The times. (Owosso, Mich.) 1882-1897, 1884-02-15
when His Heart Thawed Out,

One day two or three years ago a
grutf old man, hard-hearted and given
to drink. and living alone In house
on Gratiot street. found II crippled boy
3 or 10 years of age crying In front Of
his door. 1t Was his way to curse chill
dren and drive them away. but in this
instance he spoke kindly to the lad.
and even sympathized with him. For
that once his hardened heart seemed 10
thaw out. and men who noticed his
kind action wondered greatly.
BY and by the crippled boy. known
IS jake, seemed TO grow into the old
mans heart and spent hours with him
at his house. He was. so far as any
one could remember, the first and only
human being to say kind word for
gruff old Ben. sa az
When the old man fell sick a few
weeks ago nobody missed him for sew
eral days. Indeed, no one cared much
| whether he was sick Or well, but some
one interested himself enough to dis
| cover that the sick man was being
nursed by the cripple. The days and
nights must have been terribly lone
some to the lad. but he WAS faithful to
the last. The other morning he quiet
ly announced to the neighbors that old
Ben was dead. Those who went in
found the rooms in neat order, the dead
man lying as if asleep, and the money
to bury him was safe in an old wallet
in the bureau. When they asked Jake
about 1t he explained; -.s.,.i~,,t III.
she died as easy rs II baby. Long
at first he used to curse and swear
about his sickness, but after a while he
let mo read the bible to him, and some
times saw tears in his eyes" re&
Folks thought him hard man."
"But he wasn't. When his heart
thawed out he was like child. One
day brought him from the chest lot
of old letters, the photograph of a wo-
man and baby, and he cried over them.
l guess they were dead, and guess
"Did he die easyP" s.
Just like going to sleep" answered
the lad. lit was just daylight. sat
by the bed and had fallen asleep, when
he put out his hand and whispered:
Jake, I'm dying" With that1 jump
ed up to do something, but he said il
was too late. There was great change
in him. All the hardness had gone out
of his face, his eyes had a kind look,
and the boys who used to be afraid of
him wouldn't have known him for. the
same man. 4 was reading to him
from the old bible when all at once his
fingers let go of my hand and he was
dead"
"And then?"
The boy turned away and wept.
From the day gruff old Ben had ad-
dressed him a word the prayers of a
child pleading for awicked man had been
heard in Heaven. He had prayed for
him in life and after death. and if the
prayer had not brought that peaceful
look TO the white, dead face, what else
could have done it.-DetroH Free Press.
Man Always The Same Animal
The most splendid specimen of the
Caucasian race that the civilized world
can show to-day has no more organs,
bones, muscles, arteries, veins or nerves
than those which are found in the low
est savage. He makes different use
Of them, and that use has changed their
development, and to some extent has
modified stature, physical, intellectual
and moral, and many other attributes;
as climate and habits of life have modi-
fed complexion, the diseases to which the
human frame Is liable, and many other
peculiarities. But If we take historic
man we find that in all the physical
features of his animal construction that ,
constitute him a species, he has been
essentially the same animal in all states
of civilization or barbarism. And I'M
less we boldly assume that the prehis-
toric man was an animal born with q
coat of hair all over his body, and that
clothing was resorted to as the hair in
successive generations disappeared, we
can have no very strong reason for be-
lieving that the human body has been
ut any time an essentially different
structure from what it Is now. Even
in regard to longevity or power Of con-
tinued life, II we set aside the excep-
tional cases of what Is related of the
patriarchs in the biblical records, we
do not find that the average duration
of human life has been much greater or
much less than tho three-score and ten
or the four-score years that are said to.
have been the divinely appointed term.
As to what may have been the average
duration of life among the prehistoric
men, we are altogether in the dark
Geo. 7Scknor Curtis, en- the Manh0tton.
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