The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1877-03-14

II with delirium tremenS, naQ gwen ner
blows and curses until she was used to them,
and his death only relieved her Of burden
that she could not regret, and yet she cried
over the cold form that had been her girlish
ideal of manly grace and beauty. She
washed, she scrubbed, she begged for liv-
ing and went hungry and ragged from one
day to another, at first hoping for better
times, but at last neither resisting nor leay-
ing the current that was sweeping her into the
great stream of sin and guilt. She called
one room in a tenement house home, though
the dreary place, with its dirt stained walls
and floors, its broken window and gaping
door could awaken no regard for the name.
Her neighbors were like her, some OF them
little better, many a great deal worse;
some striving, trying to lift themselves
higher, but the majority content with their
level and eager to pull the others to it. In
the summer the block was known to breed
and foster disease, and the deaths were
many. In winter the story was the same,
only starvation and cold sweIled the list.
The authorities kept an eye on the locality
for thieves and criminals, but not O glance
for those who would have been better and
would have done better for little aid.
People are generally careful to remember
that God helps him who helps himself"
and do not interfere, forgetting that Jesus
left his disciples to do the earthly work
after He assembled.
Mrs. Flanders, or as she was called by her
acquaintances, Nan Flanders, kept think
ing busily all the way from the church to
her own door, and she made some resolu-
tions that at least did her credit, though her
carrying any of them out was so
problenlatical that il was best not to be
too confident as to future good results.
But the next Sunday two children, fright
ened and trembling, gave their names to
teacher in the Sunday-school, and on the
roll of the infant class they were recorded
Matte and Willie Flanders; and the second
circumstance stood alone before everybody
but woman sitting alone in dreary room
in a tenement house. The other pupils
looked amazed at the two strangers, and they
were rather odd little creatures assuredly.
Their clothes were old, but they had been
washed and an attempt made to mend them'
but ii was a failure. They were worn out
and neither seam nor patch could hold them
| together Their shoes were soles with here
and there a stitch holding them to torn,
thin uppers. A faded shawl was pinned
over Matties head, and the red, cold fingers
fumbled with the scant fringe. Their moth
er had borrowed the brimless crown OF a hat
| for Will, and he smoothed the cloth with
something akin to pride, and returned the
! curious glances of the other boys with a de-
| fiant look. The children whispered little
noting the many interesting objects in the
room, full of wonder and awe at the strange
sights and sounds Their teacher, after a
few songs, and few verses in the Bible,
and the roll call, and the collection,
said a few sentences about the les
son, asked a few questions, and then
in response to the superintendents
bell marched the class back into the larger
room, and all were dismissed. No one had
spoken to Matte and Will beyond asking
their names. Everybody had been so busy
about something else. The infant class had
80 members, zone of the largest classes in
the CITY," the teacher said proudly, and no
one could expect her to know anything of
her pupils beyond their names; possibly if
their parents were among her friends she
might recognize few more particularly.
She could not imagine that this one hour,
from to 3 oclock. Sunday afternoon. lifted
some of these boys and girls out of the cold
and misery and sorrow of their everyday
life, and gave them glimpses of something
brighter and better. That the story of Je-
sus, of his love and pity, was the only one
that they ever heard that was not calculated
to make them more sinful and wicked. That
from degradation and woe all the other
hours and days of the week, this brief space
only was kept pure. The officers of the
school could not be expected to remember
how few kind words the poor and miserable
ever had, and somehow between their onor-
Gus duties find time to cheer and comfort,
and the "better class of scholars remember
the home training and precepts, and
neither speak to nor notice strangers. They
draw themselves as far away as possible from
the tiny, shrunken forms and ragged, shabby
clothing of the beggar children, trying to
keep close in the footrrints of their elders.
Once in a while there is a child, or rather an
angel resting on earth ere wInging its way
back to heaven. who forgets poverty and
wretchedness and degradation. and tries to
do some good to other children; one who
shares its good fortune alike with all, but
keeps ever the best tor the most needy.
All winter through the snow, over the
slippery pavements, quivering with cold,
Mrs. Flanders kept her children going to
Sunday school, and at night she would slip
in to service. listening, hoping. trying at
| last 0rav;n0 Dawn IN the darkes eorner of