St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1886-06-27

PEELED him to leave and she had heard moth
ing of him since. L felt alarmed and
sought the aid of Supt. Jordan. Aleck
| was found on Blackwelfs Island.
QUEER HOME FOR A GAMBLER.
On his release he came, naturally, to me.
embraced him up, encouraged him, gave
him work and at his request called upon
Miss Danser. l found her in Elizabeth
street. l think, in quaint little house,
pictures of religious subjects on the walls,
hymn books and Bibles, tracts and vol
ume OF Mrs. Heman's poetry on the table.
While waiting for her l took up Mrs. He
mans and found she had marked,
And was His mortal hour beset
With angish anguish and dsmay?
How may we meet our conflict yet
In the dark narrow way?
How, but through Him, that path who trod
Save Or we perish, Son of God;
and others, but that particular verse under
scored half dozen times. Well, now, just
imagine the position.
| A gamblers home, gamblers daughter,
a gambler with reputation widespread as
the keenest of his class; cruel, crafty,
merciless to all his victims, but enveloping
| this one child with the hottest OF Senti-
ments. the sweetest of affections. the care,
the thought, the love, the protecting yearn-
ing for his daughter and his daughters
good; and here in this room, the room of
the gamblers daughter, within call of other
rooms less sacred, were these emblems of
her faith, these indiceS of her thoughts,
these flowers upon the pathway of her
extraordinary existence.
had painful half hour with her.
She admitted with fearful protestations
| her love for Aleck; she told how greatly
she desired his happiness here and here
| after; but through it all it was painfully
evident that as a Christian woman she be-
| lieved with faith that could not be turned.
1t would be sin for her to link her life
| with that of man who, under the inflence
of liquor, yielded up everything that was
| true, everything that was right, everything
that in her Judgment was worth living for.
Yet made as good a fist of it as could.
and finally secured her promise that ii
Aleck would sign and keep pledge of total
abstinence for q menth she would receive
him, and that meanwhile he might wife to
| her once a week. Of course l knew that
ended it, for the moment a man and woman,
situated as they were, begin to write, look
| ing forward to meeting, the verieSt blind
man must be able to see the certain end.
| The end came.
| They were reunited and day was set fol
| their marriage, against which the father
made most vigorous protest, but yielded, as
| fathers generally do, aided somewhat to-
ward that step by the fact that Aleck had
taken and kept his pledge for three consec-
| utive months.
In an evil hour the young man was sent
to report French ball.
| The city editor instructed him to remain
until the closing of the doors, not to be con-
tent with the ordinary routine report, but
to supplement it by a truthful and provable
record of the later scenes and the hurly-
burly which invariably attends the breaking
| up. Bright and handsome. dashing and
full OF life, he was favorite in the commit
tee-reom, and, yielding to the pressure of
| hospitality, he took a glass of wine.
ThOughtleSSly he took another-and landed
in the station-house.
| Reckless, he plunged into the vortex.
He was not content with that disgrace,
| but, wildly tempting his fate, dove to the
| very dregs. Danser, with an outburst OF
| passionate fury his daughter had never seen
| before, swore to kill him on sight if he ran
| across his path. My favor could not shield
him longer in the Office, and he sank, little
| by little, to the depths Of dirty, loath-
some vagrant. Time and again, in the
| early hours of the morning. when the city
was asleep, he crawled into the publication
| Office, his stockingless feet in rubbers, scan
| tily clothed. so foul and disagreeable as to
| be absolutely offensive, and begged for the
| merest pittance.
Danser went on blithely and bravely
| through life. His daughter thinned down.
Her face was like parchment, her eyes, al
| ways large, stood so prominent under her
| arched brows as to seem distorted. Hel
| lips became thin and puckered. Never
| strong, always puny in appearance,
she literally shrivelled. Danser grew
| old and strong and stout, and
very, very rich. He tempted his
daughter with money. He begged her to
| go abroad, he sought in every possible way
to distract her attention and divert hel
thoughts, but with a manner almost dis
trait she pushed him gently to one side and
devoted all her sharpened intellect, all her
time and all the money she could get from
her over-generous father to the ongoings OF
her church, her mission and her school.
| THE DREADFUL END.
| One day, shortly after Tryon row was
pulled down to make way for the new
building of the Staats-Zeitung, when the
| entire triangle fronting what is now known
| as the Brooklyn bridge entrance was occu-
| pied with timber and with stone, standing
with friend and looking from the window
of my office idly, my attention was at
tracted to figure bent nearly double,
sitting on a long joist.
| 1t was man.
On his dishevelled head was no hat, on
his feet no shoes, on his body ragged shirt
and worn and holey pair of trousers, held
in place by one dilapidated suspender.
Newsboys plagued him, newsgirls jeered at
him, a loafng policeman, swinging club,
looked on approvingly.
Had he been a dog think should have
| jumped into the ring.
1t was no dog.
1t was my old boy, Aleck. Quick, quick
we had him i'll an ambulance. quick we
drove him to a hospital, and there, washed
and cleansed and shaved and fed, the poor
fellow lay until the spirit passed, leaving
| him literally the remains of what might
have been man.
You recall the story of the Dansers? OF
the great robbery, the extraordinary detec-
ton of the thieves and recovery of the prop
erty, the death of the father, the quick
fading away of the girl and the vast sums
left to churchly hands after her obligations
were paid and her monument erected?
The moral points itself.
| Had Aleck been sober man what han
pinesS was in store for him and the girl who
| loved him.
Had Danser been the drunkard, how diff
ferently this story might have run.
HOWARD.