The Savannah tribune. [volume] (Savannah [Ga.]) 1876-1960, 1888-06-02

the visible supply of clothing and food
-as had that also between Christian
graces, and the degradation and filth.
Dukes Alley was, in point of fact,
the ''Five Points" of thrifty, Christian,
modern Troy.
Helen was child of the Alley.
Twenty years before our story opens she
had been born the child of thief, the
first offspring of a marriage with a
feeble-miuded girl, poor and degraded
as herself.
Not parentage calculated to endow
its children with shining virtues by any
known laws of heredity.
For ten years she had fought and
scratched and sworn her way through
life in Dukes Alley, and "held her owa
with the best of Them" which inter
preted by the outer world would have
read, ''the worst of them.
In the ten years, almost as many lit
tie brothers and sisters had successfully
come, walled out for a shorter or longer
period their feeble protest against the
hard cond itions of their environment,
and gone the silent way.
Only one had survived the struggle;
Rhoda, four years younger than Helen.
The ncighbors had been known to
say, otis lucky Bills folks's young
'uns dies off, for l don't know how
they'd ever raise 'em, m they wouldn't
be good for nothin' if they did raise
'em."
"BilPs folks" were not held in high
esteem even in Dukes Alley.
Don't let any on 'em lick We, Nell
Let 'em know ye're as good as any
on EN-" had been the parental counsel.
Bills ideas of goodness" was not
perhaps, that held by his Christian and
philanthropic fellow citizens in the
broader and less crowded streets near
BY TIC Bill its mctes and bounds were,
grit muscle. In the society of the
Alley, "Tm as good man as he,"
freely translated would have been, ''He
can't lick me-"
Helen's leanings towards goodness"
had been developed solely on this line.
Untaught, defiant, stupid, the one
tender spot in her heart was her love for
Rhoda.
Lay hand on Rhody,'n' I'll scratch
yer eyes OUT" was an edict frequently
issued against her companions of the
alley, and they knew thlt safety lay in
obedience.
An epidemic swept over the city, and
Dukes Alley was decimated. When
the health officers invaded Bills domi-
cile and carried out its stricken inmates,
kind Mistress Murphy next door took
Nell and Rhoda into her own room be-
hind the saloon to stay until their pa
rents return. But an adversary "bet-
ter" than Bill had at last tested strength
with him, and he was forced to yield.
What could be expected of Bills wife
but that she should do now what she
had unquestioningly done through all
her welded life, follow Bill. So they
never came back to the tenement in
Dukes Alley.
Mistress Murphy told the orphans
their parents were dead. To Nelps dull
intellect it meant little beyond ces-
sation of kicks and blows. she had
not yet grappIed with the problem of
the food and clothing supply.
Mistress Murphy solve1 it for her.
'Its here yell stay and yen help me in
the saloon for the bit of bite and
sup yen made; and as for Rhody. why
what IL kape one III kaps two. But Pm
thinkin' what II do viii her at all to
kape her out of the way, for it's no
earthly use she is for the work, and
she'll be in the way in the saloon. It's
thinkin' I am I'll jist sind her around
to the public school to kape her out O.
the way"
School for Rhodyl
Nell seized upon the idea greedily,
as something which ia dim, mystic
rious manner was to dilferentiate Rhoda
from the denizens of the alley, and give
her place among the children whom
IN her envy she had jeered at as "5ig-
bugs" She, Nell, was to continue,