The age-herald., 1901-01-30
SKETCHES FROM
 EVERYDAY LIFE


 merchant "A beggar was displaying him. self to the passing throng and making per- sonaI-appeals for charity. He was sitting on the sidewalk leaning against building in a comfortable attitude, and his excuse for begging was that he had lost foot. The footless leg was extended as if he was try. ing to trip up the passers by. The objec- tionable thing about him was his face. It was not only fairly good looking, but quite clean. When the sunlight touched 1t there was a faint shine on it which unmstakably bore evidence of being due to the use of soap. In addition to this his clothes were intact and I don't think he had rag about him. In my humble opinion this beggar should have been arrested. He was avi. dently "scab'' beggar and did not belong to the beggars' union; every rule of which he had violated. There is something so im- pudent and unprofessional in beggar hav- ing clean face that I felt as If I had been insulted when he asked for aims. I don't care how warmly beggar may be dressed. in fact I think they all should possess a warm suit of woolen underwear, but the outer garments should at least be ragged. and above all things his face should be dirty. Especially Is this true in Birmingham where there is so much smoke and dust that you find it difficult to keep your own face clean. Meeting a well dressed and clean faced beggar is somewhat similar to having a servant with better clothes and manners than yourself. I hope no one will contribute anything to this fellow and that he will be forced to forgo the use of soap. In time his clothes will become rags and if he is still here then I will be willing to assist him. I may be cranky but dislike inniva- tions of all kinds and If these new fashion ed beggars are to be encouraged they will soon be using their clean and shiny faces as advertisements of certain brands of soap, and will ride around in carriages to solicit aims.
 "Why is it." asked a man ostensibly seek ing for information, that the manufac- turers of cheap goods always succeed in making them ugly. You would naturally suppose that man who made g pair of shoes would want them to fit well and look as shapely as $5 pair, but some how they never do. It iss4he same thing with cheap clothes and cheap furniture; they are enthusiastically cheap and universal ly hdeous. I suppose there Is some reason for 1t, and this Is what I wauld like to have explained Why cannot a $2 shoe be made on the same last s5 shoe? Of course the material is cheaper and the shoe will not last as long, but there is no reason why it should not fit as well and be as stylish. It Is the same thing with clothes Cheap clothes are not expected to have the same finish as a tailor made suit, but they ought to fit almost as well, for the fit depends entirely on the way they are cut. A first class tailor can cut suit out of cotton bagging and make it fit bet ter than most ready made clothes. I should think it would be a good idea for manu- facturer of the ready made article to go to a first class tailor, have a suit of clothes made, then take it to his shop, rip it up and follow the pattern. However they are supposed to know their business, and they must be some reason for it. Everyone has probably noticed how hideous cheap furni- ture is. There is less excuse for this, how ever, than clothes shoes. The latter are dependent to some extent on the individual ability of the workman who makes them, but cheap furniture is made entirely by machinery which can cut In one way as easily as another. The fault here is with the designer who invariably exhibits bad taste when he draws a design for cheap furniture This is another mystery to me, for you would hardly suppose a manufac- turer employed a special designer with bad taste to design cheap furniture, and anoth- CT with good taste to design the beautiful articles which can be bought nowadays The suppostion that this is the case is the only solution to the mystery. Cheap furni- ture at least Is not obliged to exhibit bad taste, and an absence of bad taste is to a large extent an exhibition of good taste.''
 Long long years ago-I won't say how many-when I was boy, my father used to take me north every summer" said a man who is interested in the cotton busi- ness. "We visited Washington, Baltimore, Philadelphia, New York and the New Eng land cities. What imprtssed me most was the deep rivers that flowed by the various cities and the amount of shipping that clustered about their wharves. We lived in a southern town on the banks of shallow river that was broad but barely deep enough to float a bateau. I never saw a ship until went north. The shipping and commerce of these northern cities, I thought, was the cause of their wealth and population, and I wondered why nature had been so lavish in supplying the north with navigable streams, while the southern rivers were shallow as a school boys excuse. At that time there was hardly a cotton mill in the south Now the southern town where I lived has become city and the shallow waters of the river turn the wheels of thousands of cotton spindles The same thing is true of nearly every shallow river in the south and the southern towns that were then desolate are busy, thriv- ing, humming manufacturing centers, while some of the wharves of the northern cities are rotting from disuse and their deep rivers flow mournfully by, unable, with all their depth, to turn a spindle. He laughs best who laughs last, and the day Is com ing, If not already here, when the shallow