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Show STREET LOAFERS. W Whence do Ihcy come, those idler in the streets who, wandering in single rank or dispersed detachments among the busy and the purposelui, are confounded wilh them, and never seen fur wlmt (hey are till something happens which calls them together; when they aalonLth us by their numbers num-bers and Hie problem of how they are able to live at all idling not bein a profitable investment of one's capital? Men and women who, one would suppose, had enough to keecp things straight, and to find food and clothing for ihemselvca aud those belonging to them, if they worked diligently for 1-hours 1-hours outol the 24, gather into compact com-pact masses of gaping idleness at every unusual occurence, every trifling tri-fling accident; and pass hours staring at the sight, if hours are needed to Iw padded beloro the obstruction gets iUeif removal, or the show vanisuea into space- Master less men, surely they must be; yU evidently they are not their own muoU.-rs, bo lar as having the whip-hand of circumstances circum-stances kocs, women without home or duties, ior all that dress and appearance appear-ance and the betraying wedding ring would teem to point to both; mere idlers cumbering ground which others till, and living as beet tbey can on food which tney only help to con-sume, con-sume, taking no trouble to create or prepare. These multitudes of idlers to bo collected together in the streets of any laru Ijwii at a moment' notice, have always seemed to us to be the oddest phenomena of our social life. Men with the need and marlti of worlc legibly wrilien on on vurv inimi'R im-h ill their nprumi and attire, why arc they not at theii bench, in the lactjry, the foundry, the ship yard, at Ibe anvil, at tlu loomT Ur it tbey belong to none oi thcfu Lradi-tt, ii nd are of that queer, nondescript class which seems to have no Ketilcd occupation, and one may well believe no settled home, which calU itself geuerioally the class ot the "handy men," men ready for jobs of any kind and living on the disregarded crumbs of labor, how is it that they givo mi much time from their poor scratching on the surface ol the great field of work, and spend in street siybl seeing that precious jewel of humanity called time? Who can tell? All we know is that, like vultures gathered to the carcass, uot the least event can happen in the streets out of the ordiuary run of daily traffic, a horse cannot fall, a new kind of hurdy-gurdy cannot grind out 'a familiar tune, a mountebank cannot go through tricks that were stale a hundred years ago, or Punch repeat a pantomime known to alt but the rising generation, but the idlers are gathered in crowds: and le-r them, at least, a 1 the dates of life are suspended sus-pended for hours to come. Chamber's Journal. |