The Appeal. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn. ;) 1889-19??, 1902-06-14
Queer JOBS for Boys

- --- 4 ls b..
ILL., HEY'RE finding new stunts fo1
the messenger boys right along"
Is - - "a remarked the manager of a. local
.-. district messenger Office the 9TH
er day. Airing babies and dogs
taking care of jagged individuals, accom-
panying out-of-town 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 dc
turns up
"A couple of Saturday evenings ago a
business man, well known along F street,
dropped in and handed me one that I'd
never heard of before in connection will,
the messenger business
want to get shaved over at Blank s. ,
ne SAD, mentioning well-patronized bar
per shop, in about three-quarters Of an
hour. The place is always damned up
with fellows waiting for their over-Sun-
DAY shaVes on Saturday evenings, and
I've mad some wearisome waits there.
wish you'd bike a kid over there for me
TO nail place in the next row for me-
lie can let on that he's due for 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
mat ne wasn't skipped in his turn. A
couple Of minutes before the boy was due
to be summoned to a chair as the next
the business man, who had rugged up the
nttle scheme dropped in, and when the
lad was called by the barber the man just
slipped into the chair and the boy donned
MS coat with grin, his task accom-
pnshed The business man told me aft
trWard that two or three of the waiting
men in the shop started to register kicks
over the transaction until it was ex-
planned 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 30 the
desk he leaned over confidentially and
said to me:
I" want you to send a kid down to So
and-So's pawnshop with this ring re-
moving a fine three-stone diamond ring
from his left hand. I want two hundred
on it-and have the boy hurry.
Il sent one of the larger boys on the
errand, and he returned promptly with
the $500 and the ticket The racing man
had observed me smile a bit over his
scheme, and he smiled along with me.
We'll, 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 -te-spszz ne- going intoser
coming out of a pawn shop the word
would get around that yours truly was
on the crags, which wouldn't suit my
game a little bit-see?'
mot long ago I had another novelty
here. departmental official that know
well walked in with shoebox under his
arm.
"'Say,' said he to me, have you got
any kid around this plant with No. 8
feet?'
"'All Sizes said I.
"'Good' thing said the man, opening
the box and pulling fine pair of patent
leather shoes out Of it. I want you to
him jog around town for day in these
Internal contraptions. I bought the shoes
yesterday. They slipped on all right
when I bought them, but I almost died
in EN- at the theater last night. They
sort O. drew around the instep. If you've
got youngster that can stretch 'em for
me I'll pay right for the mercha ndise, al
,, though I'd hate to have to take chance
on paying the kids relatives for his life
in case he failed to survive the ordeal
II 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 discom-
| fort. 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 in
steps after wearing them all of that
! day.
"A very much frustrated man came a
| prancing in here before clock on Tues
day morning last, and, leaning over the
desk, and addressing me in a voice Of
suppressed wrath, mingled with emotion,
| he said:
| Il want you to assign a messenger boy
| to meet me at the main exit of the war
| department at precisely two minutes past
| 4 this afternoon. Pick out boy with
strong lungs, one that can holler so that
he can be heard four miles, If you've got
one like that in stock. Instruct him 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
hollerirg the same all the way from the
war department to the store where I've
been due to buy that COMPOUNDED hose
for the past ten days. I've forgotten it
! ever time, and now I'll be derned If my
wife'll speak to me at the table on &C
| count of it. I wouldn't take a chance on
going home tonight without that miser-
able forty feet Of garden hose for any
| money, and that's why want you to pick
out the most persevering, rambunctious,
eather-lunged son of a gun of a boy that
you've got on your payroll to bawl. gar
den hose at me sixty times minute
from the instant I 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 dis
turbing the peace I'll pay. his fine, and
gladly; I'll be eternally shornswoggled If
I'd let little thing like that Tease me
when it comes to having my home broken
ar."--Washington Star. -e4 s=a ~ szg