The Savannah morning news., 1903-09-13
COCKSPUR BOYS GO
MOVING MACHINES TAKE THE
PLACE OF YOUNGSTERS.
CITYS TACTICS CHANGED.
OBJECTIONABLE "STICKERs" MUST
GO NOW AT ANY COST.

1t Was Found That the COckspurs
Grew as Fast, or Faster, Than the
Members of the Brigade Could
Pick-BOys Were Told That Their
Services Would BE Required no
Longer and the Fight Has Been
Who Were Late to Work DOcked
and others Discharged-FOrem N
Had Rather Hard Time.
ockspurs-Savannah should learn
to say bur-grass are being cut and
not picked in the Park Extension
just now.
1t appears that the "stickers" grew
faster than the boys in the cockspur
brigade could pick and now the young
sters have been thrown on the
bricks"
With machinery a relentless war will
be waged on the nuisance and 1t is
extremely doubtful if the services of
the boys will ever be required again
by the city-at any rate as cockspur
pickers. Moving machines will be
turned loose on the twenty acres con-
tanning millions of stickers and it is
hoped that eventually the parade
ground will be as free from the cock
spurs as the squares are.
Cutting the Weed.
The work of cutting the grass be-
gan yesterday morning and the en-
tire tract will be gone over before the
end of the week. 1t does not take
the moving machines long to do the
work. 1t is necessary to make a
complete circuit of the Extension for
the reason that there are as many, if
indeed there are not more, of the
'stickers" on the ground gone over
by the boys as there was before the
brigade began work. When this dis
covery was made it was decided to
give the boys their walking papers, "
and the brigade is a thing of the past.
Although the maximum size of the
brigade was fifteen, in the neighbor-
hood of twenty boys will present them
selves at the City Exchange next Sat
urday and receive pay for the work
that they did. 1t may be that it will
be decided that the boys would attract
too much attention around the Ex-
change and that they will be given
their money somewhere else 1t should
be explained, too, that twenty boys
will be paid off when there were only
tlfteen in the force, because some were
discharged by the foremen in charge.
Anything But a Picnic.
1t was anything but a picnic for the
two men who superintendent the pick
ing of the cockspurs, and they had
troubles of their own. Boys who didn t
report for work promptly at o'clock
had to be docked and those who were
inclined to loaf when the sun was the
hottest had to be fired. But this was
not all the foremen had to do. They
were called upon to answer dozens of
questions that experts" were engaged
in disputing over, and scores of ques-
tons that no sane person would have
attempted to answer. And yet they
had to be patient.
But the picking of the cockspurs did
accomplish some good. 1t made a
score of school boys Industrious for a
short while, and at the same time gave
them some pocket change for their
trouble. 1t helped the merchants be-
cause most of the boys invested in
gloves before starting in to pick the
"stickers,' and it taught the regular
foremen how inquisitive some folks
are. At the same time, it gave the
public something to think about, with
the result that the cockspurs will have
to go even if a dozen experiments are
tried, and the city has to spend a
hundred dollars.