The daily morning journal and courier., 1904-01-16
SOME QUEER lVLCARIONs.
ONE CLERK OF UNCLE SAM TURNS STEAMSHIP FIREMAN.

Another goes Bralking on Railroad.
 Gambling she Health Kestorsr of s
 Third-Kns Flying aud Bubble
 Blowing.
 Some of the government people here have queer ways of spending the thirty days annual leave which the law al- lows them. One of them. husky-look- ing clerk of twenty-five. has just got back to his desk after his annual Octo- Der cruise as a fireman on a couple of ten-day transatlantic steamers.
 Had monstrously fine trip this time.'' he said. Went to Glasgow for a ehange-Ive always made Liverpool, Southampton and London before-and I saw quite a bit of Scotland during the l five days I had to wait for fire room billet back.
 This is the sixth annual leave I've taken out in firing on the steamers. enjoy it immensely-wouldn't spend my vacation otherwise for any money. And the work makes me fit as fiddle for the rest of the year.
 T worked hard for living as a young fellow, and among other jobs I fired for couple of years on an Ohio river steamboat. I always liked firing, and I like it yet a good deal more than like lounging around an office and sit- ting hunched up at desk.
 After being tucked away in the little gray building for eleven months, with little or no exercise except walking to and from the office, I'm logy and stogy and have more girth than I need. The three weeks f1re-room cruise puts me on edge and makes me hard as nails.
 After my first trip have got regular fireman'es pay in making those vaca- ton trips. This year I took the place on the outbound Glasgow steamer of a fireman who had hurt one of his hands by letting devils claw fall on 1t.
 T couldn't wait for the same steamer to return to New York, and so looked around the Glasgow docks after having seen what I wanted to see of the Land O Cakes, and found fireman billeted on one of the New York bound steamers of the same line who was glad of the chance to lay off trip and visit his folks. So my vacation, instead of re- quiring an outlay. actually puts me money in hand, although of course, that's not the consideration.
 When boarded the Glasgow steam CT this time I weighed two hundred and four pounds. When got back after the three weeks in the fire room weighed one hundred and seventy-eight just T l.. horse all the time.
 There must be lot of folks down here who think I've got relatives or private income. When they ask me how spent my vacation, kind 6 swell up and tell 'en, Oh. I took little run over to Europe" and, of course, they wouldn't guess in a thousand years how make these little runs over to Eu- rope"
 Another clerk, who, as young fellow, was a freight brakeman, spends his thirty days annualzle 'brakin' for the Baltimore and Ohio railroad up in the Maryland mountains around Cum berland. He comes back to Washing ton brown and rugged and so full of energy that for a few days he finds it hard to settle down to his desk routine again.
 N 4 telegrapher in ene Of the depart Tnents who used to be d station opera tor in the far west, goes out to "a little prairie station in Nebraska on the Un- ion Pacific line and subs for his broth CT, who Is the station operator there. He likes the prairie and enjoys the work so much that he puts in his full vacation there, while his prairie ma rooned brother has his little annual shy at civilization.
 A clerk who puts In his entire months leave pouring libations on the shrine of the Goddess of Fortune is one of the oldest of the departmental vacationists.
 T just gamble away my month" he says, with perfect frankness. "I'd rath- CT play faro bank than eat, any time; X but there's strict rule against gam bling in the department I'm in, and don't touch a card or a chip during eleven months of the year.
 At the end of the eleven months, when my turn to go on leave comes around, go to Chicago where the faro banks are squarer and easier of access than anywhere else within hitting dis | Idlc6 QI WdSHlilStUIl, dIlu Just bleSp and loaf around during the day and play bank by night. I've got system not of playing bank, but of laying out my gambling money.
 T never buy more than ten dollars worth of chips in one night It's piking, of course, but it's all I can afford in orr der to have my fun every night in the whole month. If I win one hundred dollars in a night, I cash in and quit. If I lose my ten dollars worth of chips, I quit, too. I don't beat the game very often, but I came home with eight hundred dollars winnings one year. erVy often succeed in running my ten dollar stack up to fifty dollars or even more, but then the streak runs out of me and I'm wiped out.
 "But look at the several hours action get that way. I stand to lose three hundred dollars during my month, but Pm about even on the whole thing, talk ing it back the six or seven years I've been playing faro bank on my vacation i. five had about enough of the rattle of ' the chips to last me for whie when II get back to my desk, and it's easier for