The Idaho Springs siftings-news., 1919-08-15

AuA hAtdk "ao q HttAC ohdDOyp Oot thO
hostile chairs and sofa of the "parlor"
always looked new. For all the wear
and tear they got they should have
lasted a thousand years.
Upstairs were the bedrooms; moth
er and fathers room" the largest; a
smaller room for one or two sons,
another for one or two daughters
each of these rooms containing
double bed, "washstand," bureau"
wardrobe, a little table, rocking
chair. and often chair or two that
had been slightly damaged down.
stairs. but not enough to justify either
the expense of repair or decisive
abandonment in the attic. And there
was always spare room." for visi-
tors (where the sewing machine usu-
ally was kept, and during the seven
ties there developed an appreciation
of the necessity for bathroom.
At the rear of the house, upstairs,
was bleak little chamber, called "the
girls ROOM" and In the stable there
was another bedroom, adjoining the
hayloft, and called "the hired mans
ROOM" House and stable cost seven
| or eight thousand dollars to build. and
people with that much money to invest
in such comforts were classified as the
Rich. They paid the inhabitant of
"the girls room" two dollars a week,
| and, In the latter part of this period,
two dollars and a half, and finally
three dollars a week. She was Irish
ordinarily, or German, or 1t might be
Scandinavian, but never native to the
land unless she happened to be a per-
| son of color. The man or youth who
lived in the stable had like wages. and
voyager, but much oftener he was col
| ored.
After sunrise on pleasant mornings
the alleys behind the stables were gay;
laughter and shouting went up and
down their dusty lengths, with lively
accompaniment of currycombs knock
ing against back fences and stable
walls, for the darkies loved to curry
their horses In the alleys. Darkies
always prefer to gossip In shouts in
stead Of whispers. and they feel that
profanity. unless 1t be vociferous, is
almost worthless. Horrible phrases
were caught by early rising children
and carried to older people for defini-
tion, sometimes at inopportune mo-
| ments; while less investigative chill
dren would often merely repeat the
phrases in some subsequent. furry of
agitation, and yet bring about conse-
quences so emphatic as to be recalled
with ease in middle life.
They have passed, those darky hired
men of the Midland town. The
stables have been transformed into
other likenesses, or swept away, like
the woodsheds where were kept the
stovewood and kindling that the "girl"
and the "hired man" always quarreled
over: who should fetch it.
So with other vanishings. There
| were the little bunty street cars on the
long, single track that went its
troubled way among the cobblestones.
AT the rear door of the car there was
no platform, but a step where passen-
gers clung in wet clumps when the
weather was bad and the car crowded.
The patrons-if not too absent-minded
put their fares into slot; and no
conductor paced the heaving floor, but
the driver would rap remindingly with
| his elbow upon the glass of the door
| to his little open platform If the nick
els and the passengers did not appear
| to coincide in number. lone mule
| drew the car, and sometimes drew it
off the track, when the passengers
would get out and push it on again.
They really owed it courtesies like
this, for the car was genially accom-
modating; a lady could whistle to 1t
from an upstairs window, and the car
would halt at once and wait for her
while she shut the window. put on her
hat and cloak, went downstairs. found
an umbrella, told the "girl" what to
have for dinner, and came forth from
the house.
They even had time to dance
square dances" quadriIles and "lan-
cers;" they also danced the "rac-
quette" and schottisches and polkas,