Richmond Palladium (Daily), Volume 31, Number 286, 11 November 1906 — Page 10

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yKr . S the stage of the world, where all A ja Hie people are the players, tragedy ''L :ii:il comedy are so completely lutern.inKie.1 tliat the eyes are often crying ivliiie the mouth Is laughing. Everslncethat Any when the first mnn was driven from the Cardial Kden and bidden to earn his livelihood ly tlie sweat of his brown the difficulties attendunt upon earning a living bave increased, until the people are driven to all kinds of curious expedients to keep the wolf from the door. These ' ciiliui'it!cs of our daily employment make an Interesting and fascinating study and present many sides that would be funny were it not for the terrible reality of ft all. The spectacle of a 40-year-old woman, for instance, selling papers on the streets of a Western city In competition with grimy and profane newshoys. would cause a grin of derision but for the realizing sense that she is compelled by circumstances to take this course to keep within the ranks of the vast army fightIn; desperately for its daily bread. And speaking of daily bread, how many people are there who know that in one pertain part of the globe the bakers work the dough with their knees instead of their bands? A joker would probably say thnt this is where the term "kneading the dousrh" originated. Perhaps it la. This peculiar feature of our daily toil is found in Italy, and the traveler who tells the story says that bakers in that sunny country r.re all knock-kneed as a result. The bakers, kneel on the dough, and, grasping a high support with their hands, rrod and twist aud thump the soft mass before tiiein or rather under them unWi it has attained the required consistency. This work, it is said, enlarges and' deforms the knees, causing them to Interfere in walking. The bakers invariably bathe before kneading the bread, and as the kuees are never used for many things that the bands are. it really would appear that th knee-kneaded bread is cleaner than , the hand-kneaded kind. In many of the remote parts of Italy, and France, too, a great deal of wine is still trodden out with the bore feet, so that those who desire a rather unique luncheon can make it of knee-kneaded bread and foot-trodden wine. Either would probably be found cleaner and more palatable than packing-house sausage. Still talking about eatables, did It ever occur to you that In a city the size of Indianapolis, Ind.. S.OH) pies, valued at prwv) net. are made and eaten every day? If this Is so in Indianapolis, what must the daily consumption of pie amonnt to in New York or Chicngo? And. perhaps, you never thought either that the piemaking busiiiess has its dull as well as its prosperons nnd busy seasons. An old pleniaker told me the other day that during the berry and melon seasons the demand for pies decreases perceptibly. A number of confirmed pie-eaters switch to fruits, and. curiously enough, this Is the season of small protits. too, because most of the pie demanded is that made from small berries, etc.. which ore high priced, making the margin of gain very small. Of all the pies, apple is the most staple the old standby eaten summer, fall, winter and spring. The berry pies ciroe and go. and so do the lemons and the custards, but the demand for apple never diminishes, except in the fall, when the pumpkiu pie is king. Mince, peach and cranberry rank in the order of popularity named, coming finite a way behind apple, however. And, if you'll not breathe it to a soul, here's a secret some apple pies never see an apple. Food is one of the most Important factors 1a the life of any human being; it is the fuel that makes the daily work possible, aud it is quite natural, then, that in an article touching on daily toil, food should be one of the first things mentioned ana one of the longest dwelt upon. A peculiar occupation is that of a corps of professional samplers (if the term may be used), who are employed by the Department of Agriculture at Washington. Their duty is to live for a length of time on foods doctored or adulterated with some certain substance. They are constantly under expert supervision, and the effect of the poison on their system Is noted. In this way the barmfulness of adulterations Is determined. If the sampler lives, the food is good; if he dieft It is dangerous and its sale prohibited. Kor the lenent of the timid aud tenderhearted, however. It may le well to remark, that none have died yet. and, as they take the foreign substance thought to be dangerous in very small quantities, none are likely to from this cause, at esst. Two Kinds of Peculiarities. n gathering material for an article oo the peculiarities that enter into the humdrum task of ekeing out an existence, I (.Kin found that there were two classes of them the peculiar features In connection with vast trades where many find , employment, and the unique avocations chosen in different parts of the world by siucle individuals. I learned, for Instance,' that many thousands of people In America today find steaay employment at fair wages curling hair for mattresses, and I learned, too. of one 'ndividual who manages to make a fair living by curling his own hair and selling the curls at so much per. lie is a Parisian with silken bru--txa hair, iust the color of the hair of

