Wheeling Sunday register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1882-1934, 1886-12-19

He knocked, and the thin little girl with
the pale, delicate face opened the door, came
out, and shut it behind her. The tract dis
tributor took of his hat, she looked up at
him, and ! knew she spoke, though was not
near enough to hear what she said. l no
ticed, too, that she raised her hand in ges-
ture-a solemn and intensely dramatic ges-
ture, it seemed to me, for one 30 young to
make unconsciouSly. A queer sort Of chill
crept over me. The tract distributor opened
the door and went in, but she stood outside,
and was still standing there when reached
the door
Somehow, when l was quite near her
sould find no words TO utter. She seemed to
understand, and pointing to the door, said:
You can so in il you want to. Father died
this morning"
stood speechleSs in the presence Of that
chllds fearless sorrow.
~But help came to you yesterday" saia,
ny heart sinking as a possibility had never
bought Of flashed into my mind.
"Yss, he-the man who has Just gone in
came and was very kind He stayed by
rather all night, and was only away little
while; but father died while he was gone"
GAnd-did-did-nob else come yester-
iayP / stammered.
Nobody else" said the child, looking up
surprised at the question
felt ashamed to go in and face the tract
distributor in the presence Of the dead he haS
comforted and whom had left for others TO
eomfort-others who never came.
de greeted Inc with gentle kindness, and as
claSped his hand in that woeful dwelling
L IF L
We went out together to plan for the
funeral and procure further aid for the liv
ing.
"You did a good work when you wrote
about these people," he said, "and thank
you, for otherwise / should not have known
Of their existence in time to be of help when
they needed it most"
With what shame remembered my article
ON religious frauds. OF which I had been so
proud only two days before.
From that hour we became warm friends
As l learned TO know him well looked back
in amazement at my former conclusions in
regard to him. calamity" Parker, indcels
Il would have been more fitting hal named
him BeneGicent Parker. His life was bcne-
| Observation-Disclosures and self-denying; he
gave Of his abundant sympathy ard slender
worldly means without reserve. Nor was his
never failing patience and sweetness of spirit
the cloak OF hypocrisy, but the result of years
Of spiritual aspiration and discipline, which
| have never vet begun to attain. His habit of
distributing tracts was merely the outward
manifestation Of a helpful sprit-a habit
contracted in a byGone day among simple
people Il hurt no one For aCght / know
It may havo benefited some. Why should
assume that because a man had an molten
siyo habit, of which I diSapproved, that he
vas a tit subject to be inSulted in the public
PRINTS, deriJed behind his back and sneered
ut when he was presenti 1t was the igno-
rance Of youth, my chlidren-yOuth, oyer-con-
ident youth, which thinks it knows every.
hing and often knows nothing / had not
hen learned that each one has his own way
Of doing good, and has his rights, too Neither
had learned that it Is foolish and wicked to
Judge people whose real lives We do Tot know
and cannot know-or to judge at all
It was some time before got over my sur
prise at the apathy of the phianthropists Of
Doonville in regard to that wretched family
was at a loss TO understand how they could
cot their Christmas dinners in comfort, after
Naading about the distress Of tho poor souls in
the old house / did not then know that
people unused TO seeing poverty are slower to
lend helping hand than they who see it
every day; that when We have not the poor
always with US we forget how to DO benevo-
lent and sometimes grow very selfish.
GERTRUDE GARRISON.