The age-herald., 1900-12-06
SKETCHES FROM
 EVERYDAY LIFE

Fighting Bob Evans and myself used to 1 fly kites together" said a youthful-looklng | visitor at a otel yesterday. "or rather, | did the flying and he stood by and looked on. You see, it was just after the Span
 ish war and Fighting Bob was enjoying a furlough. He was visiting his brother-in- lay who had command of one of the Gov | ernment's arsenals and it was on the pa-
 rade ground of the arsenal, where there
 were no trees, that the kite-fying took place. Flying kites was quite a fad at the | time. Eddy in New Jersey was experl- menting with his kites with a view of util- izing them in warfare such as taking pho- tographs of the enemys position, sending
 up men to play high-spy with the enemy
 and various other theoretical and impracti- cable things. In actual warfare I never heard of kites being used at all. In the first place they are fragile and trouble some to handle, and then they are depend-
 ent for utility on the most fckle and vari- able thing in nature-the wind. Then a rain is apt to spoil them. and it requires an open space of some size to get them
 started. Finally when you get about six
 of them up on one cord, a squall about a
 mile high is liable to come along and snap the cord.
 "As an amusement, however, kite-hying is great sport-a fact discovered by the wise Chinese many years ago. It keeps you out of doors, In the sunshine and fresh air It is not as violent exercise as tennis though quite as active a game as golf, and by fighting kites like the Chi- nese you can get all the exercise you want.
 ="An Eddy kite is the best of all. They are diamond shape and about six feet high and six and a half feet wide. You can send up dozen on one cord if 1t Is large enough Two kites are first sent up, one with 800 feet of string and one with 300 feet These two strings are tied to the large cord which is then let out about 200 feet and another kite tied on, and so on until you get as many as the cord will hold. It is quite an art to tie the various cords so that they will not cut each other. Captain Evans as a sailor was especially interested in this. It was knotty ques- tion, so to speak, and think between us we devised knots that would puzzle the oldest salt in the navy
 'T was coming South from Asheville one day last summer,n said a wholesale mer- chant, when my attention was attracted by a man in the seat just behind me. He was reciting poetry to a man sitting by him. To hear any one reciting poetry in this prosaic age is enough to attract atten- tion. My first thought was that some struggling poet had managed to pen in a publisher and was going to talk poetry to ba Sto in looked around to see the expression of suf- - fering the publishers face, but to my surprise he appeared pleased and seemed to enjoy it. Just then the train stopped and I could hear better the words of the poem. It was probably called Little Bit of a Fellow, for the first line of each verse began with that expression The poem was very good. Can you recite Grays Elegy?' asked the listener. Why, certain ly,' replied the poet, and he proceeded to recite it. I suppose for a couple of hours he did nothing but recite poetry. There was no poem his listener asked for that he did not seem to know I was amazed at his fund of information and charmed with many of his selections, some of which were familiar to me. I was curious to know who he was-this man who was brave enough to recite poetry on a railroad train. Just then someone came by who knew the man that had supposed to be a publisher. The latter stopped him, shook hands and said T want to introduce you to my friend here-Frank L. Stanton, the poet laureate of the South"
 'It is a wise plan, said traveller yes- terday, Ito provide yourself with about five ten dollars in dimes when you start on a journey, to be used solely as tips A dime is>about the smallest tip gentleman can give with any degree of self respect, especially if he is travelling at the North, where the servants and porters are all white, and for lack of dime you may have to spend a quarter. Tips are particularly heavy if you happen to be travelling with any ladies. A man can manage to carry his own hand baggage, but he can't car-~ ry more, and where there are women, por- ters have to be used and tipped. I was particularly impressed with the system of tips and the way the various porters play into each others hands the last time I was in New York. was travelling with my sister, and just before reaching Jersey City We were brushed by the porter, who also helped get our bags off the car. He set them down on the station platform and [ gave him tip. The station porter then picked them up and carried them aboard the ferry boat and set them down. He had to be tipped. When we reached New York another porter placed them a cab and he got a tip. When we reached the hotel the cabman placed them the sidewalk and was paid and given a tip. Tipping was fast becoming habit. The hotel boy who carried them inside the hotel wanted a tip, likewise the porter who took them up to the room. I got so in the habit of tipping that felt like tipping myself ev- cry time I opened my satchel. Of course every time you pay for meal the waiter has to be tipped, even the bell boys who bring ice water want tip.
 ''The atmosphere in New York;" he con- tinued, lis an atmosphere of bank notes and gold. It costs money to breathe-at least it seems when you figure out your \ expenses Expenses of living are growing heavier there every day. Hotel rates and