The Birmingham age-herald., 1919-08-31

the way home, the youngster insisted on leaving the sandwich boards, and so they stopped at the police station and got rid of them. That is all l ever knew, but, of course, the assumption is that our young sandwichman belonged to some well-to-do family and, through some un- krown set of circumstances had been compelled to gain a temporary livelihood by carrying the banner. That. more over, is only one of many curious epi- sodes of the kind that have come to my personal notice.
 "One of the most extraordinary char acters that I have ever encountered among our sandwichmen,' Mr. Felton went on, was an ex-barrister who, be- fore his descent in the social scale, had been sufficiently prominent in his pro- fesson to have been one of the junior counsel in the famous Maybrck roison- ing case. eNarly all sandwichmen ac- quire nicknames, and this individual was known to his fellow board carriers as The Lawyer During his years as sandwichman he eked out his regular earnings by writing begging letters for his mates. He charged them 2d letter a penny for writing the missive and an other penny for the paper and envelope. and picked up quite bit this way. A lot of these men, you see, being old soldiers occasionally address letters to { tf cir former commanding officers, among other people, saying that they are down on their luck and asking for money and they are glad to have somebody to com i pose these letters for them And the law yed was one of the best at this game.
 "Apropos, l may mention circum stance that is of interest. One might i expect that sandwichmen. being con l stantly in the streets, would frequentiy be the victims of street accidents. As | matter of fact, however, in all the I time that I have been in the business only two of my men have been injured
 and in both cases their overindulgence Tn 1 the flowing bowl was solely to blame 1 One of the two men I have mentioned
 he was knocked down by taxi-was hurt hardly at all, he was scarcely more | ccmpany. Inquiry revealed the enlight | tained $500 damages from the taxl car | than bruised but sometime afterwards 1 was astonished to learn that he had ob | ening fact that he had taken proceed
 ings on the advice of the lawyer. wht had instructed him throughout. The | lawyer whose downfall was due to drink
 has now been dead for several years.
 Until recently, one elderly man hat long figured as a London "sandwicher' under the name of "The Parson." It wal not mere fisurative nickname, TOT tn' elderly carrier of the banner had beer an eminently respected vicar in pros porous English village. His story is full V of pathetic human interest.
 SINS OF THE CHILDREN
 i Though the clergyman himself led life of perfect rectitude his son, like thu | offspring of a good many other divines failed to heed the precepts which hi rl father both preached and practiced. H' drank and gambled and misbehaved II
 many ways, and finally left his home ant
 ran wild in London For d long tim, the father managed to keep him out O
 serious s'scrapes," but ultimately though indorsing some notes for hi
 sons benefit, the vicar was brought U penury and had to sever his connection with the church.
 Leaving his home the parson came t
 London to seek employment. But for
 tune did not favor him. He could mt nothing to do, sank lower and lower, ant finally. as a last resort. applied t
 smith of Ham Yard for employment
 a sandwichman. On hearing his name