bootblacks

i love this picture. i can't remember where it came from, but it's always reminded me of me and my friend jess. maybe i associate it with the period we were roommates. i don't know, but i feel a kinship to it. the two wiley bootblacks making their way by grace and wit. the more i look too, the more i see. the one on the left is clearly wearing oversized shoes compared to his partner and i love that they both have vests. they also remind me a little of characters in upton sinclair's "the jungle"
"It was too bad that the boys should have to sell papers at their age. It was utterly useless to caution them and plead with them; quite without knowing it, they were taking on the tone of their new environment. They were learning to swear in voluble English; they were learning to pick up cigar stumps and smoke them, to pass hours of their time gambling with pennies and dice and cigarette cards; they were learning the location of all the houses of prostitution on the "Levee," and the names of the "madames" who kept them, and the days when they gave their state banquets, which the police captains and the big politicians all attended. If a visiting "country customer" were to ask them, they could show him which was "Hinkydink's" famous saloon, and could even point out to him by name the different gamblers and thugs and "hold-up men" who made the place their headquarters. And worse yet, the boys were getting out of the habit of coming home at night. What was the use, they would ask, of wasting time and energy and a possible carfare riding out to the stockyards every night when the weather was pleasant and they could crawl under a truck or into an empty doorway and sleep exactly as well? So long as they brought home a half dollar for each day, what mattered it when they brought it?"
in that vein i have enjoyed taking a peek through another looking glass recently. shorpy is a wonderful photo site featuring images, many from over 100 years ago. it's a little like a time machine really, and as technology propels us ever further into the future these images have a growing archaic quality which makes me ache just a little bit.