Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1853-10-19
Street Sketches.
BOB sEABoRN, THE NEWS BOY.

"Tbere amt 10 Robert about it. NV
name is Bob"
"Well what is your fathers name ?"
81 never had any father, nam was
sea-born."
/ tried not to srnile--I think, indeed
am confident | did not smile outwardly,
for | did not not see the little, quaint,
cid image Of man before me, but soul
full of dim limitations, written with
strange, incomprehensible characters,
which perplexed and oppressed poor
Bob nightly.
Sand where is your mother ?"
81 never had any mother, Nam tell
you | was sea-born. The folks took me
ashore, and I've been comm up ever
since. But what l want TO find out is,
about meetin's and prayin's. l don't
know nothin'. And she's dyin' you
see. know it. feel it. There's a
little blue vein across her nose, and it
grows bluer and bluer; and this here
ring is too big for any one of her fin
gers now-and | got rose tree, and ma
med one little bud Minnie, and l said if
that bud blows out into rose, Minnie
will get we'll; if it doesn't Minnie will
die. Last night the bud dropped off
dead" And here poor Bob wiped his
streaked face with the sleeve of his rag
ged coat.
''Let me go and see Minnie; it may
be | can cure her."
"No you don't. | want to learn about
the prayin', and then | can do it all my
self. Which is the best meetin' the Tri-
nifty or the Broadway ?"
Il do not understand YOU"
81 mean the Trinity Church, or the
Broadway Theatre. I've been to both
OF 'em, and TO the Cathedral, and Bowe-
ny, and Chatham, and all them phases !;
and like the Bowery best"
"Why, Bob ? they are not the least a.
like; the Broadway is for amusement,
and the Trinity is place for prayer
"Tbey over do it there. Makes fell
low feel all of gloom"
Poor Bob did not understand the diff
ference between a theatre and church.
How should he When explained it,
he stuck his tongue into his cheek, and
brought out a long whistle, and snapped
his fingers, and exclaimed, "You don't
come it over this child. I've been to
both on 'em, and learned their doin's.-
They say over and over the same things
at Trinity, and l got tired but at the
theatre they give us what's new and
funny sometimes. But dom like the
fun, cause why, I've get something hea-
vy-like here" And poor Bob laid his
dirty hand upon rag of shirt that
hardly hid his little bony easement for
big heart.
"Bob, let me go and pray with Min-
nie, and, perhaps, l can ease her; and !
will help you, and teach you both"
81 tell you, we don't come it. Don't
l know how the folks do? I'm little
Teller, but tell we what, they don't take
me and Minnie and Dady of to the Is
land while I'm Bob"
There was family, indeed. "Who
is Minnie and Dady ?" asked.
"Why, they's my children, to be sure, !"
said the boy, drawing up his little bones,
and planting pair of over-grown feet
firmly, said feet slipping here and there
IN an old pair of shoes,a world too large
"Your children! how came they yours?
Where are their parents ?'
"Never had any. found 'em in old
lots, and took 'em home--'cause why,
they'd died of The hogs and the cold if
| didn't"
"You are a noble boy, great-hearted
boy, Bob"
THAT'S it. feel it beatin', and
beatin', when | hear the great whips
crack upon the poor horses and when
! hear poor children, what wants bread,
cryih', and cryin', it beats harder, har-
der. And when heard Minnie screa-
ming in the lot, and the wiLd BLOWN
cold, and the folks all goin' by, ran too,
but my heart went thump, thump,I knew
| ought TO go back F.; and so | did, and
fetched her along, and loved her as no.
body else would love her; cause why,
her backs broke. My hearts too big,
Nam; it's bigger'n my jacket ii hold
in. went TO man, what lives in one
of the big houses. They'd got baby
bout as large as Minnie, and SO l went
and told him I'd got baby outside in
the old crate, and | wanted something
for it TO eat. But he didn't give moth
ing. So rung to good many doors i;
and at last l didn't ring, but | walked
right in, and took some bread right out
of the kitchen afore their eyes and then
they cried thief, thief! and the stars was
seen shinin' here and all about after
Bob but they didn't cotch him. But,
good bye; Minnie's dying, and all the
prayer knows is, 'Oh Lord, Lord, thy
kingdom come"
Now, this prayer of poor Bob's was
far more significant than he conceived
1t is the great prayer for the poor; for
when the kingdom of the Lord shall come,
men will no more turn deaf ear to hui
man wants. As thought this, Bob dis
appeared down dark alley, and l lost
sight of him. n. Y. Budget.
Scarcity OF SILVER CoIv.-The
Washington Star says, "some twenty or
thirty millions of dollars in silver coin
are really necessary TO supply the vacu-
am in our circulating medium by the
Withdrawal of the old coin, while the ut