The Wellington enterprise. [volume] (Wellington, Ohio) 1867-188?, 1883-12-26

in the best of health. The bitter cold
was nothing to me. and those at home
had every comfort. if..,
halted with the crowd before grand
show-window, and there, SO near that /
could have pulled her rags, was one, I
of my victims. She was a woman of
fifty, gaunt, pinched, ragged, and great 4
black eyes which had the look of some \
hunted animal. saw all this at n
glance and turned away. What was at
70 me whether she wore silk or ragsp
Why should care whether she was
penniless or had plentyP' Was 1t my
and fire-whether she was wife or
widow whether children waited for
her In some wretched room, or whether
she lived alone and had money boarded
up.
You wouldn't have asked. Not one
man in ten thousand would have cared.
What Is one poor old woman more or
less 10 the crowds who surged up and
down the busy streets of a busy city
was going home with presents for
all-with bright anticipations = with
gratitude In my heart that had some
one to love, when that woman met me
face to face. Snowfiakes were falling
on the old shawl covering her head, and
the face which hunger had pinched was
pinched again with the coll. Her
great, fear-haunted eyes looked square
| ly into mine as she held out her hand.
She, did not speak. That bare arm
the skeleton fingers-the rags were
enough.
Then I committed foul crime. did
not strike her, nor brush her aside, nor
curse her. read her poverty and her
suffering in a single glance, and /
turned away and passed on. She was
a beggar. Perhaps she was drunkarj
as wen. How did know that she had
not been released from the work-house
that very afternronP II she was old and
poor and friendless her place was in the
poor-house.
looked back over my shoulder and
there she stood, hand outstretched tow
ards me as If she were praying to God
to soften my heart and bring me back,
and had faith that he would answer her
prayer,
But did not halt; felt stab. but
conquered it, and said to my accusing
conscience: "Be still! you might give
every dollar you possess to the poor,
and you would receive no thanksi
That night when all the little stock
ings had been filed. and wife and had
expressed our gratitude for the blessings
of life and the good health which had
been ours for years, / slept to dream. i
dreamed of the gaunt woman who had
asked for aims. L dreamed of hovel
in which there was neither food nor
fire nor lamp. / dreamed that 1 fol-
lowed her home and heard means and
scbs and prayers as ! listened at tho
door. / tried to open 1t but it
would not yield. tried to cry out that
had come to help her. but the words
would not come. wanted to give her
money, and tell her that had mis-
judged her and would help to make it a
happy Christmas by sending food and
fuel, but while l struggled to speak a
form stole past me into the wretched
abode and whispered:
"It is too latel "
When the morning dawned I could
not rest. hurried out and walked the
streets, scanning every face and figure,
and hoping against hope that ] would
meet my victim. could not find her
Then left the streets and journeyed
through alleys where / had seen the
pale faces of the poor peerlng through
shattered panes. BY and by came TO
a time-beaten, desolate-looking hovel
half buried under the snow. Frost COW
cred the panes and snow he'd drifted
over the doorstep. / looked for smoke
from the chimney, but mono came forth.
listened for sounds Of human voices,
but listened in vain.
Then / felt m~self a criminal, and
trembled as II the law had laid its hand
upon me. would have run away, but
some strange power prevented and
urged me nearer. knocked at the
door. No answer. tapped on the
window. All was silent.
Then opened the door and stepped
in. had committed murder, and like
other murderers had been drawn back
TO the scene by some strange fascina-
ton. In a chair-the only one in the
hovel-sat the woman who had held out
her hand to me. Her face was held in
her hands, and she seemed to have
shriveled up. On the bed--on the rags
and straw covered with rags and
locked in each others arms, were the
children-a girl of nine and boy OF
twelve. On the wall near by were two
stockings-faded and ragged and worn,
but hung there for Santa Claus.
The stockings were empty. touched
the woman and called: "Good-morn
ing" but she did not move.
/ bent over the children and shouted
"Merry Christmasr' but they did moi
awake.
They were deadl In my dream 1 had
seen specter pass me and enter. II
was the specter of death. Hunger and
cold and sickness and despair had in
vited him in.
And I-where is my defensep
could have given, and did not. One
single coin would have given then
bread that night. The hundredth part
of the contents of my purse would have
lighted and warmed and fed them and
placed tokens of mothers love in the
ragged stockings.
That was my crime. 1t accuses m,
by day and comes to me in my dreams
by night give and give, but tha
voice is ever whispering: sit is too