The Republican journal., 1871-05-04
Little Ben, the Newsboy.

Little Ben, the Newsboy.
Some months ago, or year ago, may
be it was-I have forgotten Just how long,
for don't remember times and seasons
very wcll-two people were walking down
street one day. A big, burly newsboy,
very rough looking, very dirty and I'M
combed he was, walked slowly along, lust
before the two people, crying, in a hoarsc,
''Yer's yer evening pippers, o'clock c
-dish-ing!'
just as hundreds of rough looking un-
combed ncwsboys do, every day. But u
few feet behind the big boy, another boy,
u little one, was walking tmidly He was
the mercst mite of a little boy, not more
than seven years old, | think, and small
of his age, too. He was fragile looking
little fellow, with pale face and slender
little hands. HIS hair was combed and
curled carefully. in long yellow curls,
almost like Il girls None but mothers
hand can comb and curl Il boys hair just
that way, | have noticed
The small boy had y few papers und er
his arm, trying to hold them us the big
boy held his. And when the big boy sung
out his cry, "evening papers, o'clock e
dish ing!' in his loud rough voice, he
would turn Immediately around to the
little one, and nod encouraginglv, and
tell him:
''Now. you sayit. Baby"
Then the pale little fellow, with the long,
yellow curls, would take up his cry, faint
ly and feebly, and try 10 say it in his weak,
childish quaver. Somehow it made one
feel queer about the throat to hear that
poor little voice
The large boy was teaching the small
one how to be Il newsboy Next afternoon
the two boys had another rehearsal, and
the next, and that time the little boy ven
turcd to cross the street, and 80 down the
other side, family and timidly echoing the
cry of his big, rough friend opposite
Hundreds of people must have noticed the
two, | am sure.
The small boy was little Ben.
have not much saving faith in the race
OF ncwsboys, as Il general thing. | am
afraid that. in spite of Sunday schools and
night schools, and savings banks, and even
newsboys' homes, they remain class Of
the most dcpraycd little wretches under
the sun. | know ! should be so myself in
their place. 1t is not their fault 1t is
the fault Of the barbarous civilization which
turns children out of their cradles to earn
their living. Learned doctors say that
the moral faculties, beng the hi CHEST en-
dowment Of human nature, are therefore
the very last to be developed. And that is
why children are mostly such unmerciful,
cruel little heathens, and pinch and tor
tue each other, and steal, and tell lies, and
have to have ideas of right and wrong ed
ucated into them, SO to speak. So that it
is not until children approach manhood
and womanhood thatthey begin to be truth
iul and honest and tender hearted. In
deed, | have known even full grown men
and women who did not seem to have any
very vivid IDEAS Of right and wrong, not
yet being fully developed mentally. So
when cruel necessity lays the burden of
bearded men on the shoulders of weak
children, we cannot expect anything else
of them than they will be miniature sharp
ers and wicked little wretches. But |
never meant to preach. | only meant to
tell the simple aud sorriful story of little
Ben. 1t is L true story, too. If | could
have made it up myself, God knows l
would have given it q different ending
lie was newsboy, as told you. Not
one Of the angel kind either. He some
times said words, little us he was, which
would have shocked you, l am afraid, il
you had heard them. And | know the
only reason in the world why he did not
knock down the big boys who used to kick
and cuff him when he went to take his
turn in the row Of boys in the newspaper
office, was simply because he was too lit
tie to do it, Patsey Hagans did it for him,
and Patsey was the bully of the newsboys,
the toughest, toughest, most reckless OF
them all, the hardest case in town, who
always slept rolled up in an old blanket
| on the floor and who knew how to swear
when he was two years old Patsey train
| ed Little Ben to be newsboy, and callee
him his baby. So Patsey had soft spo
in his hard heart after all.
| Ben was the smallest newsboy YOU eyel
saw. Such little, little mite of fellow
he was, that you wondered how he coul(
sell papers at all, and how any mother
could trust him out of her sight. Fine
ladies said sometimes that it was pity
such apretty child should be newsboy
and that his mother surely did not care
much for him, letting him run about the
streets so in constant danger of beine
knocked down and killed. If he wer.
their boy he shouldn't do it for anything
For little Ben was very pretty child
with his slender hands and long, colder
curls. How was it? Did not his mothe
care for her child? Aye, she did; for h
was the only comfort she had in the world
Her only comfort and her only child
Little Ben had father, but he might bet
ter have had no father This father wa
a poor, pitiful wreck of humanity, faller
so low that | think scarcely the angels Q
Heaven could have reached him in th
depth OF degradation to which he had sunk
!! am sure nobody except an angel coul'
have reached him, away own in the poe
of slime and filth which was all over hin
For no beast is so beastly as human beas
Time was when this weak, bad man ha
been well to do in the world, and respect
able, and had friends. But it must hav
been always in him to be weak and bad
or he would not have fallen so easily whe
temptation came. An old tradition
which tells how the angels fell from Pars
disc, says that the thread which Dire
them into evil "was at first as thin as
, cobweb, but they did not resist, and
grew strong as cable" So with lit
Ben's father. He did not resist the col
web at first, and now the cable bound hi
7 hand and foot, and left him no power, M
even the wish, ever to rise again in th
, world. With the father of little Ben W
: have nothing more to do.
Time had been when the gentle mothe