Evening Republican, Volume 18, Number 273, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 18 November 1914 — Page 2

THE FLOOR WALKER

By CLARENCE L. CULLEN.

i* .Z ' (Copyright.) It was the crowded-bar hour of five in the afternoon in the Old King Cole fluid-refection room of the Hotel AstorKnicker. At the far end of the onyx bar a young man with irresolute eyes and the chin of a non-combatant began to weep silently but copiously into his highball. The bareheaded attache of the refectory, who touched the weeper upon the shoulder within less than ten seconds after the beginning of the lachrymose manifestation, looked as good as one of those House of SplookenJ heimer clothing ads. He was tall, rangy and square-jawed. He was the floor walker of the refectory; an evolutionized bouncer. It took him less than two minutes to condole with the despairing one and to guide him gently to the exit. The weeper was not bounced; he was conveyed to the outer air by a diplomatist, and went away with his misery assuaged. ' . “Good eye,” I observed to the calmeyed floor walker when he returned. “How did you spot that one so promptly?” “By keeping track of his in-dredges," said the floor walker. “I happened to remember that one. He’s a three-shot Terry. That is to say, when he seeps ' three molsties into his bilge the overflow always begins to trickle from his Wicks. Three for him, and the Joys do a bunny-trot away from him and the Glooms start in to turkey-mazurk all over him.

“Then the saline solution begins to dribble from his orbs, which, of course, is his getaway signal; for it wouldn’t do to have a sad* sog scattering salt epray over, the place when the bar is cluttered up with merry-merries, who hate grief and who are trying the best they can to forget even their own woes, without reaching out for the sobskymusic of zigs who insist upon diluting their booze with their tears.”

“But you are not giving me the arithmetical end of it,” I said to the floor walker. “How can you keep track of the number of liquid Inserts that each of them, buying rapidly, permits to percolate through his frame?” “Practice, bo—practice, continued with that Argus stuff, ’* replied the case floor walker. “After I get through with this job I’ll be able to do a vaudeville turn as a lightning calculator. How many fervent Ferdles are there lined up there at the onyx now, would tyou calculate? A hundred, say you? Wrong again. There are a hundred ;and fourteen. Included in the bunch are 19 whom I’ve got classified on memory’s yellow pages, Myrtle, as dangerous; “Unsafe, that is to say, in different Some of them are liable, if iufey go too far with the gimme-an-other request, to prong out the think that they’re white hopes and- stretch out their tentacles in search of mussiness. Others of the 19, if they stretch 'that please-reflll-the-flagon thing too far, are likely to raise their pipes in unseemly protest on the subjects of religion, baseball and politics, thus throwing in a flat wheel, so to speak, on the cathedral calm that should prevail in a fluid philansterie of this pattern.

‘Two of them, if they overstep their gurgle limit, will fall to atomizing their weeps until the plant will feel like it's being sprayed by a Scotch mist. 'N so on, ’n so on, as Mr.’Belasco says, nervously, when he does not wish to have you read the remainder of your play to him on the street. "Well, I’m the Tabulating Tommy with those 19 unsafe boys. I know just how far down the damp road each of them can go without getting his standing lights blurred, and I’m there with the mentally registered statistics as to just how many intakes each of them has up to this moment eased into Us facial orifice. Something at the top of my dome does an inaudible click each time any one of them creaks his elbow in the act of sifting a perfectly new and untried ball into his motor. "Thus, as each one of them treks along to the end of his little path, all I've got to do is the subtraction stuff, waft the wigwag to the barkeep, and the one who has played his string as far as I know, from experience, it ought to be gets the sad and sweet shake of the barkeep’s bean the next time he calls for one more, and that is all there is to it. If the one upon whom the box is turned resents the shut-down he is passed along to me, and I dish up to him whichever article of bunkological balm he seems most in need of. "I am not saying, get me, that any one of the 19 dangerous ones 4s liable to try to leap the barricade or scale the citadel today. They may go days and days before they vat up to the point where they will feel impelled to puli their rummlferous specialty. But I am peg-posted here for the purpose of watching that none of the breezy ones departs from the normal, and, if so, to chaperon them,-without any suggestion of the crude or coarse work, into the open—’’ ‘‘But hold!” I interrupted. "Howcan you tell how many they’ve had before they swing in here?" “That,” replied the floor walker of the high-grade fire-water foundry, “is where the Argus section of my sketch comes in. I can tell that by peeking them over when they zephyr in. I take an unobtrusive but Hawkshawlsh slant at each and every patient as he Wdges through the door, for the pur

