The aegis & intelligencer. [volume] (Bel Air, Md.) 1864-1923, 1882-01-13
ellauenus.
-'GIII-''

A ragged, sad-eyed boy, aged nine or ten,
stopped me on the street the other day, and
said:
Il haven't had anything to eat the whole
day! Won't you please to give me ten
cents?"
l gave it to him. I'd have given him the
money if it had been necessary to pawn my
hat.
'Do you let impostors swindle you in that
manner?" asked an acquaintance.
A journalist who was knocking about for
daily paper a dozen years has seen every
phase of human life Men, women and chill
dren have swindled him, or tried to; people
have lied to him his money has been given
to whining, lying Migrants, who told direful
tales of distress, and he ought to be able to
correctly read human nuture
I'll bet that boy is professional beggar,"
continued my friend, chuckling ut the idea of
my being swindled.
None of us care for the loss of shinplaster
on the street, while every one feels veXed
and annoyed at the idea of being swndled
out of a single penny. l could not say that
the boy was not swinder, and yet | would
have divided my last shilling with him.
"Why?'
told my friend why, and | will tell you.-
cut way luSt fNul NHCH VIC VIII Win DlCW
the snow over the houseroofs and around the
corners in binding clouds, and when the
frosty air cut ones face like q knife, q boy of
ten came up to me as / waited for the car
He was thinly clad, his face betrayed hunger
and suffering, and in the most mournful voice
he pleaded:
I'm hungry and cold"
"Why don't you go homc?"
81 haven't any"
Haven't you any relatives ~
mot onep
GLOW long have you been here ~
"Three weeks"
The boy spoke in that drawl which pro-
fessional beggars assume. / believed, too,
that had seen his face on the street time
and again. hardened my heart and said to
him:
"Boy l know you, and if l catch you ask
ing any one for money again I'll have you ar
restedw
He moved away quickly. l argued that
this proved his guilt, forgetting that home
less waif might evince fear when entirely in
nocent.
But hours later, when night had come, and
the wind had grown to fierce gale, the boy
halted me again, as plunged through the
snowdrifts. | did not see him until he call
ed out:
"Mister! I'm almost starved, and I'll
freeze to death if can't get some place to
sleepw
The same thin, ragged clothes, hardly COM
Portable for June weather-the same whine to
his voice. | felt like giving him money, but
the fear that he had been sent out by his
parents to beg restrained and angered me-
Catching him by the arm yelled out:
"See here, boy, if you don't own up that
you are lying to me, I'll take you to the
station
Through the binding storm l saw his
white face grow pale and cried back: Don't
take needn't! Yes, was lying to you"
released him, and he hurried away, while
l walked on, tlattering myself that had
played sharp game and done the generous
public good turn.
An hour later, when the night had grown
still wilder and colder, some one knocked at
my door 1t was tmid knock, and won
dered who could have sent child abroad on
such a night. | opened the door and the
same boy was on the step, his face blue with
cold, his whole form shrivering, and look
of desperation in his eyes,
"Pease, Mister he began, but he stop
ped when recognizing me.
was puzzled to know why he should
have followed me home-why he had select
ed me for victim and traled me so persist
emily.
might have argued that the storm had
driven people off the streets, and that the freez.
ing, starving boy had, in his desperation, call,
ed at the house, but | didn't. Had it been
| any other boy, or any person, asking charity
| would have given it to him promptly and
freely. But was angry at his trailing me-
angered that he thought he could swindle
me- and grasped at him and inquired:
boy, what is your name?"
| He leaped back, and standing where the
| furious storm almost buried him from sight
| he answered.
"Gillp
81 know you, sir" Ishouted, and he NOV.
ed away without another word.
May the Lord forgive me for that night
work but you might have acted the same
When morning came, after night so bitter
that policemen were frozen on the beats,
opened the front door to find that boy dead
on the steps, frozen to death / knew, as
the dead, white face looked up at me through
the snow, that had wronged him with my
! suspicious but it was too late thcn--the an
! gels had opened to him gate leading to
| place where the human heart and its unwor
| thy thoughts can never enter Poor Gill
A warm meal or a shilling would have saved
his life, and drove him out to his death
This is why give when | am asked now
| know that sometimes give to the unworthy
but it would be better to give all / possesset
to an impostor than to have another homeless
waif creep back to die on the spot where
had uniustly accused him.