Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1902-05-24
QUEER JOBS FOR BOYS

They're finding Gew stunts for the mes
senger boys right along" remarked the
manager of a local district messenger Office
the other day. Airing babies and dogs,
taking care of jagged individuals, accom-
panying out-of-toRn women on shopping
expeditions. and jobs of that sort are now
old stories for the kids. But every once in
while something new for them to do
turns up al ii
"A couple of"Saturday evenings ago a
business man, wen known along F street,
dropped in and, handed one that I'd
never heard of.before in connection with
the messenger business.
want to get Shaved over at Blanks,
ne said, mentioning a well-patronized bar
Der shop. in about three-quarters of an
fellows waiting for their overSunday
shaVes on Saturday evenings, and I've had
some wearisome waits there. L wish you'd
bike a kid over there for me to nail place
IN the next row for me. He can let on
that he's due for a haircut, and I'll drop
around about the time he's called to the
chair
Il sent a boy over to the shop. and it
went through all right. The youngster
pealed his coat and kept a wary eye out
tnat ne wasn't skipped in his turn. A cou-
pie OF minutes before the boy was due to
be summoned to a chair as the next, the
business man, who had rugged up the little
scheme dropped in, and when the lad was
called by the barber the man just slipped
INTO the chair and the boy donned his coat,
with a grin. his task accomplished. The
business man told me afterward that two or
three Of the waiting in the shop start
ed to register kicks over the transaction
unt1 II was explained to them, when they
Gained down and laughed over the idea.
During the races at Benning a race
| track man, wearing lot of jewelry, put
new one over. When he got up to the desk
| he leaned cDpfi1pntiallV and said n
me:
| " I want you to send a kid down to So
and-Sos pawnshop with this ring remov-
| ing a fine three-stone diamond ring from
his left hand. want two hundred on it
| and have the boy hurry
= sent one of the larger boys on the err
| rand, and he returned promptly with the
500 and the ticket. The racing man had
| observe me smile a bit over his scheme
and he smiled along with me.
.. Wei, it does look bit finical. DOESN'T
! IT.! said he. But the racing bunch are
| travelling around the streets to see what
they can see all the time, and If any of
them happened to spy me going into or
| coming out of a pawn shop the word would
get around that yours truly was on the
| crags. which wouldn't suit my game lit
| tie bit-see?'
Not long ago had another novelty here
A departmental official that 1 know we'll
| walked in with a shoeboX under his arm.
:" Say, said he to me. have you got any
kid around this plant with No. feet?
| " All Sizes, said l.
Good thing. said the man. opening the
box and pulling fine pair of patent leather
| shoes out of it. L want you to pick out
boy with No. feet and have him jog
around town for a day in these Internal
! contraptions. l bought the shoes yesterday
! They slipped all right when 1 bought
| them, but L almost died in EN- at the thea
| ter last night They sort O. drew around
! the instep. If you've got a youngster that
can stretch EN- for me I'll pay right for the
| merchandise, although I'd hate to have to
| take a chance paying the kids relatives
| for his life in case he failed to survive the
| ordeal d ~
Il handed the shoes over to a tidy lad
| provided with feet that fitted them snugly
| enough. and the boy Wore them around for
| the day without any discomfort. The man
came in for them that same evening and
the next evening he. dropped in to say that
| the shoes fitted him immensely and that
| he hadn't BEEN bothered little bit by the
| drawing insteps after wearing them all of
| that day. II
"A very much Illustrated man came a
| prancing in here before 8 o'clock on Tues
| day morning last, and, leaning over the
desk, and addressing me in voice of sup
| pressed wrath mingled with emotion, he
| said: jsrs-
| Il want you to assign a messenger bow
| to meet me at the main exit of the War
| Department at precisely two minutes past
| this afternoon. Pick out boy with
strong lungs, one that can boiler so tina I
| he can be heard four miles, if you've got
! oHS iire lildl III SCeS1f INSTRUCT MIN to walk
| up to me. when he sees me emerging from
the War Department, and get a powerful,
| unbreakable clutch on my coat tails. Then
| he is to howl with all his might-'Forty feet
| of garden hose.-Forty feet of garden hose!'
and keep right on hollering the same all
| the way from the War Department to the
store where I've been due to buy that con-
| founded hose for the past ten days I've
| forgotten it every time and now I'll be
derned If my wife'n speak to me at the
! table on account of it. l wouldn't take a
| chance on going home tonight without that
| miserable forty feet of garden hose for
| any money, and that's why I want you to
| pick out the most persevering, rambunc-
| tous, leather-lunged son of gun of a boy
| that you've got on your pay roll to bawl
| garden hose at me sixty times minutes
| from the instant l break out of the War
| Department building until I walk out of
| that store with the garden hose under my
| arm. If the boy is arrested for disturbing
I the peace I'll pay his fine, and gladly; IN
| be eternally hornswoggled il I'd let little
| thing like that Tease me when it comes to
| having my home broken up
|