The Manitowoc pilot. [volume] (Manitowoc, Wis.) 1859-1932, 1869-12-09
Watching, Pale and Weary.
From Pomeroy's Democrat I

II was an hour past dark to night HhCH
we left the Office 10 find rest for mind and
body, and to sit for TN hour BY the DISK 70
plant a seed by the roadside, N hope to
live to sec it bear fruit Kind words back
ed by good intents, are the seeds We can
plant here to bear fruit for Us on both SIDES
that wall called the grave.
Instead Of taking car and coming direct
" home, as so generally is our Tont, some
strange cord drew US blocks out Of the aay.
To the right, over toward that edge Of the
great city from which one can see the pris-
ons and alms~houscs on Biackwell's Island,
we walked without definite aiul,sas hun
ter with weary step trasks the forest
depths.
Down in q tenement cellar. A dark,
dirty, dingy, dismal, doleful place. No
curtain save OF dirt, protected the poverty
stricken dwellers in that little cellar from
public gaze. Before the window dozen
boys, girls and men stood peeking in, and
at times laughing, jesting, Eul still watch
ing. So We crossed the street, pushed The
crowd apart, and looked.
Into cellar Only a POOR woman on
the floor over a little form on some straw,
over which an OLD sal! cloth was spread.
Her hands we're cla8ped, her hair hung
uncoubed over the ragged dress. A little
charcoal furnace without fire stood near, an
old chair broken, small dry goods box, a
little dirty tin pail, End lamp on the box
was all the furniture We saw.
Some came, looked in, and fastened
away Who dare inrude uponuthe pres
ence Of grief? We lifted tbeEiron latch to
the door and walked IN She needed not
our approach. The crowd..at the window
grew larger Our light overcoat, with It's
flowing cape, was just The thing for eur
tain So with fruit knifo--in one corner
Of the window, peuknifc in the other, we
shut out the re, the darkness, the curl
osity.
Only sick babe and drunk ard s wifc
Dying from starvation the little skeleton Of
an arm was but shadow-the frame Of the
body but a ba-ket Of stray We cauid have
crushed to atoms in our hand, rot over
large that it be. No food for the mother
in two days. Nome for the child fit to eat
in q week. a little soup from the Mission
house in that p2il--but who likes cold Cruel
alone?
Some port wine from a drug store
some oyster broth from q restauranl-two
blankets from a second hand store near BY
some food for the woman, and rest lor
mother ana child. And then cane with
US = physician Of mystic brotherhood @ho
was not afraid to descend for that which
was lost or being lost, and our work for TIE
week is ended.
On the page before Us as we write, Is
the picture as we saw it tonight in al
reality. We cannot see tie houses, tie
streets, the city, the country, the furniture
in our room For on hour have VIC Jaen
in spirit sitting with that poor woman
whose history to US she told, IS ahe ~
words, ty tones, b. looks, elogacnt'y
thanked US for our coming, and deemed
the entrance of a stranger 80 intrusion.
Hers was but simple little story-but
it was The reat..comance Of sad life to her
for all! -Four years ago a happy young
wife. She was loved Ly a good fellow, >
gay and free hearted young mechanic,
who loved her for rare beauty aud goodness
OF heart They began life as do others
They rented little house, and were happy.
He ran in dobt-the house was given MP,
and into boarding house they went-fath
or, mother, and new-b born babe.
He was good fellow With the boys. Eo
aspired to be politician. He worked and
talk for o,hers-staid out nights-spent
his earnings in dissipafion-iost his place
found another-dissipated lost his place
could not pay his board biI-wert with
his family to 8 cheaper place-bccame dis
coura ged drank oitcner, and at last found
home in the little cellar where we found
his wife and babe,
Now he lived anywhere! Sometimes
he helped shovel coal ill tie earned quar-
ter. Itswent for drink. Sometimes he
slept, on tie straw IN that cellar. sometimes
in the sta n housc-Uftcner III a halfway,
or under the rubbish about a new building.
Lost to himself-to his loved ones-to
hfe--to oil that Is good. Several times he
had rallied and tired to obtain work, but
there we're more men than employment,
and he roamed idle Aud she sewed
httle-washed, mendcd, scrubbed Railways,
stores, olfic.s, steps and sidewalks, earning
few dimes. But twas ali too hrtie.
We have been thinking an hour Of the
poor ones. The watch ticks the seconds
away, the hands on the dial tell 70 It's
past midnight But this before We sleep.
Who but God pitie, tie poor? Ihoy are
all over with u.s. He was somebody's son
brother; lie Is worse than lost now. She
was ouce beautiful girl, whose rich laugh
rang merrHy out; bat now her tears daily
drown an hundred time. all The ioy she has
She vas toe good to thus wlrher Ly the