The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1904-01-31

sH with the mercury lowering
around zero to such an extent
AI that il seems 10 have acquired
e--@ the habit and is going TO stay
there, the plumber is no longer looked upon
as a luxury, but rather as a necessity; for
who, during the various cold snaps, has
not had the water pipes in the house freeze,
and then, when he has tried to thaw them
out, has not had them burst?
When the plumber reads the weather
forecast, and sees that the predictions are
for a cold wave, he does not look glum
like the average man, but smiles content
edly to himself. for he, like the coal man,
knows that it is his harvest. 1t is inter
esting to be in plumber shop the first
morning after a cold wave has struck. The
place is no more than opened for the days
business than the telephone bell begins 10
ring and then customers begin to tell their
tales of woe. This jingling of the telephone
bell will keep up until late at night; and
the workman, with his bag of tools slung
across his shoulder and carrying his fur
mace is a familiar sight the streets.
Each person that calls up wants bis work
attended to first and forgets that there are a
score or more people who are in the same
fix that he is in. a plumber said, speaking
of this:
Everybody that sends in an order wants
the work done on the instant, and is greatly
disappointed If when he hangs up the tele-
phone receiver and looks out the window he
doesn't see the plumber coming up the front
steps. The thing that l have always noticed
is that people are never as anxious to pay
the bill as they are to have the work done.
They want us to drop everything and come
TO their houses on the run, but when we
send the bill have always noticed that they
don't come on the run TO pay it.
Actually, if 1 went to peoples houses as
quickly as they would have me l should
have to have everything arranged like the
fire department does and drive on dead run
until L got there.
1.-THE other day a lady called up from
Thirty-fourth and Illinois streets and
wanted a man right away. The water pipes
had frozen. and she and the hired girl had
tried to thaw them out and the pipes had
burst II happened that had a man in
the shop whom / could send, and started
him right away. He had to go out on a
street car, and don't suppose he had gone
a square before the woman called again
and wanted to know If 1 intended to send
that plumber out to her house that day or
did L think she meant to send him the next
year. OF course had to look pleasant and
take it."
A HOUSEHOLDER THEORY.
There are, however, two sides of the
plumbing question. and it is not the plumber
who has all the trouble. A man who has
had much experience with this class of
men, for he has had the water pipes in his
house freeze four times in less than that
many weeks. has an interesting theory.
81 have come to the conclusion" he says,
that plumber is born, and not made.
used to think that it was a business like
anything else, and that it could be taught
to any one. but 1 have got over that be-
lief. real plumber who understands his
business has a professional air about him
just as a physician has. A sure-enough
plumber will walk into the house, look at
the pipes in a disinterested sort of way,
and If you say anything to him he will
grunt out a reply which you can't under
stand; and, of course, you treat him with
too much politeness to ask him over. for 1
have found that to offend a plumber is a
very serious matter because some time you
will want him in a hurry and he won't
come no matter how much you may urge
him.
THE plumber is one man who will get
even. / have found that bad plumber is
worse than no plumber at all, and n good
plumber is as welcome a sight in a leak
ridden house as is the captain when he
steps on the deck of a storm-tossed ship.
II will tell you little experience L had
the other day." continued the man who
had made a study of plumbers. 1--WE had
four frozen pipes in our house sometime
ago. / went 10 the plumbers and the first
person / met was the boss-I mean the big
boss. He was sitting inside of a railing
before a large oak desk and had very much
the appearance Of a Judge. And when l
told him about the water pipes he didn t