Waterbury Democrat., 1900-12-08
AS YOU LIKE IT
Some Stray Leaves From A Reporters
 Note Book

Bishop street. says that people needn't be ill any hurry about getting ready their cutters this season. for he feels satisfied that there will be mighty little Sleighing. He bases his calcula tions upon the fact that the first fall of snow left the. ground before any more of the white flakes came down, and this he regards as an unfailing sign that there will be very little snow this winter, though there may be lots of cold weather. It showed Thanks giving morning, but it was all gone before night so that if there be any thing in the colored gentleman's con tention the boys and girls will not have many sleighing parties during the present winter.
 Some time ago Acting Medical EX aminer Graves spiked the bell on his office door and had an artist print the words Walk In' in large letters on the plate glass. just q little above the location of the bell. which is still in its old place although it refuses to speak during the day time. Since the change was made a reporter wanted to see the physician at his office. and being accustomed to the bell hc never dreamed of looking at the new Walk In sign. but kept trying to compel the instrument to perform it's accus- toned functions until the doctor open ed the door and pointing to the sign said. Don't you see that:" apparently trit1e angry at the annoyance. The reporter took in the situation and re- piled ill an apolOgetic tone Il cant read. doctor.' The thing worked like a charm and instantly the medical ex- aminer'S face was Wreathed ill smiles. and the scribe was uShered to the soft est couch in the waiting room where the doctor imparteu to him such infor- nation as he desired in his usual good natured way. Another proof in sup port of the old adage. "A soft answer turneth away -Wrath.'
 z "I wanted to give you people good item yesterday" said q clerk in one of the stores to the As You Like Ii Man. to-day. and having an idea thai the office call was 600 I rung up central and was answered by GOO. which is no other place than the police station. in this fashion. Oh. you're LOGO miles off I tried it again and of course got the same number and central being alert. heard me explain my predica- ment to 600. and sent this shot at me over the wire: Six hundred isn't the Democrat" oh" I replied. gently. thinking the fair hello girl was com II. Look in the book and Secv were the words that came rushing into my ear. I was a stranger to the few people who happened to be in the office where l sought to make connections with the paper. and it being close onto press hour and not caring to expose my ig- norance of the telephone directory. I put back tile trumpet on the hook and walked away. satisfied that the hello girl could have done no worse. It is against the rules of the company for operators to instruct people regarding numbers. but 1 have q faint idea that bunglers from abroad should be made to feel that while the rules are rigid. the operators are courteous. for it makes world of difference the way one is informed of a mistake.'
 
 What q rebuke to the fathers of this country to hear Balfour stand up iii the British house of commons and justify the barbarous treatment the Boers are being subjected to in South Africa by quotations from the military rules of the United States. There was something significant in Tim Healey's query to Balfour's remarks on this subject as well as in the reply thereto. which was substantially as fol lows: Healey: What date do these regulations bearE Balfour: 'They are dated 1S99.' Mir Healey: Aha. They were made to it the case. They were framed after Amerlca got into the same stew England now finds her self ill in South Africa" No wonder tie radicals expressed amazement that the American republic should have sanctioned rules of war which virtual ly deprive small nationalities of the rights of belligerents. Judging by the way the government is being scored right at their own door for their South African policy il would seem that the Orange Free State and Transvaal republics. who are battling for their homes and their fireSideS. have more friends in the house of commons than in the congress of the United States. The average English man has a pretty keen conception of right and wrong and were it not for the power the aristocracy wields over there it is safe to state that the Boers would never have been robbed of the homes they had hewn out for them selves and their families in the jungles of Africa.
 John Moriarty of the Waterbury Furniture Co. was in q reminiscent mood the other day and talked inter- eStingly to few citizens about his old time friend and associate, Con- tractor Michael Cady of New York whose name has been mentioned so frequently ill the papers the past few weeks in connection with his big sewer contract i'll Havana. involving some thing in the neighborhood of S13.OOO.- GOO. Cady and AIoriarty worked to- gether when they were boys making two-cent bundles of wood in the Brook lyn navy yard and although both have since travelled in widely different fields. still they have managed to keep up an acquaintance and when they meet they rarely ever part without reyerting to the time when they work cd in the navy yard putting up bundles of wood such as are sold in the stores for the modest sum of two cents. NIoriarty's father. Eugene, an aforetime Irish schoolmaster. who could talk Latin and Greek as readily as English. was weigh master at the navy yard for several years and Cady's father was q carpenter at the same place and the two youngsters used to dn1i l,ir