Helena weekly herald. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1867-1900, 1889-12-26
sneers of Dessimists. 1t

,
MF past, growing better
W all the time despite the
sneers of pessimists. 1t
is impossible to realize that only a few years
farther back there was such a place in the
center of the city as the Five Points. Nova
days it does not take unusual courage for a
moderately athletic man to walk alone in
broad daylight through any street in the city.
Then it was not safe to do SO, and even
policemen rarely ventured alone after dark
into the region known by the old name.
Now the horse cars run through the center
of it. Broad streets have been cut through
and old buildings replaced with new. Fac
tories and stores stand where formerly tumble
down rookeries had stood since the last
century, and that were swarming with the
most degraded poor and the most desperate
criminals. When the Rev. w. c. Van Me
ter, with few friends as earnest and deter
mined as himself, first started a mission
school within the borders of this valley of
the shadow of crime, he was repeatedly
warned by the police of the dangers he in
cured and it was some time after the work
was started before he dared to take, even un-
der escort, in the middle of the day, the la
dies who were anxious TO aid by teaching in
the school. 1t seems now like story of a
foreign land and under another age, but |
saw in 1854 or 1855 party of a dozen
ladies and gentlemen mobbed as they started
homeward from the school one Sunday noon,
hustled into the street and assailed with vol
leys of obscene oaths and rotten vegetables,
and so beset by horde of half drunken men
and women that they we've glad to escape
with whole bones and ruined garments.
And the police seemed powerless to prevent
or punish such outrages, for this was no un-
usual occurrance.
The region about what is now Paradise
square, for the distance of couple of blocks
in every direction, was honey combed with
blind alleys and secret passages, some OF them
running underground from one block to
another 1t was city of refuge for criminals,
and, Though they warred and preyed upon
one another with entire lawlessnesS, they
combined as unit to protect any one among
them from the processes of the law. Aside
from the criminals the population consisted
almost entirely, if not quite SO, the povety
stricken, for dire poverty and desperate
crime then, as SO often in history, went hand
in hand.
The children, who were coaxed one by
one into the mission school room were a
crowd of little savages. Their ignorance was
something amazing. 1t was not very uncom-
mon to find among them boys and girls of six
or seven years old who did not know their
full names, but who stoutly declared that
"Sally" or "Bll' was the only name they had,
and once or twice children were found who
actually did not know whether they had ever
had fathers and mothers Some had no
Il hAv
alive, for they slept in holes and corners, and
fed like vagrant cats and dogs on whatever
they could beg, find or steal. Impossible
Certainly it is, but it is true, nevertheless.
Among the widest and shyest of all who
came in was a boy who was the originator of
at least one famous joke, though without in
tention. The teacher asked him his name
and he said it was George. Being asked
what his last name was he said that was his
last name.
"But you must have another name, urged
the teacher. sis it George Smith, or George
Johnson, or George What?"
"Nope," he said shortly. "'Taint George
What, nor George Nothin', it's George. l
amt got no oder name"
But the Joke came when the teacher, wish
ing to know whether he had learned anything
at all, asked him, "Do you know who made
you?"
AT the same instant a boy behind him stuck
4 pin into George. Such tricks were very
common among the little savages, but it did
not hurt any the less because it was not un-
usual George jumped from his seat and
shouted at the top of his voice, "Godde-
mitey."
"Well, that's right" said the teacher, who
had not noticed the trick. "But don't shout
So" The story was told afterwards, with en-
iargements, until it became a chestnut
many years ago.
1t was long tlme-some months-before
the teachers could learn much about the boy,
for he was distrustful to the last degree. He
kicked the Rev. Mr. Van Meter on the shins
very violently, and twisted himself away like
an eel when that gentleman, according to his
habit, laid his hand affectionately on the boys
shoulder. George thought he was going to
be beaten, and took his usual precaution of
eluding the preliminary hold. He had, it
seemed, never known what it was to have
anybody take hold of him in kindness, and
was no more to be handled than young bird
or a squirrel. There was hardly anything,
in iact that he did not know, as the good
mission people reckoned knowledge. He
knew how to swear fiuently, as his accident
ally correct answer as to his Max er indicated,
but he did not know, and It was long time
before he could be made to understand that
swearing was wrong. In fact, he did not
know what wrong was. So far as his expe-
rience of life went, everybody did precisely
what seemed at the moment desirable to do,
unless prevented by superior physical force,
or bv hodiy fear Stea1inO was to him a
perfectly legitimate mode of acquiring any
thing that he might happen to want, and the
only reason why it should be done secretly
was that too much ostentation about the act
was apt to provoke interference on the part of
the owner, who might and probably would
want the article himself. Lying was simply
the easiest way Of concealing anything that
he did rot care to reveal, and the only ink
ling he had of the Objectionable character of