The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1909-06-27

the budding career of tens of thousands
of elevator boys, and it is still getting
in its insidious work. The boy may
smoke cigarettes, play the ponies, dab
bic in policy and lend money to the car
starter and still escape and grow up to
gobble the skyscraper some day on
mortgage, but if he is romantic and
sentimental boy he might as well tie
a milestone around his neck as to take
job in an elevator cage. His doom
is sealed before he begins.
I knew nothing Of this pitfall when 1
took my first job. On the very first day
the little blond typewriter made eyes at
me and set my heart to beating at the
rate of hundred miles minute. L
liked the sensation. 7 went to bed that
night TO dream of her. Next day she
patted my shoulder and praised my
eyes. On the third she said she had
dreamed that we were on lone island
in the South Sea together. At the end
of a week | invested all my salary in
chocolates and roses and sent them to
her, and went home to tell mother that
1 had been held up and robbed by two
members of the Legislature. Having
read more or less about such men she
believed it. At the end of a fortnight
we were engaged. At the end of the
third week we were planning to elope.
At the end of month she gave me the
shake for an old man with club foot
and precipitated myself from third
story window, cracked my skull, and
recovered to find that l loved no more.
The owner of almost every skyscraper
has a lovely young daughter. She comes
down to ride in the elevator. The ele-
vator boy is captivated at once by her
smiles and winning ways. His heart
turks and romance bubbles. He has
read in some of those delightful nickel
novels case to fit, and he dreams of be-
coming a son-in-law. 1t was so with
me for four long weeks. / had
dreams and visions and illusions. Then
/ heard that the angels old man was
hard up, and l walked up TO his mansion
and offered him my week IS salary to
help him out of the hole. was admitted
to his library, and l lost no time in hold
ing out the $3.50 and saying:
''Take this and remove the mortgage
and be happy again. -
He took me instead. He took me by
the neck and led me to the door and
gave me one, two, three with the right
foot, while the charming daughter stood
by and clapped her little hands and
laughed to see. Love fed again. 1t
had been booted out of me. Six months
later. when / had recovered my cheek,
/ heard the coo of the turtle doves
again. This time it was rich widow
who used to come to the Trust Company
in the skyscraper to cut the coupons of
her bonds and see about 5 per cent. in
vestments i was fifteen and she was
forty-fve, but when she laid her hand
on my shoulder and smiled through her
paint and said that her precious life was
in my hands my heart was hers. | had
seen her for the fifth time before | laid
nv love at her feet We were going up
in the cage and just as | asked her to
be mine the elevator stuck between
two floors. 1t remained there thirty
minutes. During that awful interval |
was called a fool and an idiot one mil
| lion times over, and when the car was
| finally started again the starter yanked
me out of it and cuffed my ears and told
me to go home to my nursing bottle
| And the widow cried ha! hal hal and
| no! no! hol and lacerated my already
bleeding heart in forty more directions
| In every skycraper there is a cute
| little stenographer who enters the ele
vator as demurely as mouse. She
| keeps her big blue eyes east down. Ii
the elevator boy happens to glance in
her direction blush of modesty steals
over her cheek. When she says: Ninth
| t1oor, please her voice is low and soft
and gentle, and reminds you of the last
| evening notes of bird. The elevator
boy watches for next time. Next time
if alone. she half-raises those eyes tC
| murmur that he must be brave boy
| TO be running an elevator, and that she
always did like brave boys. The third
time finishes him. She asks to be al
lowed to run the cage, and he puts hi:
hands over her hands and the trap il
sprung. Unless that youth discovers thai
the California redwood man on th'
eleventh floor is taking puss out L
lunch almost every day, or he gets ;
dose of rat poison by mistake for hash
ed eocoanut, his career viii soon end
He'll run his cage up through the roo
or down through the boilers in the base
ment, and win be hauled out of TIL
wreck and told to go home and pla,
with a Teddy Bear for the rest of hi
days
And in every skyseraper is the CIR
who is ready to give her confidence t.
the elevator boy. She can trust hin
| where she could trust no other humal
being Her father is dead, and she
supporting a mother and six brother
and sisters. She has had to leave he
studies at a seminary to do it, She
behind on the rent. owes doctor bill:
and the grocer won t trust her any more
She wouldn t think of telling this t
any one else, but the face of the elevat
or boy inspires confidence. It inspire
so much confidence that she is going t
ask him TO lend her two dollars unit
Saturday night. His bosom is swellin
with pity and love is budding. II
hash t got the dough, but he can borro7
it of the engineer He does borrow i
and the tears in her eyes are his reward
And the lunch-girl is to be foun
wherever there are Offices and elevator
She can t be content with a pickle an
1 rrh4 hn,1,