Evening Republican, Volume 15, Number 112, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 11 May 1911 — TALLS of GOTHAM AND OTHER CITIES [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

TALLS of GOTHAM AND OTHER CITIES

Passing of_ QI d-Time Janitor

NEW YORK. —There was a time when the best trotters that went up the fashionable driveways of New York were owned by the men who had charge of the big buildings in New York; but that was long ago. Today that man whose occupation has become subject to the surveillance of a manager who represents the interests intrusted to him in no half-heart-ed way and whose system will not permit of the pickings which were so long the recognized perquisites of the janitor who is content to make a fraction of what he formerly received each year. These are days of centralization and system, and the old-timers who found it easy to raise a big family, have fast horses and maintain a country residence have either retired in disgust or adjusted themselves to the altered conditions. The practice for many years was to

pay a janitor a salary, sometimes as much as $2,500 a year, but more frequently SIOO a month. He was supposed to have the waste paper of the tenants to sell, and It will probably be matter of surprise to some readers to learn that this yielded in a big building as much'as SI,OOO a year, while in some of the very large ones it would bring in very much more, up to $2,000 at the highest. Then there was the matter of a commission on the ice and towels supplied to patrons, which would run anywhere from 25 per cent, upward. Christmas was naturally the occasion when everybody around the building would be in quest of a present, and the janitor was invariably the most assiduous searcher after gratuities; in fact, some of them were artists at the practice. Nowadays under the new system the janitor gets SSO to SIOO a month. He is under the control of the assistant manager of the building, and he in turn is subject to the manager where there are several properties under one control. There is a purchasing agent directly under the eye of the manager, who buys all supplies, and these are checked carefully.