We didn't have a darn cent to deposit with him for securing the places
for us, so he decided to wait for his money till we had drawn our first
week's wages. He said we looked pretty honest and that he would trust
us for the four dollars. He further added that we looked more like
bronco busters or prize fighters than we did like housemen. He 'phoned
to the house on East End Avenue where they wanted the men and told them
that we were coming out. From this particular Employment Agency to the
house where we were to go it was a distance of eight miles so we had to
hoof it out there, for neither of us had carfare.
Well, in short, we arrived there about dusk and were successful in
securing the places as housemen for this millionaire. We were to begin
work next morning, so we hit toward a restaurant where we got supper
for carrying in about a ton of coal from the street to the third story
of a cheap tenement house. That night we slept on the benches in
Lincoln Park and at six the next morning were at our posts.
[Illustration: "That Night we Slept on the Benches in Lincoln Park."
(_Wanderlust._)]
The work pleased us all right, for it was light and simply meant
beating carpets, scrubbing floors, washing windows, mowing the lawns,
polishing the brass on the doors, in fact merely carrying out the
duties of an every day houseman.
We were working for the Coleridges. The old gentleman was a wealthy
glass manufacturer, and for our services at this particular residence
we received ten dollars per, meals included. Oh, we used to have some
lively times.
One day, while busily engaged in the reception hall, scrubbing the
marble stairway, I cast my peepers on the card tray, and, my curiosity
being aroused, I "copped" a couple of invitations the postman had
brought that morning. There were five in all, so I thought that two
would be enough for Anderson and myself. When I went down in the
basement to get some more clean rags from the laundry girl, Anderson
was there engaged in sweeping. I gave him the wink and a nod, and
when he came out we went back to the furnace room and examined the
invitations to a dance which was to be given by Mrs. Ostrand at her
residence on Cornell Avenue. We then and there decided to accept.
The time for this affair soon came around and we held our nerve for we
were determined to do the Soldier of Fortune act once in our lives. The
afternoon before the dance we stopped work about four o'clock and went
to our room where there was some tall scrubbing, and much time spent on
our rusty hides. This preliminary part of the toilet completed, we took
a car downtown and there I made arrangements to rent a pair of pumps,
silk hat, white kid gloves, full dress suit, top coat and the other
necessary apparel. While I was getting fitted up in this establishment,
Anderson busied himself in purchasing a few toilet articles.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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