Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1902-11-22
FAMILIAR PERsoNAGEs.
Character Sketches of the Corner Man
and Men That Were.
From the Pail Mall Gazette.


The corner, man Is altogether a ssperiu-
| Gus sort of person. There Is no reason why
he should be: there Is every reason why he
| should not be. Yet there he Is. OF course.
| he only corners where the public house
| finishes Off the street. The opposite corner
! has no attraction for him whatever. Where
/ he leans against the wall the swing doors
| are forever frequent on the hinge. II he
cannot enter and assuage his thirst. at any
| rate he is near the fount where thirst can
be assuaged, and where he is likeliest to
meet the chances of assuaging it. Mean
| time he leans against the wall that knows
him and does his share in defffing the pave
ment and lending luridness to the ambient
! air. What is he? A laborer he would nat
urally declare himself on the police charge
sheet. 1 doubt he has done stroke of
honest work for years. His hands show no
more trace OF toll than they do of soap.
The workingman SHES him. The corner
man and he find no affinity. Nor do they
foregather, even casually. The one takes
his drink. inside, at the bar. The other
swallows his in haste and shambles forth
again
The cab touts feel themselves a bit above
this utter loafer. They come back with the
coppers jingling cheerily in their fist but
they do not dispense him any hospitality.
Who does? And from what mysterious
source does the corner man derive the
wherewtthal to cover himself and keep
alive? At the other end of the town I
should have less difficulty in answering
that question. There you may behold a
variety about whose avocations, after dark
you need have no more doubt than has the
policeman who takes stock of these birds
of prey as he moves by, and who recog-
nizes among them more than one acquaint-
ance. He is not a pleasant or desirable
feature in the London landscape. A more
advanced civilization will, no doubt. make
a clean sweep, and of street loafers gen.
orally. But he looks as though he did not
intend to be moved on yet awhile.
The man that was has, naturally, always
been. The number OF men that were.
though, and still are, seems to me to be or
the increase in way which the increase
of population, ehiefiy- feminine. scarcely ac-
counts for. You cannot lump them all as
failures, because there are men who have
always been failures. and, therefore. have
never been other than they are. The man
that was is the man who has not merely.
the lady who lets the lodgings puts It.
seen better days." there are plenty of US
who have done that He Is the man who.
more or less definitely, has lost caste. and
punters at. Monte Carlo, where. mayhap. he
first learned to lose 1t. One night he drove
me back from theater in
hanson cab When I handed him
bowler so that l might see his face, and
called me by a nickname of old days when
he and were co-mates at a certain ven
cradle seat of learning. Yes, he had come
tired of it, and had chucked him.
There he was. He had spotted me at
once Knew would be good for some
thing for old times sake. And he sat there
grinning through a cough that was 10 do
its office upon him in no great while. He
is man that was for good and all, now.
Another that was, and still is, whom I had
last seen when he was on his way to In
dia, and the regiment sent me UP his card
about lunchtime. lunched. told me a tale,
borrowed a bit, and went his way to oper
ate similarly elsewhere. There this
much of the man that was in him, however.
that he went to South Africa and did not
come back. Not all are such as these.
There are gradations among these bygones.
among other people who have still rea-
sons to be. The man who was may still,
while there Is ne-tfoub2e about his sub
scription. keep his name a club list.
may still experience the cold shoulder in
decent company; may still hang on a while
to the fag-end of the life he used to live
But to say of such one that he may be
all he might have been Is. i fear me- to
say too much. He Is man that was.