Shepherdstown register. [volume] (Shepherdstown, Va. [W. Va.]) 1849-1955, 1906-11-01
Queer Ways Of Earning a Living.

In the STRENUOUS ScIamUlc lOI Wedilu
and living in the great competitive
game of life in New York, many men
and women are driven to odd occupa-
tions for a livelihood, says the New
York Herald. Some of these are lie
scribed in the following:
George Therma makes living by
being hanged l6 times a week for
$50 month and his cakes" as the
contract reads.
Therma is Mexican, and as the
star performer in the horse-thief act
in the Pawnee Bill Wild West Show
is lariated while riding horse at
break.neck speed. and is dragged at
the end of the lasso distance of sew
eral hundred feet to tree, where he
is strung up in true Judge Lynch
style.
He has a piece of stiff linen fixed
around his neck, and the rope does
him little damage, though the Mexi-
can Rurales, who come along to take
his body, save him from a most un-
comfortable position. On several oc-
casions since he has been doing the
work, the cowboys who hang him
have grown careless, and Therma
has been cut down more nearly like
a dead man he is supposed to be than
the live man he wants to be.
John Main gets $25 week for
breaking eggs. He works in a big
pie.baking plant in the city, and has
the job Of breaking the eggs that are
used in the manufacture of pie. he
breaks 25 dozen eggs day, separates
the yolks from the whites, and beates
up some of them. Besides this, he
has to inspect each egg to see that
none of them contains an embryo
broiler or the odor of formaldehyde.
One is apt to wonder at the sum OF
$25 week for such work, but 1t is
explained that Mahn earns it by the
economical way in which he handles
the eggs, and it is pointed out that a
cheap man might be very expensive.
1t is said also that the monotony OF
the job gets on most mems nerves, and
few can be found who will stay at 1t
any length of time.
The man who furnishes funny sto-
ries and anecdotes for would-bewits,
reconteurs and after-dinner speakers
is another man who has picked out an
odd occupation. He is Charles Hoppe,
and has no particular place OF busl-
ness, but If he calls on you you can
well afford to give him an audience,
for he is most interesting little man.
He will furnish you for twenty-five
or fifty cents week a typewriter
sheet containing the latest quips Of
the day, and funny stories, that you
can tell at home, or, for larger con-
sideration, he will furnish you with
speeches to be made at public gather
ings which are guaranteed to make
you fame of the burning brand.
He does not say how many SUBJ
scribers he has for his regular funny
story service, but he will make a spe-
cial service for you that he guarsn-
tees not to be duplicated by any one
else.
Another odd occupation ia that of
an auction clincher. In this case, it
is a beautiful young woman, who, IN
til few years ago, was one OF the
best known "show girls at the casino.
Now she is making her living more
easily.
She is employed by big Fifth ave-
nue. auction company which makes q
speciality Of rugs. She met the man
ager of the concern through bel
knowledge of rugs, and one day he
asked her if she didn't want to help
him in little matter that might be
profitable to both. His plan was this
In all auctions certain lots 90 for
much less than their value if someone
does not stimulate the bidding. With
rugs this is especially 30, for often the
true value Of a rug does not appear
in the cursory glance people give them
at sales. He suggested that this girl
20 to the auctions, having been told
the minimum price at which every
rug is to go, and ifthe bidding should
not reach that figure, bid it up and
apparently buy the rug, thus savini
it for the company.
She tried it. and the plan worked
30 well that now she is in the employ
of this company permanently, and at
tends every auction sale, taking a re
> mote seat, and bidding only when
lonka an fhnnph the rug were golnt