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one of the most celebrated concert-hall singers, who is besieged nightly by the gay rounders of the world's merriest city with requests for a lock of her hair. To cut off aud distribute her beautiful tresses piecemeal would be to spoil one of her chief charms, and so the fond admirers are satisfied with a substitute a lock from the hair of our curly friend. She pays him well for his riuglets, and he is, for the present at least, living on the fat of the "laud. When the deception is discovered or the singer loses her popularity he will probably find himself out of good occupation. Criminal Occupations. Then there are the criminal classes. A United States census worker, while going his rounds in Chicago, called at the door of a rather gloomy house, and was met by a nicely dressed, dapper little fellow who greeted him pleasantly, lie had a shifty eye,' though, and seemed uneasy all during the questioning process.. Finally the question was reached, "What is your occupation?" "Making money," promptly replied the lad. The census enumerator, if he is like census enumerators that we have met, probably replled,"Quit your kidding now; get wise to the question and tell me what you work at. . Nix on the comedy now; what's your Job." "On the dead level, my occupation's making money," replied the young man at the door, "I'm a counterfeiter." "You're too fresh whatever yon are," replied the census worker as he put down in the occupation blank, "Information refused." That afternoon he got thinking things over, however, and went to the police. with the story. The house was raided and all the officers found were evidences of n hasty departure and part of a counterfeiter's outfit. Three weeks later when the gaug, of spurious coinmakers were rounded bp, the young mau who answered the door confessed that he thought that the jig was up aud that the census man was merely a detective who was after additional evidence before the house was pinched. Counterfeiting is a peculiar employment, if a shady one, and it requires nerve, skill and ability to be a good artisan in this line. Another unique occupation in the same shady category is that of the professional beggar, who 'makes a living by -asking people for things. There are men, too, who make a living by breaking into houses, and there are other men who make a living by getting them out of Jail after they have been caught. The former are known as burglars and the latter as lawyers. The professional tramp Is, perhaps, the strangest freak among all strange human beings. Wandering, wandering, always wandering living by begging, stealing, robbing and sometimes even murdering he poses as America's only real idle class, and yet he works harder to be Idle than most men do to hold their jobs. He Is very like the professional beggar, only worse and dirtier. In many ways a crook, he is yet in strong contrast to the general run of real crooks, such as forgers, bunco men, bank robbers and defaulters, who have In most instances refined tastes and high Ideals, with the daily bath and personal neatnesses as part of their creed. The various callings of the crooks, however, are not properly classed as occupation, and so the great army of the other side will be dismissed ' with, this slight reference. Second-band Employments. "The cable dispatches recently carried the story of a young woman who. finding other avenues of labor closed to her, went on the streets of Loadon as a bootblack and made a good living. Her occupation, however, was not quite as nnique as that of a man In the Old World who made a practice of buying old shoes and taking the pegs and nails from the soles and selling them over again. This occupation is somewhat akin to that of the oldclothes man of our American cities, who goes from door to door gathering up discarded garments and buying them for a song. Those in fairly good condition are fixed, cleaned up and put on sale in cheap clothing stores. The others are cut aver Into suits for little boys and girls and as such find a ready market. A discarded man's suit once followed oa Its course by

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an Inquisitive seller was found to yield a tremendous profit. It was purchased at the back door for 40 cents and two weeks later sold for $350, in practically the same condition it was In when it left the original owner's home. Old rubbers, too, form the basis for a good many prosperous businesses, and dealers in old furniture wax fat on the proceeds of their antique pieces many of them fresh, from the factory. In all my research, however, I failed to find a duplicate of the man who made his living by buying, begging or stealing old discarded tobacco pipes. He never told just what he did with them, though once he admitted that some of the stems be made over into cigarette-holders and sold at a good profit. Some of his intimates say that he sells the bowis of the pipes to a well-known tobacco concern, which polishes them over, puts new stem3 on them and gives them away as premiums for the return of so many coupons found in some certain kind of cheap concoction foisted upon the