pose of making a guess as to how many imbibings he has bestowed upon his concealed mechanism before getting this far up the line. “If their maps don’t reveal the story, then their chirps will. When, for instance, I accidentally overhear a just? arrived smudge telling the buddy with him that none of the folks at home, including his spousq, understand him, dog-gone the luck anyhow, then, even if I'hever have binocularlzed him before, I know that he has been hurling wetties into his diaphragm not alone, yea, at one, but at several other points further down the line, and I get the mental chalk on him and attend to it that he doesn’t reach the glug-glug stage of it through any fault of mine or the house. The sog who unlimbera it to his trudge-mate, at an early stage of toe proceedings in a damp drum, that the wife of his bosom cannot and does not and will not understand him. —that sog, if the act is permitted to proceed undisturbed, will fall to lamenting lachrymosely all over the upper and lower bar rails Just as sure as aigs ain’t eggs. As you yourself have Just seen, there is nothing sadder or more dispiritiiig to be observed in a groggery-de-luxe than the spectacle of a male person who shaves engaged in distilling his own tears into’ perfectly good booze, guaranteed under the Pure Food and Booze act of 1906.

“And when the weeper is doing it because, as he says in a tone loud enough for other persons to hear, he is deeply and darkly and sadly misunderstood at home, the said weeper frames into such an enticing figure to be booted all over the works and then out into the open, and the shoe-leather of so many men so twitches to do that same to him that it is highly desirable to get him out of the place just aa soon as possible, if not by the conologleal method, then by the ‘raus-mit-em* route. ~ “It is the business of the floor walker tn a Valenciennes-lace maison .de redeye of this Character to analyze the chatter of each of the patients who looks unsafe, all the time pretending, of course, that he couldn’t hear a president’s salute from a battleship if he was shining bright-work on the main deck, and to see to it that the chirper who manifests a tendency to become boisterous along the line of his particular specialty shall not reach the point where he imagines that he is in the spotlight down-stage, with all of the rest of the purchasers merely standing around acting the parts of the supernumeraries. “You would be surprised to know how many zigs there are, who outside of that are all right, that fall to imagining, after they’ve tossed just one or two' over their average number of hooters past their tonsils, that they are alone in a pleasant and animated little circle of one or two hundred fellow rums, many of whom entertain the same quaint idetu “Since the iherely taciturn or morose persons who do not care to shout about themselves while they are funneling stimulants into their frames, object to being reminded in a place like this of a cage filled with whitecrested parakeets just arrived from Paraguay, it keeps me busy shaming the spotlighters into submission or picturing to them the hygienic advantages of a trapes on the flag-stones that run past the door. “There are so many sulky, self-con-tained, mean-spirited men coming into a flagop factory of this sort wfio flon’t care to hear that Ty Cobb has it ninety ways on Alexander the Great, or that the wife of the Chinful Charlie next to him hasn’t the same old affection for him like what she used to have, no matter what he does for her and coughs up all his dough and gives her the life of a queen with nothing ever to do until tomorrow or even then — “There are, I say, so many surly visitors at a nose-paint pension of this sort who desire to throw off dull care and at the sanfe time be quiet about it, that the floor walker has tp be considerably jerry of his job in order to quiescently quell and exigently extinguish the gooks -who, after they’ve trod over their Plimsoll capacity, develop the insectivorous idea that they are all alone in the madding crowd and that, therefore, they can and must go as far or farther than they like with personally conducted tete-a-tete members bearing on and appertaining to little matters concerning themselves that nobody else could get interested in except on the payment of a large salary with house rent, forage and medical attendance free.”

Newsies Are High Gamblers.

Patrolman Hook was walking along Broadway between Fifth and Sixth streets the other day when he heard the shrill cry: “Give two, I got high game.” “Gimrpp low.” “Gimme Jack." “Aw, how much you got for gameF* And then came a great dispute over and 24 and other totals. The - patrolman looked all around, for thoke are the disputes of cardplayers. He could see-nd one/ The wrangle continued. It seemed to be coming from above. He investigated, and on the roof of the building at 529 Broadway he found a game in full progress, newsboys contesting every point that might be debated. The boys were arrested and several decks of cards confiscated.—Los Angeles Times.

Serves ’Em Right.

“Critics have become exceedingly unpopular,” said the manager. “Yes,” replied the bill poster. ’3 understand won’t even let the military critics get anywhere near the theater of war.’\. *■.

THE EVENING REPUBLICAN, RENSSELAER, IND.

