Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1899-05-13
LIES DIFFERENT PATHS

Heights citizen with the square Jaw ana
| the generally solid appearance, Il watched
my wife while she busted herself in tucking
our ten-year-old boy into his little bed.
The kid tired after a long spin on a
new wheel l bought for him the other day;
he was a bit cross with his mother, and he
took all of her indulgence and bother over
him as a matter of course. Said to my
self over my pipe, Boy, you've got snap
and a good thing, and you don't know 1t,
and that started me to thinking of the
craggy path had to tread when / was that
boys age, and younger. This boy Of mine
has never known the sensation of wanting
anything that he couldn't get. He'll go
through the high school here and then he Ii
so to a university. Then, when he is capa-
BILE of raising a beard, l haven't doubt IN
the world that I'll have to step in and To-
cate him somewhere at whatever work he
takes UP. I'll do it willingly, at that. But
/ can't help but think once in while OF the
difference between
We'll. when l was eight years old l got
Il job for dollar week in a paper box
factory. 1t wasn't in Washington, but in
a little old dust-heap of a city out west
l had to go to work at $50 o'clock IN the
morning and carried Il tin bucket along
with me with soggy meat and bread in it
for lunch. l had to work like horsethlei
all day packing around big buckets Iuii
of paste and | wasn't turned loose untll
u o CLOCK IN the evening. lie uoiidi q "SN'n
l earned all went toward my board and
keep
Then when l was less than nine years
old | got a job in furniture factory Tor
a dollar and Il half a week 1t was my
work to slap the first coat OF staining on
furniture as it was turned out OF the hahoS
of the cabine+ makers My hours were
twelve a day, for l had to get down sooner
than the grOwn-up workmen III oruer ~
clean out the work room
all the time looking AROUND loI d
chance to make a better living ana Whei
l was about nine and a half went TO WORK
as a bundle carrier for dry GOODS store.
| earned 50 week at that. 1t was d pIet'S
hard lob on shoes and the walking certain
" did give me awful appetite twhich
was often unable to appease), put II was
raise in pay, and l hung onto II. me u
goods store had no delivery wagons, ana
toted all the bundles People used to come
down to the store along toward or .
o clock on Saturday nights ana puy lot
of truck (some times including blankets ana
such heavy gear, and I'd have to denver
all the stuff that same night. Some OF the
bundles We're so heavy that they often pore
me to the ground. There We're no stree.
cars and | had to. walk | rarely got
through delivering bundles before O'Clock
on Sunday mornings while he!d tnal Jop.
Then. after four hours sleep, q nave 70
get up at o'clock on Sunday mornings 10
serve mass on the altar. ] used to often
almost tOpple over on the altar steps from
slsepiness ard general WEAKNESS.
was Keeping my eEtS open A'i ~ 'SNNSA
job. though. and so when l was about zen
and Il half l got job as messenger BOY
for the telegraph company. Got Two ana
a half week for that, and worked seven
teen hours Il day. | feel convinced right
down to the present moment that, after d
had this JOB for six months, Ia have been
able to hold my own, even at the tender
age Of ten ard a half, in any OLD SIX days
g0-as-y ou-please walking match. The tele-
graph company surely did get two ana
ha.f a week out of me.
II never let up looking out tor an OPP
portunty to make better living, and SO,
when | was Il little over eleven, l got
job in a trunk manufacturing outht. me
factory also manufactured harness. was
the delivery service, but had push cart
1 earned So a week at that, but it was pref
" hard work, and so, when l got chance
to go to work as steamboat engineer Tor
big office building for three nifty per week,
| took it. Yep, that's right. / ran the
furnaces and attended to the steam gauges
and did the whole job of a Steamboat en-
gineeT and | wasn't twelve years Old When
| held down the job, at that The ante was
being raised on me in the matter of board
and keep. all the time, too, for | was a
growing boy and | ate a whole lot and L
couldn't seem To get ahead. SO saved up
nIckelS, and after a lew months L got
enough of them together to buy a ticket
for another city further east The first
Job | got in the new town was for four
week running an elevator. One day ! was
studying so hard over the problem of how
| was going to buy Il new suit OF clothes to
replace the bum suit | Wore that L Wedged
the elevator up next TO the roof. Then L
got fired and had to hunt up another job
l nearly starved during the couple Of weeks
was out Of d job that time. l had to take
Il three dOliaT-a-Heek job as Il messenger
boy for the telegraph company, and it hurt
me a heap to have to come down In wages
like that. But it was up to me to hustle,
and | couldn't sit down and wait for people
to come and hand me work and money. l
paid two week for my board. | met d
Young fellow who shorthand writer.
and he offered TO teach me for 30 cents a
week. | took him up, and put in all my
spare time, day and night, studyin; the
put-hOoks. Ia been doing general study
ing, IN fact, ever since | quit school and
went TO work for a living at the age of
eight. l stuck to the messenger Job for a
year, getting the other kids to dictate to me
for shorthand speed when they had time
chad TO bride EN-, though. with cubeb CT
garettes horse cakes and suchJ and one day
| walked over to the Office Of the leading
court reporter in the city and asked him
to give me trial. to see whether | could
do anything with shorthand. l took him at
the rate of 100 or 10 words minute, sur
| prlslng him as much as did myself. | was
very little over fourteen then. The court
reporter took me into his office and before
| was sixteen he was shoveling it out to
me at the rate of 81 900 year
Hustle? Well, some. And / didn't have
10 hustle 4 bit harder than lots of kids who
| grew up alongside of me. Now, what dive
suppose that tcE-year-od of mine with his
| ilFe or SIX different suits of clothes and
sets of shoes and hats, and his last model
| bikes, and his toy boats, and his dogs, and
his rifle, ana mis- collection of balls and
| bats. and the aggregation of pretty little
girls down the block that he has on the
string, and his mother dancing around him
what q ye suppose he'd do if it was up TO
him tomorrow morning TO hustle out and
make a living for himself? Don't you think
hed pass ii up to the old man? / think he
would. That why l often think while
watching his mother tuck him into bed
While he peevishly kicks about this and
that, Boy, you've got a snap and a good
thing, and you don't know t."