Year: 1873

BLUE CLOTH.


Two young men walked, not many
years ago, together along the ''City
yard" the levee of Stockholm It was
in the month Of January, and the win
ter heaven, with its many clear stars,
vaulted over the sea, whose waves
fought with the bitter cold. There and
there lay few unrigged ships, but it
was lonely and dismal nearly all over
the vast harbor, where, on other times
Of the year, busy mercantile life offers
many changing scenes to him who is
not too much occupied with the trouble
some cares OF every-day.life and has op-
portunity to see and consider what is
going on under his eyes. Both Of the
young men seemed, judging from their
apparel, to belong to the laboring class.
One Of them wore u coarse coat, over
which he had a leatheru apron, that
surely had tried the sparks from more
than one blacksmith forge, and pair
of wooden shoes clattered under his
feet against the icy street. When the
clear moon at any time pleased to look
in his face, she could easily enough
have been blaokened by the thick SCOT
that lay spread over it, and with which
rouge his hands also were smeared.


His companion had blue linen
apron, here and there checked with diff.
ferent colors, like that kind of uniform
a true journeyman dyer usually wears at
work. Both wore leathern caps which
nearly covered their faces.


Their language did not seem, how
ever, to be related either to the forge
or dyer's tub.


1t is with certain anxiety" said
the dyer, " that I accompany you upon
these wanderings. Just think if some
body should recognize US when we stand
erect before the bar paying for our
precious entertainment. I felt myself
actually hungry, when I saw how light
it was in Reisen's windows"


have all possible respect for whisky
and ale, not needing to praise in ad-
vance dried fish and bad preserves, but
this, tell you, chum, that it requires
at least bottle OF champagne to recon-
cile my palate and throat to the suffer
ings which soon shall befall them both.


Don't you insult the }" Blue Cloth"
chum, before you have seen Mrs.
Stromquist and her peas. cakes, an
swered the blacksmith, because assure
you that you will be perfectly satisfied.


Satisfied ? why I was satisfied long
ago Of the whole thing-the cursed
apron entangles my legs, and it is so
cold that the d himself would get
his nose froze, although it is as warm
as heated piece of iron.


1dler these ]aborers' garments ought
to prepare your kind for more serious
reflections. What would you say, if
you should in all parts play the
role you have assumed this evening :?
Imagine yourself lying on your knees,
at hole in the ice, occupied with
washing yarn and linen, having just
been nearly roasted over the tub-oh-
the cussed wooden shoe :! I put my foot
out of joint wait little while till I
get the shoe clean from the snow.
will probably get catarrh before I give
up.


Should think 50, your body Of iron,
you soul of Donnemore steel! Finally
you can see how crazy you are he who
will study the life of the common peo.
pie, ought at least to know how to walk
on wood shoes without putting his foot
out of joint


Il Entirely false, chum, because if that
was the case, then study would be
without any effort, which it must be fol-
us, who arc made efFeminate through
education and habit: God grant that
our mothers, instead Of wrapping their
children in skins, from head to feet, had