St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1889-10-22
SAINT PAUL.
A CORNER OF ST. PAUL
Where Picturesque Grief Sits
Perehed on Household
Idols.
An UnWopted Scene in the
Locality Known as Polaek
Town.
Little Fan, the Daughter OF
the Russian Exile, Is
Dead.
Touching Scene in the Life OF
One who Fled the Cars
Wrath.

SATURDAY. night was one Of unwOnted
Quiet in rolack town. Swarthy-bearded
husbands of wives whose lives are an
eternity of unrewarded servitude, whose
children dabble unchecked in tine turbid
current of the city sewer for the want
of more rational or healthy ANUS m emf,
and whose regular Saturday night de-
haueh swallows up the greater portion
of the scant wage they have earned
during the week, either stayed at home
for once in their lives, or made an all
night bout of it. Quarreling female
occupants of tumhle-dOwn shanties for
got TO exchange the usual questionable
compliments across lots. and tears
gIistened Oh the cheeks of those to
whom tears had long been unknown.
sorrow and misery everyday fare Wh'cn
long since had ceased 10 find, went
other than in signs and curses
strangely intermingled. Grouped about
the crazy portal of cabin. If possible
even less pretentiO1S than the UMPIRE
tputiOus ones near by. a group of women
ktOud. Their eyes were red with weep
Ing-thpir habitually SnrrOwful faces
Expressive of grief more poignant and
Immediate than that occasiOned 10y the
mere misery of existence. Voices thaC
we're wont 10 be raised in Shrill up
lraiding we're huShed to tender
whisper. There was sorrow in P0lack
town. Little Fan was dead. Just
within the cabin portal.
CRoCCHED IN a SHIVERING HEAP,
of which the most apparent feature, at
first imprr s>iOn. was its extreme rag
gedness, lay an old man. The sObs
which shook his aged shoulders as
thoHgh with ague fIOZe the very mar
row in the bones of those who stood
aud listened. and the face he raised
from ont pair of grlmy hands
Rnd turned toward the light was bag
gard. pinchpd and hungry-lOOking, a
picture of abiect misery: vet, withal, a
face finelV-featured. bearing the stamp
Of an infinite superiority 10 those of his
e(ntrymen and women who stood near.
kiSug painfully from the crouching
posture he had occupied, the old man
furned to where. OH the backs OF two
rUdeIy constructed chairs, there rested
tiny white casket. Tenderly he drew
aside the drapery which covered the
little bier. and as he did SO turne d TO
{ q knot of men and women about the
d rway, and babe them look their last
U IN the face of the child whom every
man and woman in Pollock town had
WOrsiiped with q love approaching
idOlatry. Reverently, and with silent
footsteps. they approached the dead
child. whom they had loved so we'll;
and. as they stood about the bier,
gazing ar the little angel face, now pale
with the pallOT of death; at the wealth
of dark curls that each had loved to
caress. there came deep from the hearts
of these. the most uncnuth of their
kind. sobs and walls Of miSery-the i'll
voluntary utterances of a great grief.
Long and silently they
LOOKED UPON THE DEAD FORM
of her they had So idOlized; and then, as
the Dalsipd hand of the aged guardian
replaced tie white shr0ud, they turned
without a word and filed out into tile
dusk-back to the hard, cold drudgery
of their everyday eXistence-back to
the quarreling, pickering and drinking.
There was no neeu To check their rlOdI-
dry now: the approach of THAT little
maid of Emil'S'' would never more cause
to be hushed the coarse jest or brutal
quarrel: there was no longer anything
TO hope for as a result Of abnormal! de-
cency on the part of the hard-drlnkIng
contingent of the colony; little Fan
could no longer smile her approval
she was dead.
The story told by the aged Pole, who
Is known among his cOuntrymen as
Emil the Fiddler" is one of RUNE
life: yes, of half dozen lives ruined.
Six more nOtcheS to be cut on that ire
mendous tally stick, the property of the
car OF all the hussias. Formerly
"Emil''-he is KNOWN by mother name
was a Russian subject. an attache of
the government at St. Petersburg; later
a suspect exIled with his family to ST.
IBERIA; later still a refugee fleeing TO
the hOspitab!e shores of the great
republic. in whose generous protection
many a prosecuted malay, and woman
too. for that materials trusted and
found her not wanting. At last. a
stranded and heart-broken man,
stranger in country of strange
tongues. his former competence scat
tered by the
CAPRICE OF a DESPOTIC RULER,
homeless, friPndleSS and almost money
less. Five years ago it was that Emil
the Fiddler" as they call him i'll the set
Element. by reason Of his passion for
the violin, which he plays eXquisitely,
came TO st. Paul, and by dint of hard
work and pTivatiOn saved enough
to build the wretched hut in
which, one by one, those he
loved have fallen victims 10 the
demands of the black phantom; died
like dogs at that, the victims of an un-
reasoning and inhumdn edict. Emil S
oldest SON had died in Siberia, leaving
young wife and two little girls to the
care OF the Old grandfather. Two years
ago the young widow died of cOnsump-
ton induced by want and suffering, and
was laid in a pauDer's grave, to be fol-
lowed soon after by the younger of the
two children. The other thrOve for
time. and was the light of the settle
ment. the only sOlace possessed by the
aged Pole for the grief he had sustained.
Now she is dead. The old man shivers
alone in the crazy howell which her smile
and sweet, childish face had made a
very palace. The old violin is there
still-She loved 1t. and last night the
bent form of the last of his generation
might have been seen seated
by the corpse of the dead
child, while the strains of the
lullaby she so loved to listen to, fioated
from the strings and out into the chilly
night air, while tears, bitter tears,
chased each other adOwn the old mans
wrinkied face, and hallOwed the un-
manly tatters which covered him.
Death has stamped itself upon the
careworn features of the Russian exile,
and soon there will be another funeral
In POlaek town. The old cabin will be
RACED to the ground, and the worm
eaten lumber of which IT is composed
scattered among the fuel seekers of the
pOverty-stricken district, and the cruel
story of suffering and misery each PLANK
could relate will be forgotten with its
ashes.
The CITY Is DEFENDANT