Ellsworth American. [volume] (Ellsworth, Me.) 1855-current, 1875-07-22
M.aiseellaneoms. 9
Wicked Jack no Longer.

| lou have met him, doubtless. He is
that newsboy with the bad eve and the
| general wicked look-the boy who isn't
afraid to "chin" the most dignhed man
who ever walked the streets of Detroit.
| wicked Jack. Why bless you, he has car
ried FREE PRESSES and sold papers here
IN Detroit ever since he was old enough
to find his way to the Office. 1t is safe TO
say that he has had his ears cutfed two
hundred times per year for ten years past
Tor 'sassing" the public, and that he has
licked more boot-blacks. apple-peddlers
ana newsboys than can be piled into the
corridors of the City Hail. All the phil.
osophers who have been attached to THE
FREE PRESS since that boy came upon the
stage OF active lite have had a; strugg lie
with him. They have coaxed, entreated,
argued, bribed, and even tried to frighten
him, but Jack was iron-clad. He knew
that there was need of missionary work
but it was so much easier to be wicked
than it was to be good that he continued to
be wicked.
The public might have done better by
the boy. 1t Is not known that any human
being, outside OF the three or four newspa-
per philosophers, ever asked him to be
gooo. No other efforts were ever made to
get him into school-to keep him clean
~ 'NPANS' MS CallQ uOWU nj TOO
ready muscle. The newspaper men might
have succeeded had they had more time.
or had been backed up by outsiders. II
doesn't do boy a bit of good to Dat him
on the head and tel! him of Heaven and
then let him walk out among a crowd Of
young rascals who have collected to make
an assault upon him and give him a whole.
SAFE maullng, and Wicked Jack discovered
that his fists and feet made better road
through life than kind words and square
dealing
Where has he lived? And how? All. We
all ought to feel ashamed. For four or
hve years he slept in barns, in boxes, on
the ewhart-anywhere where night over
took him. None of Us ever asked him
home or gave him money to secure better
lodgings, and what else could the boy do :
year ago he got the privilege of sleep
lns on the haymOw in livery stable, but
he had TO help about the barn to paw for
H. Ills meals were made up OF crackers
ana cheese, fruit, or whatever his profits
would buy, and Ills clothing was handed
out by some aid society or picked up in the
alleys.
That's the way Wicked Jack lived, and
yet our churches are sending money 10
heathens over the sea Money has gone
TO the heathens in Africa while Jack. the
new>bOy, has been allowed 10 come mn
with the vile and wicked. knowing all
about ickedness-knowing nothing of
Heaven. Those who knew the boy best
did not believe that anything could touch
the soft spot in his heart and yet something
dId. lie entered and LEFT the barn as h..
pleased. They knew JACK to be wicked
but they also knew that he was honest.
The other day one of the men about the
= of
but they could not be located or traced.
The next evening the groans were heard
aSaln. ana there was something suspicious
III JACK ; actions as he skulked into the
barn and cllmed 20 the hay-lott One OF
the stable men followed, creeping CAREFUL
ly and quietly. The boy had his home in
an old wagon-box under the caves of the
roof, and the man was finally near epouUh
to hear talking. There was a strange voice
and there was Jacks voice, and pretty
soon Jacks voice was heard reading.
Cronched down on the hay, the listener
caught the words:
On, remember not against us former
iniqultles, let Thy tender mercies speedily
prevent us. for we are brough: very low"
Going little nearer looking over into
Wicked Jacks home. the man saw-what?
The boy, leaning back to let the last rays
OF day light filter through between the
boards on to the sheet worn page of BIZ
bic that he had picked up, was reading
aloud dto-himself? No-to an old man
an old man lying on Jacks blanket
IL was strange, but stranger still when
they learned that Wicked Jack had found
the poor old man wandering through the
streets, i'll. hungry, no home, no friends.
and taken him and cared for him two long
weeks. And that boy had used money to
buy medicine and to get little delcacies
Tor his patient, sometimes going hungry
himself, and not a man around the barn or
a boy on the street had been allowed to
share his secret.
They lifted the old man down and sent
him to the hospital. He would have been
dead but for that boys kindness. Wicked
Jack has found new friends-he will el..rI
new path soon. His name has been aL-
orevlated. 1t icdS Wicked Jack. Can YOU
call him that now? Isn't he entitled 10
all the respect you could show the son of
klnS-a king hims self?-[ Detroit Free
Press.