Custer chronicle. [volume] (Custer City, Black Hills, D.T. [S.D.]) 1880-1890, 1889-12-14
LOST, A LITTLE CHILD.
How the city's waits Are Cared for Uptn
They Are Called For.


They Are Called For.
A great policeman. big enough and
strong enough 10 have feIled a horse
with a single blow. carrying In his arms
a little golden haired girl. upon whose
sleeping face the tears had washed clean
places In the dust and CRIME. walked
briskly down Houston street toward p1-
licc headquarters The child was sium-
bering as comfortably as though she had
been In the little crib at home. and the
officer was as tender as IL the little one
was his own and helped make sunshine
In his home on his days off duty. Half
a dozen children Of the street, quick to
catch sight of the pair. followed closely on
the big policeman's heels until he went
up the steps Of the marble building in
Mulberry street, and was lost TO view be-
bind the swinging doors.
Bluff Sergt. Kelleher was on duty, and
when he saw the little bundle of human
fty brought in. he sat down e. his desk
and began to turn, in a businessiike way,
the leaves Of an enormous book which
lay in front Of him. He kept turning
uhbA hC N0LiN ~ PoSO NC hd0
written last. Then. after carefully adj
justing his eyeglasses. and dipping his
pen In his big inkstand, he queried:
boy or girl. oficerT
Girl"
"How oldy"
Bout 4 years"
Where did you get herr
"~Sixty-tfth street and Third avenue"
take her upstairs"
Upstairs" meant to the top floor of
the big building. where Matron Webb
presides and acts the part of foster
mother 70 the waits and strays and
foundlings of this big city who are pick
ed up by the police.
The same scenes are enacted every
night. and each day sees the pages of the
big book. which Sergt- Kelleher keeps.
ill up one by one with the brief stories
and records of lost children.
Every night in the year fathers and
mothers visit police headquarters and
ask for the children who have been lost
during the day. On pleasant evenings
they sit on the stone steps and wait IL
the child has not already been found,
and on stormy nights they go home, to
return again later on.
A pms comes running down the
street. She is one of the East Side poor
A shawl answers the purpose Of cloak
and nat. She stops long enough to ask
of an idler ON the rne
Where is the headquartersT
Down where you see the green light
is always the answer, and she is of
again. Up the steps she runs eagerly,
AS she passes the swinging doors she al
most runs down Old Joe, the doorman.
who keeps n little private record on a
slate Of the children who are brought in
during the night Joeis voice is grutf.
but il bellies his nature.
What's the natter he growls.
"Have We found me babyY' and the
toll worn hands clutch ~nervously al the
frayed edges OF the old red shawl
boy or giriY
"A little girl with light hair
"Go up stairs and iook-top floor"
The stairs are steep and tiresome 10
climb. but mothers on such errands don't
tire easily. and up she goes, Five min
utes later q step is heard on the stair
way. She is coming down again and
the red shawl is the background for a
head of golden hair. Two dirty. chubby
hands are about her neck. The woman
is smiling now. She is about { go out
to the street, but Old Joe again Is in the
way.
"Go in there and give your name,"
and he points 10 Sergt- kelieher, and
chirrups at the baby.
The sergeant takes the woman's name
and address. and. hugging the lost one
tightly, the woman passes out into the
street.-Eew York Evening Sun