Daily globe. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1878-1884, 1882-12-26
A DEBT OF HONOR.
PART I.
A CRUAIB TO A MOUSE.

It was the wet forenoon of January
day, just two years ago, when the usual
gang OF ldlers that hang about the ferry
wharves were delighted at having the
monotony Of gazing out from under the
dripping awnings broken by the singular
movements OF couple of policemen.
One Of these well-fed guardians of the
peace was on his knees beside hole
broken through the flooring of neigh.
boring dock, and engaged in angrily
issuing evidently disregarded commands
to some fugitive concealed beneath,
while his fellow, with equal profanity
and perspiration, endeavored to pry up
loose board further along, for the
purpose of also gaining access to the
offender.
"What's up? What's the matter ?"
asked the bystanders, crowding up, while
the passengers coming off the just-landed
ferry-boat stopped to look ON.
The policemen, however, ignored the
inquiries leveled at them with all the
haughtiness peculiar to the municipal
official of the period. But when
bustling citizen, who was evidently a
merchant and taxpayer, paused and said
brusquely, Hello, there, Mike What
are you after, Pat?" one of the blue
and-brass luminaries looked up and
growled:
Nothing but wharf-rat, EUR"
"Then why didn't you send in dog
If it's rat?" returned the merchant.
innocently. But the contemptuous
criticism of his ignorance about to be
made by the officer was interrupted Just
then by the cries of the rodent in ques-
ton, which appeared at the first men
toned aperture in consequence of a Wig
orous clubbing administered by one Of
the policemen, who had finally succeeded
IN removing the plank. The captive
thus secured was an indescribably d.
minutive and preposterously dirty
urchin, with the blacklist eyes and
reddest head imaginable. As the police
man dragged him into the daylight by
his threadbare collar, and perched him,
trembling and whimpering, of O bale
near at hand, shout Of appreciative
qualification went up from the bystand-
ers. Nothing tickles the risibles of your
ordinary street crowd so much as little
genuine pain and suffering exhibited
gratis.
Looking at the spectacle in this popu.
lar and kindly fashion, there was indeed
much cause for merriment. Nothing
sadder or more pitiful could be imae.
ined than that little hunger pinched.
bare-footed, ragged figure, with its I'M,
despair at the contamination of the one
terrible dread of its owners brief life
he had been "took up"
What's he done?' asked severe
looking man, eagerly. "Not been fight
ing dogs, eh %
''The bye. is't," responded one of the
a'lme coated magnates, leisurely putting
up his club. "Oh, he's only wan O. thin
" harf rats that lives benath the wharves
hrre, and sta!es from the projoose
s.hoonels o'nights." We be rlnnin'
thim al in now for vrgrancy and onda-
crut exposure, by raison ov thin goin'
- ~chw;nin, livery foive minutes widout
alseir clothes. It's af:her this divil we've
ltssn for Il wake or more. It's no use
snryin' to catch wan O thin felleys in
t,le wather. They schwim loike fish,
hegorra, thin does. and they've more
I,o'es Ter schlip inter than the eels them
ssives, SO they have"
s'Ah I" said the severe-l looking man,
who YVES aa officer of the s. P. C.'s, I
WIS IN hopes it was case for me-" and
he walked off much disappointed.
The wharf rat ceased his low terrified
saiveiing long enough to put in a plea
s:iat he was not vagrant, but sold pa
sw,ys; that he only slept underneath the
wharf because it didn't cost anything
that he didn't know it was any harm to
en in swimming, and other excuses COM
nloa to great criminals.
One of the officers strolled off to look
up an express wagon to convey their
captive to headquarters. This he did
partly because he would involve a loss of
dignity to convey sc insignificant pris-
uner through the streets, and partly be-
f.,lIse he had friend IN the express Of
lice who was always good for ''divvy'
on these little jobs. The other guard
an nlajestically reposed after his exer-
sinns on a hawser post, after impressmg
rtpon the child that al immediate cessa-
ton OF his numbering would obviate
the necessity of having his head caved
in by club.
Meanwhile several other passengers
to and from ade ferry loitered to gaze at