Staunton vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1860-1896, 1888-03-16
A NIGHTS LODGINGS.

fall IN company like this.
No matter. Who was she, anyway?
Only a moving vertebra in the disorderly
column dragging its wretched length to Oak
street station house. An ugly beldame
nudged her, with leering glance.
What you goin' this way for, We goose:
Better lodgin's for face like yours, girl
She shrank little, drawing her head
covering more closely over her face. The
pelting storm was excuse enough for that.
There was kind of protection in the old
home shawl that she would not have ex-
changed for the smart hat which went fo.
last nights lodgings In view of the
tattered, tawdry finery of some of her COM
panions, she was not sorry that the cocks
plumes from the old farmyard were not
dropping over her disgrace.
What bleared, british wrecks of humanity
were these on either side of the way! Better
to have found bed in the river-in the river
alone. But, then, there would have been the
terrors of the Judgment after such watery
sleep. She remembered still, with shudder.
the picture painted on her childish magma
ton of the dreadful day of Judgment.
Yet, OH heaven! how like the damned
these creatures looked! but there was no
smell of fire and birthstone like that which
Parson Adams had blown from his warming
trumpet in the village church at home.
AT the gate she glanced up at the long line
OF men filing in-blear eyed, vicious looking,
yet not, after all, so repellent as the women
She even marked one, with face close mufied
from the storm like her own, who bore an air
of rough responsibility. To her benumbed
fancy-though she could have given express
sion to no conscious thought of this kind-he
was like one of the dead russell leaves that
she had seen driven on the wild winter wind.
But the press of the crowd bore her within
the station, and sinking III a dark corner.
she waited stolidly the disposition to be made
of her by the authorities in charge
Groans, laments, profane and vulgar eiacu-
lations smote her dull ears, but she had
thought of little beyond her own misery.
"Eyenin', miss. Seen We when We was
comm in, an I've got leaf to speak to ye."
The voice was hoarse and gruff as with
cold, and she did not see the speaker clearly
in her dim corner, but she thought this the
man she had noticed at the gate
"Somehow It seems t me yer in the wrong
place. Taint no nights lodgin' fer likely
young gal sech as I take you to be. What
dye come here fer 2"
Because She turned away from the
intruder as if she would have dismissed him.
"Hey 81 he insisted.
because amt got nowhere else to go.n
$50! Well-well-nor I nuther,n was the
cheering response. But yew-why, yew
hadn't orto be comm to sech place IS this.
Why don't ye try t git in the country where
folks s respectable? Nothin' but wick'dniss
in this dretful, turrybul, bad city. I came
here tother day arter my darter-yew make
me think on her, some way 'nother-an' L
run a-foul of a blasted pickpocket the very
fust thing, an he took every blest cent had.
luther wallet an all. I tore round like mad
when l foun' It out, an knocked down the
Teller that reckoned TUX it-knocked him
hard, too! But 'twant him tall, an 1 got
rested for Whence an marched off down here
an tried fer reg'ler salt an battry, an was
cast int Jaime, a deacon of the church in
Mapletaown an respectable, likely man till
l come daown to this dumb heather city an
got robbed an cast int Jail, instid O the
thief that's prancin' round somers havin a
good time with my money"
The deacon stamped his heavy foot upon
the floor with religious zeal that would
have sunk the modern Gomorrah, had the
fire of his wrath possessed a sufficiently
consuming power.
''When I sarved out my ten days. he re-
sumed, 81 looked ten yeer older; but as I'd
got kind O quainted with the place, / come
back to sleep nights while Tn kind O pickin'
up odd jobs to arm some money to git back
hum agin. This ere snow IL make a power
O. shovelin' t. du It's n i'll wind It don't blow
nobody emmy good.n
"And-and your girl?" suggested his list
ener, in breathess way
son, that's the worst on It." was the de-
spairing response; II dunno nothin' what to
do, Ye see feel jist like tellin' We bout it
some way. 1t may be a kind O. warnin' to
ye. Sary Lizy1~that's my darter-was bout
as sweet, purity gal as ye often see. She
was jist tn apple O. my eye since her ma died,
an we KEEP haouse together all hunkado1y,
with John Sampson a COMM in, every
evenin' putty Nigh to talk over the news.
john don't mind tellin' ye-was Sary
LiZys beau ever sence they was boy
and gal, an d sort O growed up with
tn understandin' that they'd be man N
wife arter while. But bout this time there
como to taown dashin kind O. feller-no-
body knowed who he was-but he he'd things
t sell raound t the stores, and Sary Lily, she
happened to meet him t her Cousin Hiram's
who's a storekeeper in Mapletaown-an' he
TUX arter her like houn AFTER hare, an
she jist let him. declare, the cretur acted
jest as eff she was bewitched an hadn't no
sense nur reason. 1t made me mad. The
fust sharp words ever spoke t Sary Lily
spoke then. But 'bwant no arthly use, The
Teller hung raound, am hung raound, an
went way, an come back agin, an she man.
aged t. see him n spite O me. AS fer John,
she'd treated him SO shameful he didn't come
nigh her more At last RELY thought the
rascal d gone way fur good N all, but fust 1
knew one lnornin' Sary Lily had Hoped off
with him. Declare fort It most broke my
heart. Idunno but in my unsettled state O
mind l might a. TUX up. with tn Wilder
Jones who come in t look arter the haouse;
but couldn't forget Mellissy-Melllssy's my
dear dead wife, We know
The speaker paused to blow his nose
$50 got along good spell th'out hearin'
from Sary Lily. But finely there come a
letter from Cousin Mirandy, in Jersey, sayin'
as how't she'd got line from Sary Lily in
New York, a-askin' her to send jest money
huff TO get Sary Lily to her haouse, where
she'd work her fingers Il the bones to pay it,
Said she was all lone II q great city. n
didn't know what t do, but she'd ruther die
than write to pa, an wouldn't Cousin Mi.
lady jest help her t. git away from the city,
an she'd try to git good enough t go back t.
WdtllelaOWli SOlle uay. DuG cousin MlranQy
said there wants ne street nor number in
Sary Lizy's letter, an she didn't know bout
sendn' money loose to great city like New
York, so she thought she'd jest let me know
bout it, Gracious goodness! to think the
child should ha' been 'fraid to write to her
pa! ! didn't know nothin bout streets an
numbers nuther, but ! knew ] could find
Sary Lily, in her great trouble, anywhere in
New York. So jest went AM asked John to
look arter the cattle for while, an the very
next mornin' I put on my Sunday suit
wouldn't knaW if naqW-=an' packed the
greenbacks I'd jest TUX for my Durham steers
into my wallet, that
Here the narrator broke down with emo
ton, recalling the loss he had suffered on his
landing in the "wicked CITY,"
s'But didn't know York was SIGH pesky
big city, full o. lunatios rushin' agin one
anuther, an ev'rything q thunderin like q
hundred thousan' thrashin' MAGAZINES with
his bands flynn off. I couldn't find emmy
body to direct me wi,sFe to look for Sarr
Lily. Nobody knowed an nobody cared
nothin' bout her. Then, as I told We, dumb
sneak stole my pocketbook, an instid O. him
gnttin' shot ND why T cot shot I'm an, ca T