The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1906-05-20
THE TANNING or
THE ORD
Narrative NJ How the Stairs Leading
Up n Me Woman Asttss's
Studio Came N 10 cieaned.

vrv and seaIp In Mo er,fss n hss uora
~ less eheekafed raffrr mo wofnsn sffta'
bad hrrn proud. rwi nnyer ~ proud -
wh~n shs issiei me- mndiori par,iv
tsranr many snrther bod attempted fhS
feat and f,ibad snd ttrilv hera'ise " Saa
- dinl~it irrt'as ~ be aacressibhHy
y must ~ etriaInri tsre lint ihn hu,taa
was oHee n fsshtrnahIe dwelling In \ fsah.
iurahie siieni sni tbaf nus ths re-, saa
devr'cd ~ rusiuess and fh~ hUis" was
ieasri ~ tho irHec.ssihls lHrdlesd WhS had
turned tho basement into 4 hnrrro'n "
we IN the h%srrpuiu hat he bad intrnnched
himsrif hrhihd tho hrf
~ . matter n fact tho nhdlprl appeared
w 10 amiahlo, htoai amiablr He foev
tleffnan face vac continually steaihed IN
smiles end ~ iof rromi-iha' Ne Sss 'hs
test protulsef In Nev YORK Wa known
10 he
whan Tho woman look me studios IN
the top hocr with windows giving On ihs
Park she sald 10 him,
wow. you will elnan up the Stairway
wont your"
with q radiant smile he had answered
why, certainly
n was no, until she moved In that the
othsra, her neighhors On the top floor. re-
vealed the truth to her.
'when two blue moons come t~ogether,'
said they. tho landlord viii clean up the
stairway, and not until then We have been
here nine years. We know"
The stairway Was impossible The walls
needed papering. the wood needed paint
and the carpet needed another carpet
entirely.
The woman'a friends came to see her
one by one They shook Sad heads.
"You have a lovely place said they,
after you get To II, but that stairway
Those halls"
Az II she didn't know
Out In front Of the harroom was q boot
black. The woman enlisted his attention.
She sent him In for the landlord. who came
smilingly out and made more promises
which he failed to fulfil.
The bootblack had a little room under
the steps where he shined women's shoes.
The woman was forced TO have her shoes
blacked in this little room so often that
they got to be nothing but shine. Every
time she started out the bootblack looked
hard ut her shoes. on account Of having
gone in for the landlord for her. The
she had to have them blackeH.
Still nothing doing in regard to the stairs.
She got the flock of newsboys about the
barroom door interested. One by one she
sent them in for the landlord, paying them
a cent each. Sometimes they brought him
out. Then again they came back with the
word that he was busy.
Once she sent half a dozen in at a time.
The landlord came out, still smiling but with
n-.Lzl f~o II ~RNpnianI 80 Alnun
up the stairs. She waited. The stairs
remained the same.
The bootblack and the newsboys together
were costing her a good e by this time
and accomplishing nothing. She bethought
herself Of another tack.
She wrote a little letter to the landlord.
She said how beautiful her rooms we're!
how happy she could be in them II only the
approach was good. taking IL for granted
in the letter that he cared, beseeching him
TO clean up the stairs.
Her neighbors laughed again when they
heard Of this note.
You are wasting your paper n time
they told her. We have been here nine
years and all that time the stairs have been
like this. One artist offered to pay half;
but no. The landlord was obdurate. The
artist moved out In despair
The note had no effect, There was no
IbWoI lDO WollloI . "'IN v
her and her stairs. There we're times when
she wept over herself.
Then she placed a terra Gotta head, one
Of her best, in a niche at the head OF the
stairs, hoping against hope that this feeble
attempt at decoration might avail some-
thing in the direction of cleanliness,
1t availed nothing.
One day 1t was missing Some one going
up or down had taken it away.
At this she became 80 ~despairing that in a
a, - lAlAIna,Naaa ahA Aid a raNl1naa fhin0
1t was dark. The streets were not filed:
She thought nobody saw, so she rushed
boldly into the barroom and bearded the
landlord in his den.
Tn men about the tables looked amazed
The landlord smiled at her from across tho
bar and promised to clean UP the stairs.
Few things happen in this world that
people do not SEQ. On the next day after
the woman received a printed circular
which contained this large black head
line:
Gan drunkenness be cured?"
And the visit had had no effect.
Meantime her friends had entertained
to 80 great an extent that she felt 1t be-
But how? With those stairs, up which she
must ask them to come?
She sat down and wrote another note to
inaccessible landlord: She wanted to
have a little party, she told him, hut she was
ashamed to ask her friends to climb those
terrible stairs in their white shoes. Would
he have them freshly carpeted for her and
the walls reCapered, and also the woodwork
painted? Would he, please
IL was a touching little note with a good
deal of heart in it. for the halls and stairs
beginning TO get on her nerves.
There was no reply, but she was sur
prised when on the following Monday
she heard a brush sweep up and down
her door and upon opening it found a
there, painting il white.
Then, 10 and behold came the paper
and the tearing up of the old
getting ready for the new, then
when at the end Of some weeks, for great
bodies move slowly. there came a sound
IF lacking all along the line of hall and
stairway, the lacking dow Of the beauti-,
'ul new carpet her inaccessible landlord
had taken pains TO provide, her neighbors
an out OF their dens and gazed at her in
We've lived here for nine years. they
,ried, and it has been the same, but you'll
Now, youl How did you tame him."
Il don't know" answered she, unless
t was because I treated him az if he were
anne already
Bull Fighting IN Spain.
From 7. Pa Weekly