MATCHED sets, in the millinery shops, mean three articles, at least, made up of the same materials and corresponding in style. A neckpiece, muff and hat, or a neckpiece, bag and hat, constitute the usual set of three pieces. Sometimes a fourpiece set Includes all the accessories mentioned, but as a rule only three are made to correspond. These matched sets employ fur, velvet, brocades, silk and fur-cloths (or plush) in their construction, afid are embellished with passementerie beads, silk and millinery flowers and fruits. Furs are combined with fabrics, or two kinds of fur may be made up together. Fur and velvet is a rich and popular association of material. Satin and fur-cloth is inxpensive and* as beautiful as the more costly furs. Velvet alone and velvet embellished with passementerie stands between the costlier furs and less costly plushes in point of price and are less durable than either, but utterly feminine and elegant A set of two furs combined in neckpiece and muff, worn with a small military turban, is shown in the picture. A flat neckpiece of fine Hudson seal supports a' handsome fitch skin, one of the most fashionable of furs. The muff is barrel shaped with

A Few Good Kitchen Aprons

THE up-to-date kitchen apron is by no means an ungraceful garment, and much ingenuity is evident in designing It. to meet all the requirements of housework and good looks at the same time. The new patterns, that cover the entire figure, look better and are far more practical than the aprons set on to a band, that preceded them. It is just about as easy to make aprons that protect the whole dress, cover the sleeves and stay In place, as to make those gathered to a band, and it is quite as easy to do them/ up. Gingham, calico and -percale are used, cut by plain kimono-sleeved patterns like that shown in the picture given here. Indigo blue and white, or black and white, are selected for permanency in color. Any patterns In figures and checks and stripes give one a wide choice In design. Aprons made of these good substantial cotton fabrics having a white ground with black stripes are great favorites for “cook-aprons.” Shepherd’S checks and polka dots figure among these also. For sweeping and dusting the indigo blue cottons with small white dots for figures aye made up with caps to match and are better than the mere readily soiled cottons wife white ground for these purposes. Turkey-red cotton fabrics are used for making bindings on the shepherd’s checks more particularly but are liked on the dark blue aprons as

Handsome Matched Sets

a fitch border at each end. Both are lined with plain brown satin. The turban needs a border of fitch fur at the top of the velvet band, or a group of small animal heads of fitch or some other decorative touch of the fur, to match it up with the other pieces. A velvet set In black Is shown, with toe velvet fulled on the barrel-shaped muff. Passementerie beads, tassels and buckle make a novel trimming. In the plush and fur combination plush is used in the body of the pieces and fur in the decoration.

Circular Skirts.

Circular skirts may be thtf next thing on the calendar of dress. At any rate, they are a coming possibility. A circular that has already made its appearance is made of white taffeta. It is fitted at the hips and fAlls in wide ripples at the ankles.

Drecoll’s Lace Gown.

In America there is little doubt, that Drecoll’s black lace gowns over satin will -find much favor. He also brings out the inevitable suit of baby lamb; Paris is never able to get through the season without one such costume offered to the American buyer.

well, The red will not fade in the least with any amount of-.washing, •and Is therefore liked better than any other solid color. The apron pictured is an example of the use of this red binding on a medium large shepherd’s check. The neck, sleeves, pocket and edges are bound with it. It brightens up the otherwise ordinary pattern and makes it really attractive. Some aprons are made of the heavier cotton crepe in gray and finished with borders In solid colors or figures. These usually. fasten in front and. look very much like home dresses. They are not closed below the waist line and are easily slipped on and off. The front of the dress under them Is protected because, In these patterns, the fronts overlap. The new aprons are. In fact, so like house dresses that they- may be worn Instead of a dress. But they are made with ample sleeves, round necks and simple fastenings,* so that they slip on over'a dress easily. Sleeves are short and out of the way. Altogether, well chosen kitchen or work aprons may be said to be attractive in themselves. - Certainly the neat housewife knows how to look very “fetching” in them, JULIA BOTTOMLEY. Some of the new evening models have apron drapery in the front; and an odd thing about it is that the apron section falls longer than the foundation. The apron is of metallic lace.