unsuspecting publie as tobacco. While slipping on your stocking la the morning did you ever stop to thlak that la America alone Sj.OX) people, drawing annually $25,000,000 In wages, work in 1,000 factories representing an investment of SSO.000.000. In order that you and tbe other 0,000,000-odd of yon la America might not go barefooted to work and play? Yet such Is the case. In some stocking factories as many as 400.000 pairs in one year are made. The stockings are knit by machinery, and some of the finer kinds are handled 325 times before tbey are finished. "Yon wouldn't believe," said one of the girls at the dyeing machiue In a big stocking factory, "that a stocking, which goes to seven different machines before it Is finl: bed, enn be sold at retail on the open market for 10 cents. But It Is." It has been computed that about 300.000 pounds of cotton yarn and 10.000,000 pounds of woolen yarn are used annually In America for stockings. Down on the Atlantic Coast there are men who rake the bottom of the sea. much as you rake ofT'vonr front lawn after having cut the grass. They are after the oysters and clams. We have heard of the men who telegraph, without

wires, but we are not yet prepared to believe that there are women who cook without fires. There are, however, and if you will visit Schenectady, X. Y., In one of the finest homes, there you will see an electric kitchen in operation, the roasts and broils and fries being done to a turn by the juice that now runs our trolleys, prints our newspapers and will soon, If the present line of development keeps up, comb our hair and give us our morning bath. lie "Was an Elephant's Leg. An enumerator employed by the firm In New York that gets out the Metropolitan City Directory asked a man who opened the door in a rooming-house section the usual list of questions. He got in reply a ver- ordinary name, and an age that corresponded well with, the man's appearance. "What Is your occupation T' asked the enumerator. "I am usually the left front foot of an elephant." he replied, "but last Bight I was the tail." The enumerator was undecided as to whether he had gotten hold of a lunatic or only a joker. Further Inquiries elicited the fact, however, that the man was telling tbe truth. He was actually one of the men who comprised a gigantic elephant then appearing nightly In a popular comic opera. From New York to the Pacific Coast Is a long step, but this Incident brings to mind a queer employment, found nowhere in America, except in seawall cities of California. There are many weird laborers among the Chinese of tae Pacific Coast, among them being the Chinese schoolteacher, with a hearty contempt for everything American except the language, which, be desires to master for business reasons. Far more unique, however, is the position of the man known as "The legs of the dragon." The dragon can be briefly described as a peculiar ooject maae of silk, some 200 or 300 feet long. It has some 300 r 400 legs, each a man. and it can readily be seen that to impart the proper effect as it twirls down the street In Chinese festival parade these legs must have some training. Indeed, whenever possible the men are carefully selected for. the honor

and strive to retain the position from year to year. Each large city, where there Is a considerable settlement of Chinese, has one of these dragons. They resemble a huge caterpillar when In motion and are said to be worth about $25,000 each, as they are made of expensive silks, and are heavily trimmed witli gold and fine jewels. When times are hard the dragon is brought out to appease the evil spirits, and it has a prominent place In each Chinese New Year's Day procession. When It appears it always creates a sensation. In Old Xw York. And now back to New York. There is, perhaps, no city in the country that has st) many and varied occupations as the dear old metropolis. In the strenuous scramble for wealth and a living the people of the great centers : driven to odd occupations for a livelihood. There Is,- for Instance, In New York a man who -ts good wages Just poking after dogs and cats while their owners are out of town, while another enterprising fellow a goodlooking chap, by the way hires out aa escort to maiden ladies regularly. A ydung woman without a beau, we will say, has a friend visit her. She has more money than male acquaintances, but decides to make a yood Impression. She hire the professional escort. For a really reasonable sum he will make a social call of an evening, will take the two young ladies to some restaurant they designate, will take them to the theater, etc His employer, of conrse, footing the bills. He says that If he coull pick his employers he would rea-ly have a very pleasant job. When the temperament of some f bis "bosses" Is considered, however. It Is quite plain that be earns his money several times over In some Instances. Another man gets $ 23 a week for breaking eggs. He works in a big pie-baking plant in the metropolis and breaks 250 dozen eggs a day. He separates the yolks from the whites and beats np some of them. The pay seems rather high for the nature of the work, ont it is said that the man In question more than makes up for the high wages paid him by the economical way in which he handles the eggs.

