appears
in the large orders lately placed for
steel rails at the very high prices pre-
vailing. 1t is further indicated in the
orders for cars, which are being given
to builders all over the country. One
concern, q combination Of IA plants, has
received orders for $1,000 freight cars
within a week, to cost over 100000 900
in the aggregate. A prominent western
grain dealer, who has been in the bust
ness 81 years, says he has never seen
a car famine that would compare in its
severity with the present one. 1t was
a common experience voiced by dele
gates at the recent National Grain
Dealers association, that they could not
get the cars needed to take care of their
shipments.
A young man went into local res
taurant the other day and called for
soup. His idea was to get a quick
lunch, and as the day was cool, some
thing hot seemed the thing to order.
1t was one of those savory vegetable
soups, thick and hot. AS the man be-
gan to ladle it up, and stir his spoon
around the dish, he heard something
rattle. An investigation followed, and
a door key with a piece of string at
tached was fished out. The key was
held up for inspection of the other
lunch counter epicures. One tried to
perpetrate the crusted joke with a new
twist and said: you have no reason to
complain; you can't expect a whole
hardware store for 10 cents" Another
one did better and called out: Billy,
that's mystery soup, but you hold the
key to it, Said another: "That key
would go we'll with a lock of hair
found in my HASH Turning to one of
the grinning walters, the owner of the
key soup said: please ask the pro-
prietor to come here a minute The
waiter smiled again, and replied: you
will have to excuse him, sir; he is eat
ing his lunch just now, at another
restaurant"
An old man, weather-worn and so
rugged that L knew at once that he
came from Maine, stopped me the other
day, to inquire the way to Lincoln
square, and as L was going in the same
direction, we fell into conversation He
had not been in Worcester for Is years,
he said, and while he had thought him
self perfectly familiar with the town,
the changes have been so great since
that time, that he was afraid to trust
to his memory. A few horse cars were
all that afforded means of cheap trans
portation at that time, he said, and
as for public buildings. Worcester was
coming ahead of any city he knew. He
was enthusiastic over the city, and
spoke of moving here to live.
Not ten minutes after leaving him,
I met an acquaintance a resident of
Worcester and one VINO has been iden-
titled with the city for years, though
not In any public capacity. He was
complaining of the lack of life in the
city. 1t was the slowest place he had
ever seen, he thought, and if it wasn't
for his business, he would leave at
once. There was nothing in the whole
place that appealed to his city patriot
isn-the possession of such a thing in
him is doubted, however-and after re-
Wiling all the institutions of the city
and all the inhabitants thereof, he went
down on Mechanic street to get beer,
and as he went he had something de-
rogatory to say about the beer.
Now which of these men had the cor
rect idea of Worcester?
Principal Lyford of Worcester told
some interesting stories at the meeting
of the Teachers Association last Friday
of his experience in Worcester's schools
In one of the ninth grade rooms the
teacher had been conducting lessons on
birds and near the end of the hour
asked some questions by way of a re-
view First they took up the thrushes
and then the sparrows, and then she
asked for something about the jays One
child mentioned the blue jay and then
the class was asked to name any other
jay they knew of. One boy in the back
of the room who had up to this time
flna sON ,fr,4 LII
iously.
well, what other jay do you known
asked the teacher.
~. H. Walker" said the boy, and then
there was silence.
In a lower grade the children were
asked to illustrate some well known
poem, and one little girl brought in
what she said was picture from THE
Old Oaken Bucket" On the paper were
three circles and number of monde
script dots. She explained it this way:
1.-THE round marks are the old oaken
bucket, the moss covered bucket and
the iron-bound bucket, and the dots are
the loved spots in my youth +"
Another teacher gave her class this
problem in arithmetic; "a man owed
S25 and paid half down; how much did
he still owe?" and told the children they
might illustrate it if they wished All
sorts or pictures came IN showing the
money in different forms. and on one
paper was a square filled with cross
marks of all sorts. An explanation of
this was necessary, and on being ques-
toned, the child said that the picture
stood for the down the man paid.
Sometimes when it's my luck to get
the passes and go to the theatre |
amuse myself by listening to the scraps
of conversation around me- 1t isn't like
evesdropping, for people at the theatre
seem to talk for the benefit of their
neighbors. usually between the acts,
but not always. And at THE Sign of the
Cross" there was particularly good op-
porttunity to hear interesting things, and
l took notes, surreptitiously, of what
I heard. None of the sentences were fin