Emmigrants' Door to america

//MNO New York” says a swingle ■ ing doon/in the more subI terranean regions of the great Ellis Island building. The laconic label conveys as little of the hopes and tragedies it ends as of the hopes and tragedies it begins, writes Frances A. Kellor, managing director oT the North American Civic League for Immigrants, in the New York Star. It is guarded by a youth in blue uniform, who, developing a slight interest in me after I had been standing off at one side of the door for several hours, nonchalantly explained, “This here is the most important job on the island—they only get past me if they’ve had ; . their slips marked O. K. for New York upstairs.” Here h.e deftly_extracted O. K. slips from the hands of three bewildered Poles whcl had reached him. Uncertain as to what was wanted, and tod overloaded with bundles to hand over anything, they had simply waited for him to take any action "that was to taken. He gave them a friendly shove toward the door, and by a vigorous pantomime tried to Instruct the third to conceal in an Inside pocket the money which he had been showing at the desk upstairs and which he still held unrolled in his hand. But the Pole had already shoved his bundle through the door; and realizing that this long corridor leading to the dock was the homestretch of his long adventure, he was now moving on too quickly to profit by advice or new ideas. Many Are Detained. This door into the New York world is at the bottom of a long staircase

down which may come only those immigrants discharged for New York city. Not even all those that are bound for New York cfty pass unchallenged through the swinging door. Those that are waiting for friends, or relatives go down the stairs, it is true, but their section of he stairs leads to a detention room, not to the swinging dopy. From where I stood I could see into the detention room, for a small part of the dividing Wall is made of iron screening. It was full of women and children, some of them lunching happily, others rising on the benches in nervous hope or fdfir at every new sight or sound. 'As the afternoon wore on and a denser line began to move more quickly down the stairs —there were several ships in that day bringing mixed crowds of Italians, Greeks, Hungarians and Russians —I followed the line through the' swinging door, down to the barren, cellarlike corridor, past the cagelike quarters of the waiting friends to the outbuilding adjoining the dock. The uneven line scuttled along resoundingly on the wooden floor until at the dock end It was halted In front of a high desk. Guide and Transfer Agency. The desk belongs to the Immigrant Guide and Transfer, established to deliver immigrants that need .and- desire guidance to any part of greater New York for sums ranging from 25 cents to |l. ♦ The investigation that preceded the organization of the Immigrant Guide and Transfer In* 1909 disclosed the presence of fifty or-sixty licensed and unlicensed porters, runners and cabmen at the -barge office. There was almost no check upon their operations. True, their licenses were revocable if they were convicted of abuses, but the several licenses for porters, runners and cabmen were issued by several different powers, and

if a man lost one sort of license he could promptly apply for another. Moreover there was no system for Identifying license holders, so that there was no practicable way of distinguishing between a licensed man and one that had merely rented an official cap for two dollars and bought an official badge for 50 cents. Men licensed only to carry baggage offered guide service and men that had never owned hacks pursued their various ways of dividing the immigrant from his money under a hackman’s license. It has been estimated-that more people have been robbed 4n one day in the little space between the barge office gate and the South Ferry subway or elevated than in any other' place of a similar size in the United States. Preyed on the Ignorant. '■ In the heyday.of the activities of unscrupulous porters and runners a stout little man about twenty4wo years old with dark burly hair and dark eyes took up his permanent camp near the fruit stand under the_ elevated stairs and followed groups, of immigrants to the ticket offices of the elevated road and toe subway. He displayed a porter's license and showed marvelous skill in getting immigrants away from the guides of philanthropic societies, grabbing their addresses out of their hands and taking general possession of them. In his palmy days he boasted that he “cleaned up SI,OOO a week." Naturally Christos Constantlnos, jrho gave a “guide” money, enough to get him a ticket to Chicago and was. put oh the subway and told to stay

ELLIS ISLAND, NEW YORK

there until he got to Chicago “tomorrow night,” showed himself stupid and dazed when the subway guard insisted that Christos must get off at Dyckman street. And Ivan Burif, who handed over his ?25 for ah official cap sold him by a runner who declared his father was “boss of the American government" and that the cap represented a life job for Ivan, was in a high state of excitement when he found himself not"oply without the job but also without his entire capital in America. Another run-ner,-after giving a Greek Immigrant a counterfeit |2O bill for sls in English money, piloted him around corners till he was confused, and then slipped away from him. On a busy day the Immigrant Guide and Transfer agent may arrange to deliver several hundred Immigrants. These are tagged at the desk with a yellow ticket pinned under the lapel so that they can be identified by the Immigrant and Transfer guides. Im- < migrants have been known to object tin this public tagging, and to meet this sufficiently human objection a rather less .obtrusive button is supplied to the sensitive. I saw that many of the line accepted the guide service with very evident relief, others phlegmatically as it enduring one more formality. These lest, perhaps, needed the service not. least. Often 1 marveled at the patient, able agent, at his careful questions and explanations, at his ready shifting from one language or dialect to another, or at his genius In deciphering some of the addresses that were spread before him. Sometimes they were written, sometimes printed, one-half In Lithuanian, perhaps, and the other half in a Lithuanianized English. I noticed that one man who could not himself read the address he carried maintained most loudly that he needed no assistance.