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A cheap or Inexperienced man might prove very expensive. There Is another man In New k who does notblnc all year long but test watermelons and cantaloupes for the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel. The loss In cutting unripe fruit would be considerable and this man. It Is estimated, saves his year's salary in three months of work. "Of course, if he didn't" suid the chef, "we wouldn't keep liim. If a proprietor cannot make a profit on the labor of the man be hires he has no Incentive to hire anybody." A. woman who might Join the professional escort in a partnership arrangement Is the clothes doctor as she calls herself. She is a middle aged, motherly woman, who goes about to bachelors lodgings to do all the necessary darning of socks, mending of underwear, etc., and looks after the linen of those who are not fortunate enough to have some one to do It for them. Then there is the man who cuts and sells cat meat. He has bad a stand at one certain spot of one certain market for 25 years, and In all that time has never sold anything but 5 and 10 eeut packages of meat prepared as cat food.In New York city alone, 0S7.674 men laborers, mechanics, stone masons, bricklayers, carpenters, machinists, engineers at the present writing find employment building skyscrapers, while in all large cities there are at least a dozen men and women who make a living looking for lost articles. They may be seen on the streets as soon as It Is daylight, searching the parks and lounging places, the streets of the down town sections, the sidewalks and gutters before theaters nnd popular restaurants. Sometimes they find money and keep it. Sometimes they find jewelry and sell it. Many, many times they find an article of value only to the loser, and return it, getting the reward. They scan the advertisements In the lost and found columus of the dally papers, and sometimes when they have a piece of Jewelry too conspicuous or too valuable to offer for sale, they advertise for its owner. It is said to be quite a lucrative calling. Equally unique, perhaps. Is tbe trade of tickling people's vanity. This latter Is a most profitable occupation, even when used for Itself alone and not In connection with some other business. Many obscure newspapers and nominal magazines of the Town. Topics variety live by It. The method of the men behind the scheme Is simply to write up a most fulsome article praising the subject in a manner that would be nauseating if It were not comical. The article is then shown to the intended victim by a glib talker, who tickles his vanity by reading the story and supplementing it with a few additional meads f taffy. A fool and his money are soon parted, says en old adage. A vain man and his money are parted still more quickly says the modern fakir, and the number who thrive by getting out books devoted to praising people that don't deserve it is legion. Tbe laudatory articles, f course, cost so much per laudation, and the editof s and writers wax rich. Jobs Both I'nlqne and Daagerom. Properly classed as both dangerous and peculiar are those occupations of men who loop-the-Ioop on bicycles and In automobiles, who do acrobatic feats, who jump over.eiephants backs In circuses, who ran automobiles for a living and race with death 24 hours every day, the men who navigate airships, the divers who go down into the depths of the sea, tbe municipal firefighters and policemen, tbe salt and fresh water sailors, the coal miners working under the earth, tbe trainers of wild beasts, the tightrope walkers, the physicians who fight death and disease and countless others. But for real sensationalism, real danger and real oddity the Job of George Therma, one of the principals lo the horse-thief act at Pawnee Bill's Show, makes- any . other strenuous Job seem like a pleasant nap on a warm da;. For $50 a month and his board Therma is hanged 16 timee a week. He Is lariated while riding at full speed. Is dragged from his horse and hauled over the ground for a distance. Then he Is strung to a tree In fall view of the audience, A piece of stiff coat-lining Is fixed about his ceck and the rope ds him little harm. By' the action of the piece, a rescue party comes along after he has been hanging bat a short time and ccts down tbe suppo"! corpse. It Is resorted that once something went

wrong and the rescue party failed t

