The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1904-03-13

HE matter was maue ciedi w
Repeater Pete" Heaney. when
you've been here once said Pete,
''you're sure to come again
Peter, twenty-five years old, has
been a prisoner at the ST. Paul work
house. near Lake Como, twenty-nine
times. Going to the works" has be-
come a practice, not to say haplt'
with Peter and other fellow citizens.
When they are out of the workhouse
they say pleasantly to each otner,
"S'long. OF slob; see yer at de lake.
When they are once more "boardlng
with Supt. Fitzgerald-and it is GOOD
form in the cell room to speak Oh
"boarders,'' not of prisoners-tnen
these ."repeaters' show themselves
cautious in the choice of cells; ask re-
spectfully, but with an undertone OF
privilege founded on precedence, tnat
they be assigned to their odd room
IN the southeast corner" and they ex-
hibit mild evidence of outraged dlg-
nity whenever their latest cellmate is
found to be a mere first timer.
After a few vacations ''at the lake"
one finds it difficult to work in town.
"Jobs amt comm easy" says Peter,
when friends begin to learn ones Ia
vorite SPOT for recuperation. In a
gloomy moment Peter confessed yes
terdav. at his post in the workhouse
Kitchen. that the repeater sometimes
feels "he's up aginst it," an anec-
dote. added by the way OF illustratlon,
told of 'fat job a sWeetneart, anu
one or more parents that Peter useei
have ~
sYou comes here continued the
thoughtful Heaney, "becuz you mas ".
When you're here you knows you was
a-comin', an when you're out yer
knows you're comm back.
"An' if you has to, you has to- con.
timed Peter, a sturdy, br1ght-eyed
youth. smiling and holding forth in one
hand a half peeled potato, in the other,
a potato parer; but it's me TO GIT
busy
peter is a laborer, an Irishman,
bachelor. he has made his twenty-nlne
visits to the workhouse because ne mas
heen drunk at least twenty-nine times.
Pint there are skilled mechanics among
the repeaters; the dean of that class Is
not Hibernian; the average "old board
ar, is man of past, if not of present
family: and the customary charge
against Peter proves merely thai MS
individual tastes are those OF omar
Khayyam and Anacreon.
His Forty third Visit.
"vy Ay COON harp" answered "ola
George Bestrom, most repetiIlve III III
all "repeaters. shutting along the cen
room corridor, where he'd been stano-
mo in the sunlight before barred
window. ssVel. yenerly Ay bay wagged'
two tree times, Ay TAX leetle too
Toooch beer: sumo time Ay TAX ODER
faIIer's tings by meestake, understand,
nv meestake" The old man had tnus
been committed for vagrancy, Tor
drunkenness, and for petit larceny no
less than forty-three times. Ills Ids'
commitment was No. 20, 342 of all COM
,,oitnoenfs To the Workhouse since that
3nstitItion was established in 1888.
Like his fellow "repeaters" OF varl-
Gus ages, Old George smiles when ne
IS smiled at, speaks when he is spoken
To. agrees with any positive state
Inent that you may choose to make
Like the others also he cant unoer-
Standard he's manifestly frank II, IN
saying so-just why hes IN Inc
works" again. Vagrancy, drunKenI res
Iarceny-tAese were merely the techni-
cal reasons; he would nave come epaCh
whatever the policemen, whatever the
Judges. had happened to say. NO, he
didn't want to return; but, with SLOW
Is winks of glistening blue eyes IN
scanned. yet rudy face, he admits.
"All right for me, maybe; ltapplns
his close cropped gray head) seeveh-
ty-four, seeventy-four yeers-no vlie-
no home-not bad work here-al rlght
for me, maybe
Mrs. AIbrecht Close Second.
While Old George, now on his forty
third visit 'at the lake." maintains the
supremacy of his sex by his dlst1n-
g11ished record, the keen and modern
competition of fair rivals is blazoneo
in the thirty-eight commitments
achieved by Mrs. Hannah Albrecht
1.-THE Lady of the Lake"
Mrs Albrecht, f1fty-fve years DID,
was in the laundry when her caller
was announced. She has lost heT
form, as the ladies say in sweet DELI
ance of geometry; her complexion mas
been impaired by excessive riding, al
all seasons, in the "Black Maria" bul
her keen and crumpled countenance
retains a motherly smile between us
projecting nose and chin. She la1c
aside her Spectacles.
ct was two beers, now, l had yet
no more,' she explained with the ge-
NAL accents of grandma discussing the
church sociable 1.-TWO glasses-that is
noting; Germans woman in old coun-
try, she drink two, four, all de time
two-four glass by her house efry day
"Aber been / here so long l don't
remember, and 1 nefer do noting"
Yet Frau Albrecht rather liked "the
works." especially because, when she
was really there, the hummer" chill
dren in the streets didn't ask her wher
she was going out again. One would
suppose that the old woman had never
been a mother. But there is a tradi-
ton at the workhouse that the frau.
zwei glass are vain substitutes FOL
two "schoene babies" that died will
her reputation. She says herself, how
ever, that her babies are noting to no.