The Osceola times., 1881-01-08

Belle shuddered, but made no reply;
although silly and thonghtless she was no
fool, and she had set all her wits 10
work TO devise plan by which TO es
cape from this place before it was too
late. Shading her face from the gaze OF
Walt she glanced keanly around the
room; the one door was fastened; the
oniy other communication with the
outer world were three windows, and
they were closed by shutters and heavy
| curtains; through chink in the shutter
of one of them, where the curtains were
parted slightly, she could see the g,im-
mer of street lamp on the opposite
corner, and under it the blue CLEAN of a
policeman's uniform. But he was so far
away. The room was getting very
dark; she looked at her iailer despair
ingly; he was watching the blue wreaths
OF smoke that curled upward from his
cigar; as Bellies eyes wandered around
the room they fell upon one of those
large white sea-sbells so often used for
ornaments, lying on a silken mat near
her chair.
With one bound she has snatched up
the shell and reached the window; there
is crash of shattered glass, torrent of
horrible oaths from the villain who
grips her arm cruelty and tries to drag
her away, but the agonized cry rings
loud and clear, aud the bleeding hands
cling tight:
"Help! helpl help"
There is the quick sharp sound of a
policeman's rattle; another and another
and another answeres, and the cruel
hand leaves her arm, passer-by looks
up at the pale face ct the window; he
joins the policemen as they rush into
the house, and Belle throws herself
fainting into the arms of her Mortified
cousin John. When she RECEIVERS she
finds herself surrounded by blue-coated
men, and answers the stern business
like questions of one of them, trem.
blingly, but he learns enough.
"Larkey OConnor, alias Alphonse
Sartoris," said he, 81 know him; this
trick Of enticing young girls into these
places is getting common, and will be so
as long as girls are allowed to walk the
streets at all hours unprotected"
Rather say" responded cousin John
Indignantly, "as long as such places as
this are licensed and encouraged to ruin
these innocent ones, body and soul; as
long as our Lawmakers delibei ately
make it unsafe for the helpless ones tc
walk our streets unprotected. This lit
tie one" gently carressing the sobbinl
girl, "has escaped. Think of the thou.
sands of ill-fated ones who do not"
And the policeman assented with 8
sigh.
That evening. with the poor, tori
hands carefully bound up, Belle sobbed
out the whole story to her aflrighted
parents. 1t was bitter lesson, and
whenever her schoolmates spoke o.
flrtations of any kind, a vision Of the
hard wicked face of Nine. Corallie and
Walt rose before her.
Don't do it, girls, for though you may
never have Bellies experience, still
II has brushed from the grape its soft blue,
From the rosebud has shaken the tremelous
dew,
and you can't afford it. This unfortu-
nate girl escaped the trap which was
laid for her feet. But while we thank
our guardian angel that she did, a wall
comes up from all parts of our fair land
hear it, you who would destroy moth
ers the right of making laws to protect
their spotless ones; "think of the thou
sands of ill-fated ones who do not"