pear, inerma nearly cuo&ea in re that time. On one or two other occas the cowboys, who do the hanging, be careless, and he has been cut down i nearly dead than alive. In iK'lng dra over the ground at the end of the li after his capture, Therma has had arms broken, his legs dislocated -uc skull fractured. Jone Barraro, the S can, who leads the band of cow which captures the horsethlef. reprel ed by Therma, is no gentle child, j when he has the sportive spirit wo in him be looks for all the rough spot the ground to drag Therma over, said that the two men bare a bet, raro contending that he will kill Th during tbe course of tbe act and Th betting that he will not. Strange niny seem, Therma likes his Job, an one nil haunting fear is not that be ,be hurt, but that somebody may gei position away from him. Up to now, ever, nobody has applied for the jo Anions other avocations that cou dancer with peculiarity may be tioned that of the worker In explo whether he be the legitimate enipio, a powder factory or the agent of Uussian secret terrorist society. queutly bouibmakers are the vlctin their,; ew . lufernal, machines, sua story Is told of a would be burglar jjiltucu ui visa w - don bank. He had with him a & bomb, which be set for a night houi scheme being, of course, to be li vicinity and profit by the explostc 3 ..." . . ... a Hz robbery. Arter ne naa ine uoidu g trly placed he found to his horror! the door of the vault had closed I locked after him, the steel-riveted being so constructed that It made a oner of any person who did uot which of the plates on the flo avoid. There was nothing for the! oner to do but wait for the bon? explode. Tbe agony of his sus must have been awful, and whei. door was opened -no piece of the bigger than a twenty-flve-cent pleca louud. Every occupation has Its peculla To mention them all would b to lish a list of the doings of every elf meu and women In the United State: undertaking that would prove as ni nous to the reader as it would be I slble for the writer, it has been th! in these columns to present some e most striking peculiarities of tbe I trades, mingled with the more nnlq dividual employments that resou people have sought out. One of tiJ ter of them Is that of a limited nt of men who make a regular busin. tracing lost heirs. They make a spe of locating the beneficiaries of who leave unclaimed balances In I and many a fat fee do they earn, j calling is somewhat hloiilar to that man in a large city wbo makes a r business of tracing lout persona. , large number of people who diss weekly suggested the idea to the I sloiial tracer, and he bas made a thing out of a very unpromising He does not always locate the tr bat in many cue the application little common sense aud shrewdness blued with a good knowledge of 1 nature, has resulted In astonishing cess. The fees for this service ar Some iirent Moving Feat My Investigations of tbe queer f field led me to the freight depots. , said one of a grimy, dusty, busy grmen, as h paused for breath. "V pretty rushed. You see, we hav put a large brick houe on that and set the park stirronndiug it on I that drove away a few moment Now we've got to go back and g obi man's sawmill and his da 114 villa." "Pretty big things to move, '. gested. "Naw." h replied with Ill-con contempt. "Iast week me and 'm: carried the St. Louis World's Fal four blocks to the depot Just after I the rocky mountains and the building on a three-horse truck." j The weather man. too, occupies all bin own. Besides predictin weather Cnjore or less accurately).: frequently called upon to play in'" portaut roles In murder cases and trials. During the past 10 years a er man bas hgured in court no lea 4 .(100 times, in many legal batt , state of the weather Is an imp factor in the rendering of the verdl a murder case recently decided, 5 stance, tbe conviction hinged on th tiScation of the prisoner by sever? pie who were admltted'y about 511 way. The records of the weatbe; were put into the evidence and that tbe night was very foggy and . and that the witnesses could no' seen J feet. On this evidence th was acqnitted. In another case t fense tried to prove that as the bf the victim was In good state of pr tion tbe prisoner who left town a ( before the murder was dicovered not have done the deed. The pros attorney, however, proved by the t man that the weather had ten ( nearly ail the time between tbe c sion of the deed and tbe discovery) body. The attorney, therefore, bei It was possible for tbe body to hi rosined in a good state of preserved 30 days, and tbe Jury agreed wit! On another occasion a man accusal serious crime proved by the weath that he cocid not have been at a exposed place the night of the crin witnesses, wbo claimed to bave se there, swore that he wore the same he had ou when he wen arrested, i policeman, wbo arrested him an hoi the crime bad been committed, ac that his clothes were absolutely dr. arrested. The weather mau swore had rained pitchforks on the ut Question, and so he was let go.