The Brattleboro daily reformer. (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1913-1955, 1919-04-17
ICE MANS TRAIL
IN NEAR future
Soon to Be in Evidence on
Immaculate Floors of
Housekeepers
NO STATEMENT AS
TO SUMMER PRICES
For Present Will Be Same as Last Sea-
son-Icc Man Sees in Contents of
Refrigeratcrs Index OF Character of
Many Households.

Refrigeratcrs Index OF Character OF
Many Households.
It's about time for the ieeman to begin
his slippery way over the immaculate kit
chen floors of Brattleboro housekeepers,
and arouse their wrath, because of thel
trail of wet footprints which he leaves be-
no more easily tracked by the print Of his
foot than the average iceman, the only
difference being that Fridays foot was
bare and as a rule the icemen in Brattle-
boro wear shoes.
Some women dread the morning when
the ice card must be placed in the front
window as an invitation to the timid ice
man to call at his leisure and leave few
cubic inches of frozen water for which
the housewife may be allowed the privi-
lege of being robbed. :.
1t happens occasionally that an eccentric
iceman will fail to deliver the goods,
which the card in the window calls for.
to the dismay OF the cook, who viii watch
in vain for the jelly to harden, without
the cooling influence of the ice, or whose
salad dressing simply refuses to be creamy
unless cracked ice is surrounding it fondly
on all sides
Dessert may spoil, and milk may sour,
but blithely the ieeman goes on his noisy
way, unless the spirit moves him to leave
chunk of ice at the house with the card
in the window He means to see it, of
course, but there is none so blind as he
who won't see, and if the card is up three
! fights there are few icenen who gaze
too long for the card. Ii it's in a tene-
ment on the ground floor, why that's dif-
| ferent, and he may really stop and con.
slider that the family living there should
by the natural laws of the sun. be out of
| ice and he better leave some anyway.
| It's much easier to be a good-natured
! ceman to customers living on the first
| floor, than after climbing up the winding
| back stairs with a 50-pound load on his
back Who wants to be an iceman any
way? Everything they touch slips out Of
| their fingers and melts away, without leav-
| ing anything but temperature to show for
it But someone has to deliver the ice,
and up to date there are no women who
have taken ND that branch of industry
| beyond bringing it in fruin the back step,
where the iceman left it while she was out
Women who keep house hate the ice
man ON general principles, and find fault
with him if he don't wipe his feet on the
back door mat, and then find fault with
him if he keeps them waiting while he
does
/ Its hard to be on the ice cart and not
have more enemies than friends. The
bride will complain that it is absurd tc
expect her to pay for the ice which metS
on its way from the cart to the refriger
ator. and wants the iceman to weigh il
on the dear little scales which were giver
: her at her kitchen shower And ther
she complains to her husband that sh,
wants him to get her a nice iceman whc
viii knock at the door and wait till sh'
puts on clean apron and opens the doc
for him. The one they have now jus
slams right in without asking if the re
frigerator is ready for him, and some
times upsets the custard which she mad
from that new recipe, and then husban'
goes and hunts up that careless icemal
and slips him a dollar and tells him t
leave ice regularly three times week.
It's about as hard to be good husban
as it is to be a good iceman. Ii the siz
t of the refrigerator is misjudged and tn
\ iceman has to chop the cake of ice int
{ small pieces, housekeepers complain 9
+ the waste and when the iceman tells he
), to use it in the ice pitcher, she says the
:. never drink iee-water, but cool the waite
in bottles in the refrigerator, which ma
be true as the ice man knows where ther
are several bottles in the ice box, whic
: may contain water, but he would hate t
| swear to it.
The ice box is dead give away of tn
: habits of the family, the iceman say
\ And many times he could tell of wine SUI
pers served by next door neighbors,
n which the papers. never gave an accoun
q Left-overs in the ice-box give the icema
9 subjects for conversation for year. An
II he knows just what families have indigo
IS ton, and which families buy strawberri,
! out of season, what families have sbabi,
% as well as how many heads of famili,
e. have habits which they conceal in ii
ice-box
An iceman is flat failure if he begil
to argue about the weight of his ice,
to about the number of pounds which he h;
checked off on the bill tackled up ov
the refrigerator. Expert icemen say th
III the proper way. to deliver<ice is to ju
u dump it in the box and then duck.
: The Crystal Springs lee Co. is not reaC
as to make any announcement as to VIII
a. prices will be the coming summer. but f
=, ~ the present the company will sell at la
=. years prices.