The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1903-06-03
THE ELEVATOR BOY.
His Ideas of How He Should BE
Treated BY Tenants


The Agent Of a sky-scraper is a Big
man He can make. i Hot for any ten
ant who is behind inshis Rent.
The man who hangs around the Lob
by and yells out Right" TO the Eleva-
tor Boy is also a Big man. He can let
pencil Peddlers up to the twenty-second
noor, or he san run them down Stairs
for the engineer to. Murder.
The man yho owns The cigar stand is
almost as Big a man. If ne sees an
Elevator Boy going out to bet on a
horse race he can Round on him and
cause him to lose his job.
But don't you forget the Elevator Boy
himself He is the Biggest of all He
isn't put in wire cage to gaze at. as
if he was some Hyena. but to know a
thing or two.
When the Agent wants a new Eleva-
tor Boy he says to himself; who is
the Sharpest, Keenest Boy IN all this
town. Who is the Boy that will know
all that's going on in this whole Build
ing and keep me posted2" Then he
thinks and thinks and finds Boy and
engages him.
The Elevator Boy seems to have Cat
He don't seem to care for nothing but
to chew gum and find out which horse
won.
He says he knows Terry McGovern,
and that he has spoken to Young Cor
bett.
TO all Appearances. he is working to
pay off the Gigantic mortgage on his
Widowed Mothers home and YOU see
him with his marble brow covered with
Precipitation.
But don't be Deceived. That Boy is
up to Snuff From his first day in the
Cage he begins to size up Tenants and
all who call, and his Memory never let's
go of Anything.
He gifts on to the Poker game in room
No. 80.
He gifts on to the Git-Rich-Quick fell
Ter in room No. $40.
He gifts on TO the old chap in room
No 722 who has got wife and five
children in Harlem, and who is yet
taking all the pretty typewriters out TO
dinner.
He knows that the Sunday School
publication on the seventh Floor is only
4 a Bluff to hide d policy shop.
He drops to the Fact that the fellers
| in room NO. 81 are roping in Uncle
4 Reuben on the wheat and corn Mar
ket
He smells out the ~California Lands
on the eleventh Floor and becomes
Aware that they cover Gum-Game-
The old Dozer in room 644 passes
note to the typewriter in room S24 as
they go up in the Elevator. and he inn
AGNES no Argus eye has detected him.
/ He is mistaken, however.
The young Teller on the Twelfth floor
flirts with the Stenographer on Inc
/ fourteenth, and he pities me for being
Il Near-Sighted, but he is digging a Pit
for his own Feet
There is a man on the Fifteenth floor
who hangs out sign OF Texas O1ls,
and he seems to defy me as he rides up
and down in the Gage He does not
Know that ! am on to his little Game
of selling Stock in wells which have
/ Never been dug, and that l know the.
Boy who Bought his Sample Oils at
I Machine Shop.
The Tenants of 1y-Scraper should
know and feel that they are at the
Mercy Of an Elevator Soy. They may
escape the watchful Eyes of hundred
Detectives. but they cannot escape his
A married Man with seven children
may fool the Agent and the cigar stand
man, but he must not Hope to Deceive
the Elevator Boy. Heis marked from
the First and at the Proper Moment
his wife is put on his trail and ne falls
with a duh Thud.
The Grass Widow who is passing her
self off as Girly-glrl and making Goo
Goo eyes at the Michigan Pine Lumber
Man may regard the Elevator Boy as
only dirt beneath her Feet, but the
time is not far Distant when her Proud
Head will be laid Low.
An Elevator Boy should be treated
with Consideration. His feelings
should be Regarded. No Tenant
should look down upon Him and try to
! crush his Ambitions. He is not looking
for Tips. but when they are Offered ne
4 receives them with Gratitude ana
] deposits them in a Savings BANK TO
I the credit Of his Mother.
Now and then a Tenant should think
Of the poor. fatherless boy Struggllng
with the wire rope in his cage ana Won
dering what life holds for him. and call
him in and talk with him and hand him
81 Many 2 Man who might have stay
ed on and worked his little Racket has
had to leave a Sky-Seraper because he
( didn't know how to handle the Eie-
vator Boy. and it will Happen again
and again Your Safety is in MS Hands.
He can Bounce you up to the Roof or
dron You down to the Basement Not
only That. but he can give X e,s Away
BE Kind to him if you will. but II
you will not then Beware Of him. ~, he
is As gentle as a Lamb if you take MN
The RIGHT WAY. but if you Attempt to
sit on him then his revenge will be
I have been there. and am still there
and I am
The Elevator Boy.
Copyright. 1908. by c, B. Lewis)
N p q ct prs