Year: 1874




IT was a March day. Not the tradition
al kind of day with which the month en-
tiers. and with which he delights TO treat
unhappy mOrtals when he chooses to com
binc within single week all the annoy
anceS and diScomfOrts OF which the entire
almanac is capable. On the contrary it
was one of those lost days that somehow
having fallen out of line in Times eternal
march. hasten. like cOnscience-Stricken
StraoolcrS to resume their places in the
ranks, and either delight or territy us with
the atmosphere of their coming. The day
of which | write was of happy counten-
ancc, and beamed upon us with smile
bright and genial as those wear who come
assured of their welcome.


But what after all did it matter to me il
the air was bright, and the clear, quiet sky
was full OF tokens of the coming spring?
The sun mightshine his grandest, and the
day ever so temptingly beckon men out
under the wide sky, but few such inlluen-
ccS as these ever found their way into the
back Office OF Grubber u Co., importers
and iobbers. 1t was there that. since eight
o'clock in the morning, had been climb
inc laboriOUslv I'D and down the columns
of figures in Grubber a. Co.'S ledgerS,
much rs the trained bear on his pole i'm the



brain performed its tasks as did the feet OF
captive Bruin. For it must be known that
| was bOOk-kecper i'm the extensive firm
aforementioned. and-if any one thinks
such position a Sinecure, let him come
and try il for week. There was another
question beside the question of figures
that kept forcing its way into my head
every now and then. Ii was one that not
unfrequently troubles people in our large
cities: the question of what shall we do
for roof. or where shall we move? You
will observe that the fact of moving Is
taken for granted, and since il was alto
geiher a necessity, it is haplly worth
while to discuss the why and wherefore.
The model bOok-keeper, we are told, ought
20 own the house he lives in; and that be-
inc the case. | was certainly not to be
claSSed in that category. If such argu-
ment was strictly logical, one might carry
il farther and claim that if the bOOk-keep-
er should own his house he should also
own his time. and hence become his own
employer; but all that is rather foreign to
the subject. Let the reader be assured
that il by any process of reasoning the
writer could have demonstrated himself
into the possession of an Independent in
come. this narrative would not have been
written. And since it could not. there
fore. he followed the columns of Grubber
Il Co.'S ledgerS, and lived in rented
house.


Having said this much, it is certainly
unnecessary to explain why at the close
of the March day. rs at the close of many
other March days. my wife and | indulsed
I'm our usual friendly contest for the pos
session of the evening paper. For the
same reason il need not be stated that our
eyes passed hastily by the departments OF
Lost and Found" Wanted" ''FOr
Sale" with all their kin, and stopped at
that headed For Rent"


The list contained a number of choice at
fractions, and if we might believe all that
was said ofthe property, we should have
wondered seriously why those of our
friends whom we knew TO inhabit some
very commonplace and inferior tenements,
did not make all haste to change their
abodes. But we understood il better af-
terward. when we discovered that the
meat" ''well-arranged" and ''very desira-
ble> edificeS in question, were only the
commonplace and inferior ones seen
through a real-estate agents glasses. We
found many an attractive picture in the
columns of the EreNinq AduertiSer, but VT
did not know then as we did subsequently
that the high colorS were the WORK OF al
artist IN Ink, ana not OF pHOloSAdP
the very nature of whose Instrument com
pels him 10 veracity.


When anv man has question 10 solve
himself. he naturally seeks as the nelres
and most obliging ally, the newspaper.
Whataneientever imagined that atcompendf
um of all that is sorrowful, humorous
terrible. strange and pathetic-the daily
paper? The Old Athenians were wont u
spend a great part of their time in hearing
or telling some new thing; how much o
that time they might have saved, could th'
old Greek citv have imported telegraph
office, and half dozen able-bodied. quick
witted reporters! To-day all is changed
Beginning with the birth OF human be
ing. the newspaper follows him faithfully
through the various stages of existence
rejoicing at his success; philosophiZins
over his misfortunes; chiding his fault
aud applauding his virtues; happies