Manchester Democrat. [volume] (Manchester, Iowa) 1875-1930, 1901-08-28
Reminisoences of Men Who Had
Seen Worse Days and Irritating
Announcements When They Were
Hard Up and Ont of Employment.

"Reminiscences of Men Who Had
Seen Worse Days and Irritating
Announcements When They We're
Hard Up and Ont of Employment.
The advance agent met the leading
man of another show the other night,
and, as they had not seen each other in
seven years, there was warmness
about their greeting that was refresh
ing.
Dear old Toni" said the leading
man. ri was thinking of you not five
minutes ago. Sit down, you dear old
fellow! Ipassed bakery not five min
utes ago, and thought of you. Why,
here's Willis! was just saying to
Tom that never see a bakers that
don't think of him. Tom and / were
poor once. Mighty poor too. l re-
member that we had been turned out
of different homes on the same cold
night and met each other for the first
time by chance. We shared the COM
forts of a butchers wagon that night
and went upon rummaging expedi-
ton the next day. We halted in front
of German bakery, half starved and
disguised with life generally. There
was a huge sign in the window which
said, There Is No Cake Like Ours We
hadn't a penny between us, but Tom
stepped in and asked for a sample of
the cake The Dutchman didn't ap-
preciate the humor of the request, so
Tom said, You may keep your cake,
boss; but, say, give me chunk Of
bread, quick, or I'll cut out your giz-
zard.' I'll never forget that cake sign
because 1t took us hours to get away
from the police who were attracted to
the scene by the bakers cries for help"
"But that was not my only expert
ence with peculiar sign" remarked
the advance agent after n hearty laugh.
''The year before l went on the road
for the first time was in as hard luck
as ever man was. had pawned ev-
erything in sight and was almost starry
ed. l found an umbrella in the hall
way of q down town building, and the
janitor told me to keep it. 1t was q
fairly good rain shield, and 1 immedi-
ately carried 1t to mine uncle. 1 didn't
know this particular relative, although
! had formed the acquaintance of hun
dreds of his people. His place was on
Sixth avenue, and he gave me 70 cents
ON it, which l gladly accepted. AS he
was making out the ticket he said:
Do you want to save it from the
mothsY
YES answered.
"'rhat will cost you IL cents. Per-
haps you would like to have 1t insured?
1t is always advisable, but 1t will cost
you ~ cents more replied my friend.
All right said. Take good care
of it, He could have eaten 1t for all
cared, for never intended to redeem
1t. | was about to leave the place when
saw n big sign on the far wall. 1t
said:
mo extra charge for putting watch
es and jewelry in the safe in the office
watches and jewelry! 1t brought
the tears to my eyes, and as crawled
into my 10 cent bed that night
thought of diamond necklaces, pearls
and rubies of priceless value and-cake>
Oh, the curse of some signs! How they
mock the poor"
They were all silent moment, but
the one addressed rs Willis was the
first to resume conversation, and he
said:
"There's my friend, Big John Smith.
Let me introduce him. Since you chaps
nre talking of signs and hard luck, let
me tell you of the time that had to
leave my trunk at the old Stevens
House, on lower Broadway. and light
out by the shades of midnight to get
away from a hotel bill that couldn't