Wichita eagle., 1888-02-26
THE DIAMOND CRESCENT.

and the comforts Of the freside
l was sitting in my Office on the ground
floor, watching the restless people and phil
osophizing, as / have habit of doing, upon
the differences in human condition, when my
attention was suddenly arrested by child
wearing upon her breast a superb diamond
crescent of purest water and brilliancy Be-
fore ] had time 10 formulate any opinion as
to how SO magnificent jewel could have
come into the possession of a child, or to Won
der why its parents or guardians permitted it
to wear such a valuable trinket upon the pub
lie streets, an officer had the little one in his
grasp.
Looking at it nationally, nothing would
have seemed more probable than that the
child was a thief, for / did not fail to notice
in my first glance that her garments, although
scTupulously neat, were far from expensive,
nevertheless an unaccountable excitement
took possession of me, and rushed to her as
sistance demanding of the officer authori-
tatively, Upon what charge do you make
this arrestIn
Instinctively recognizing friend, the ter
rified child besought me not to allow the
officer to take her to Jail.
Look at that pin. the little thief!' the
officer said roughly. making a movement to
drag the child away.
"Stop!" | commanded, Indignantly now,
for | had made up my mind that the child
should at least have a hearing .Who says
she is theft
81 say so" returned the officer sharply. 81
know 'em, these street gamins, and pre-
cious lot they are! She's regular one, this
one is
Indeed, sir, | am not thief! Oh, am
not, am not! didn't mean TO do wrong
i wanted TO find my own papa, that Miss
Adele says the crescent will surely find
The officer laughed coarsely. That is fine,
isn't it, Highly dramatic for one so young
You see / know 'em; they come in all ages
from
Officer" interrupted him, for a crowd
was gathering now, despite the biting cold,
and did not much enjoy my position as one
of the central figures, step with me into my
office while we hear the little ones story. |
am convinced that you have no more right
to arrest this child because she wears a costly
ornament when walking quietly along the
public street, than you would have to arrest
the wife or daughter of a millionaire under
like circumstances. You know who | am
and if the facts do not corroborate the story
this child tells promise to deliver her over
to you in the next few hours"
"All right said the officer, take her:
you'll be wiser in the next twenty-four hours,
Ill wager"
And 50 | was but not just as the officer an
ticipated. The child told me singular story
between her Sobs, and facts proved it strictly
true. Indeed, as had the little one in my
Office before the fire, warm and comfortable
except for the effects Of her fright, | had
time to see that her features and expression
were those Of a young princess of the blood,
clear cut, exquisite and truthful. She was as
far removed from the youthful unfortunates
brought up in vice and crime as is heaven
from earth.
The giSt Of her story was that she was n
great mans daughter, and the only way she
would ever find her papa was by the crescent,
which he would recognize She lived with
Miss Adele, a music teacher, and they had
very little money Miss Adele had cried
that morning because their coal was nearly
gone and she had no money TO buy more
when Adele had gone out put the cres-
cent on, and came to find papa, for | kney
that if he saw that be would buy us soma
more wood and COAL" the child confided to
me earnestly.
] hailed cab at the conclusion of the tale
and took the child to the street and number
given me- \ tall, graceful woman of % or
thereabout welcomed us with emotion.
"Why. my dear Eva" she cried, clasping
the child TO her, where have you been? |
have been almost crazy with anxiety about
You"
But Just at this moment Miss Adele caught
sight of me, and, drawing herself up with
dignity. she waited for an explanation Of
my presence there. Stating the case briefly,
j asked her to tell me something about the
child
Il will, SIR she said, motioning me to be
seated with grace have rarely seen equaled
''The sole guardianship of little Eva fell to
me strangely" she began. Il am the daugh-
ter of a clergyman. and while teaching mu-
sic in my native village III the west it hap
pened that one winters night some eight
years since-a night not unlike what this
promises to be-my father and l were star
tied by means at our windows. Investiga-
ton showed woman and child. Both were
nearly frozen, and the woman, once in the
heated room, swooned. We summoned
physician. but she recovered consciousness
only To lose it again, until we found that she
was diving Toward the last the poor crea-
seemed to be in mortal terror of punishment
for some great crime. just at the last, how
ever, she became entirely rational and made
frantic efforts with her dying breath to tell
us all about the child: but the most we
could understand was that Eva belonged to
wealthy parents, and that something would
prove her identity. Sewed up in the rags .
wrapped about the baby girl we discovered .
graved in cipherS, unintelligible to a stran-
ger, but no doubt significant enough 70 the
owners, whom we naturally supposed TO be
little Evas parents, for this was evidently
what the poor woman meant to convey.
my father ana accepted the trust thrown
upon US by that mysterious death as a COM
mission from heaven" said Eva's guardian
angel, with soulful smile which disclosed
rich. beautiful nature, "and We set about TO
find the parents For long time we adver-
tised, but TO no purpose. Many replies came,
but to none of these people did our little Eva
belong. At last, after my fathers death,
which occurred three years ago, certain that
Eva's parents were not 70 be found in the
west. | sold my property there, coming to
New York in the hope Of obtaining pupils
here. and at the same time good legal talent
10 push the work CT establishing my darling's
IDENTITY We have not been very successful
so FAR.
felt myself in a dilemma. Here was a
beautiful young woman who had evidently |
sacrificed all her worldly goods to what she
believed q divinely appointed mission, and
or all knew had at this moment neither
money nor food, certainly not fuel for the
norrow's bitter weather for little Eva had
nnocently given that fact away, and yet she
yould not make moan which would give