Evening star., 1907-10-26
KEEPING UP A FRONT

been kind of a poor year for ME,
this. because l haven't been able
20 get steady employment. Jobs are not
so easy to get III Washington. But I've
just about managed to keep my head
above water somehow. although it's been
keen fiddllng sometimes.
Worst end of 1t is in keeping up the
front. / can always manage to come
through with the price Of shelter and
something to eat. But 1t takes some guess
ing around to keep up the front Exterior.
1 mean. The clothes things. and the shoe
gag, and the clean linen. and the hat
yep, l have to ink my hat around the
worn places. 'casionally-and all like that.
l haven't had the price of anything new
this year, to speak of. and my togs look
pretty mean to me, sometlmes-maybe be-
cause 1 III just nachufly sick and tired ~pf
them and because l see the other fellows
L know wearing the new stuff.
But l manage to look as decent as
can. You see. when fellow loses his
front he's goner. There's no hope for
him. He's down and out. Odd thing, but
most of US take ourselves at just about
the valuation other people put on us. in
stead of at the valuation We put or ought
to put. on ourselves If the world in gen.
eral sizes US UP as people that won't do.
why we're pretty liable to look upon our
selves in just that way. And. another
thing, when fellows front is all run
down. and he looks shabby. why he just
begins to feel shabby and ornery, and
first thing he knows his self-respect be-
gins to evaporate-and when a fellow s
self-respect or self-esteem or whatever
you call it Is gone, why there he is, just
as down and out as he can be, and no
mistake. I'll never let my front get away
from me if / can fight for it. 1 believe
that If | became downright shabby and
felt myself looking that way I'd take q
piece of gasp pc and stick somebody up
for the price of a fresh outfit; that's how
sensitive / am on this subject Of looking
seedy. But. of course. I'm only speaking
about the extreme end of 1t. and it's not
likely that FL ever get to that pass.
What ] started to say was that a fe!-
low who feels sort o down in the mouth
and lonesome and low-soirited and all
that because he hasn't got any work CT
anythng-a fellow in that shape often
gets a little nudge along. quite by acct
dent, that helps his self-respect quite a
little.
I'm speaking of when a fellow in that
estate begins to have doubts about
whether he's holding up his front or not.
! A man may suspect that he looks seedy.
and not look that way to other folks at
all. It's curious. but it's true. When the
front isn't just right in fellows eyes he
gets to imagining that everybody that he
meets is dead next to his state of impa-
curiosity, and that they are secretly feel
ing sorry for him, and If there's any
thing fellow, hates. why it's that-to
have people feel sorry for him because
he's looking bum or imagines that he is
We'll just to give you an instance of
Row little things hapren to make a Chap
feel a little better with himself when he's
out of luck
: Couple of days ago I was trudeinG
along Pennsy lvania avenue. trying to dope
out how I was going to pay for my room
this week and wondering If I'd better
write another letter about job that had
been promised me- and feeling pretty
shabby. all in all when I met W with
fellows wearing their dead-neW Spic-and-
span fall togS-I was walking along, feel
ing this way when fellow driving one Of
those onH-horse open vistorias that ply
along the avenue looking for fares drove
up to The curb alongside of me. and, hold
ing up his whip to attract my attention
called ou. TO me:
Take a ride around the city sir?'
Now. you. We no idea how cheerful
that little incident made me, feel. 1t
sure did. OF course. 1 shook my head at
the driver of the victoria-Td have given
him a half dollar If I'd had 1t. just for
what he did for me. I didn't want any
ride. But the thing was this: That hack
man had sized me up and he'd doped it
out that 1 looked like a likely fare. My
clothes looked good enough to him to
cause him to think that. He considered
my 'front.' up 10 the expenditure OIL loose
money for riding around in open VIC
terra. If that was the case. why /
couldn't look anything like so seedy as
I imagined myself to look for hack
drivers don't ask shabby-looking fellows
if they want to ride or not do they?
nudged along quite a little bit. and
cheerful enough over the thing, and I'll
bet that I picked up my feet and walked
a7Gheap more springily after that thing
happened.
Well. only yesterday two more pleas
ant little things OF n similar sort hap
pened. | was Stroling along 1th street
not very clipper over the way things
were framing up, when a shreWd-eyed
fellow. standing by the curb. said some
thing to me as I passed him that / didn't
understand SO I took a step over his
way and asked him what he'd said.
| asked you he replied in broken
English, if you had any old clothes to
SELL
Il told him that I hadn't and passed
on. But there L was again. quite a little
bit fixed up in my self-csteem. Those
old-clothes men are no fools. They know
what's what. They can pick out the fell
| lows who look as If they might have
something And that oId-cIothes man
sure thought that was sufficiently pros
porous to have some old clothes hanging
back home in a closet, clothes that
wouldn't wear any more and that I'd be
that question to me. Tell you what, it
made me throw my shoulders back just
| teenchy little bit. that question from
the old-clothes man did, for. as I say,
was feeling a bit blue over the way
thought my front was stacking up when
l came across him.
''Then. few minutes later I wandered
into a 1th street drug store to get me
a toothbrush. I'd seen a stack of tooth
brushes piled up in that drug store win
dow. marked Is cents. and they looked
good enough. and needed a toothbrush
so I walked in there to ge, one. although
Is cents was some money, at that.
I'd like to look at some tooth
brushes 1 said to the drug store clerk
who came forward to wait on me-
There was a big pile Of the fifteen
cent toothbrushes heaped up in basket
near the front of the store, and / picked
one of them up to examine it.
"'Oh, you won't want one of that kind
said the drug store clerk to me- when he
me doing that. Those are bargain
brushes-good enough, at that, but not
the kind you want
There 1t was again. The drug store
clerk had looked me over and decided
that / was up to something better than
fifteen-cent toothbrush. 1t made me
feel pretty good with myself and my
front. ALI the same I had to tell him
that did want one of those fifteen-cent
brushes, for 1 couldn't really afford to
pay any more for one and he looked
some surprise when I bought one of
them and took it away with me. But
his surprise didn't bother me any