The Indianapolis sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis, Ind.) 1880-1904, 1885-02-22
TIE SYDNEY CARTONS

les Is acquainted with Dickens Sydney
Carton. He was careless, he was slovenly.
and be drank. Idlest and most unpromising
of men, he served glib and interruptions
advocate whose superior in intellect he was.
Mr. Stryver was the lion, Sydney Car
ton the jsckal. The lion, ready and bold,
hustled busily about and gathered cases
which the iackal, over the bottles which the
lion provided him, analysed and extracted
the pith and marrow of argument for the use
Of the man OF tongue and assurance bat lit
tie brain.
81 am disappointed drudge, sir. care
for no man on earth, and no man cares for
me" was one Cartons careless comics
sions. Observing his weakness, his reckless
ness and dissipation, the respectable man
and the Christian passed him By without
recognition, and he in turn hated the Chris.
tian and the respectable man. Unworthy
fellow that he was, why should respectable
ity and Christianity defile their hands by
touching his?
But, anon, this jackal meets pure, gentle
and sympathetic girl. OF all the heightened
who daily brush him by, who would have
demonstrated such unselish and immscu-
late spirit when confessing his love aud his
dement's? A "self-hung away, wasted,
drunken, poor creature of misuse, as you
know me to be" he described himself to her.
He knew that she loved another, and asked
no return of his love, and would not have
accepted the sacrifice of her, lest he should
"blight her, disgrace her and pull her down
with him." But since knowing her he had
heard whispers from old voices impelling
him upward, that he thought were silent for
ever" He revealed to her that beneath his
! profigacy ano apparent total depravity was
/ vein of pure and noble thought and feel
+ ing, and Lucy Manette gave to him with
/ tears all the esteem, confidence and SYM
pathy she might have given to an erring
brother.
The years roll by with Sydney Carton still
careless, drunken and insolent but always
holding in memory the kind words of the
pure girl. OF all the people he had met since
falling into the debased life only she had
! given him compassion. Charles Darnay, the
husband of Lucy Manette, lies in the Con-
cergerie at Paris awaiting the morrow
when. with others, his head is to fall from
the guilotine. Sydney Carton gains admit
lance to his cell. few minutes afterward
the guard removes from the Concergerie
the suit worn by Carton and the swoon-
ing form which it covered. An hour
later that form was in Lucy's en-
brace, though unconscious still, and car
riage containing both rapidly leaving Paris.
On the following day the little sempstress,
who was TO be executed along with Darnay,
hardly restrained an exclamation when she
look ed into the face OF him who stepped
from Darnay's cell. But his eyes repressed
her. Are you dying for him?" che
whispered. And his wife and child. Hush
Yes" "Oh, you will let me hold your brave
hand, stranger" "Hush Yes, my poor sis
ter-to the lost"
There was another Sydney Carton in a
Southern city during the yellow fever
scourge of 1879. He was dissipated and a
gambler. The respectable man and the
Christian repudiated him as foul blot on
the place, and sought to have him driven
out. When the scourge came most of the
ministers and the 'better classes fed the
city. But Harry Savage, the blackIeg, re-
manned. He drew from bank some IS, 600
and organized q corps of nurses and physi-
clans at his own expense. Tie levers rsvsges
were appalling, but he shrunk not fcom
its direst scenes. Refusing needful
rest he walked by day and by night, provid-
ing for the wants of the stricken poor and
tending them with his own hands. He ex-
hausted his purse, exhausted his own phys
ical strength, fell himself victim to the
scourge-the very last it laid its hands upon
and died.
Four years ago betrayed woman, penni-
less and nearing confinement, applied to
several charitable homes in New York City
for shelter, and was refused by all. at
length magdalen, from her window saw
the unfortunate woman on the street, went
out to her and brought her to her own room.
Frustrated by hunger and toilsome walking,
she fell sick, and three days later some very
respectable people had both the women ar
rested and subsequently prosecuted-the one
for infaDticide and the other as being par
ticeps. 1t was proven that the charge was
unfounded, but the evidence of the wan.
derer on the witness stand shove the mag
dalen to have, during the weeks almost
starved herself that the sick one might have
comforts.
II responsibility and Christianity would
not look so highly over their critical spec
tacles they might do much more toward re-
claiming the fallen. The human being is a
rare one who is so totally depraved that
there is not a corner in the heart susceptible
to the touch of kindness of unselfish interest,
in his or her behalf. One of the disbar-
ments of the erring from returning to the
right is the violence done their sensitiveness
by the sights of others. Many a solemn
lecture, however well intended, spoken to
one who has let his foot slip. has had only
discouraging effect upon its object. VIVA,
worse condemnation can the one gone