﻿T-BONE SLIM DISCUSSES TOOTHPICKS, MIRACLES AND LIDS 
 
Straw hats, job signs and toothpicks are going out of style. Straw hats are becoming unstylish for windy reasons; job signs are disappearing from the boards for some reason or other; and it means something . . . But it doesn’t mean what you think it means. Although there really are less men on the jobs, that is no reason for the scarcity of signs. Even if there was only one man on each of the jobs, the sharks could still decorate the skidroad with health giving signs; they still could whip men to take the places of the men on the jobs. The same signs were been up all summer. The same men were shipped to these same jobs are still there, with a few exceptions, but the same signs have gone out of style. Why? 
Is it because the sharks are satisfied with their winter stake? Is it because the sharks have been told to be satisfied—by the master shark? 
Is it because it is no longer desirable to keep the slaves milling from one job to another? Is it because conditions have suddenly become better on the jobs, which permit of staying on the job? 
Is it because the present winter has thrown the scare of Christ into the slave? 
Is it the thousand and on reasons peculiar to capitalism? Why are the signs dormant? Why is the skid-road colorless? Answer me. 
Why are faces of the slaves drawn? Whom do they mourn? What do they search? Do they live on hope? Why do they “float”? 
The toothpicks are gone out of style for a very sound reason—chowder, soup, mush and coffee and requires no poking down. That reminds me: I was offered a job this morning. Just because I had had a bowl of mush, he wanted me to go to work. ME—a sick man, suffering ptomaine poisoning, as a result of a ten-day search for a JOB.