Waterbury evening Democrat. [volume] (Waterbury, Conn.) 1887-1895, 1890-03-31

ana took that from us more than . year
ago; after we had more than half pad.
for IL. too. You geo, was thrown out
Of my place by the failure of the COM
Pany was at work for, and could not
keep up the payments on the house and
lot, and SO lost all we had saved since
coming here. together with whar little
we had when we came"
And whero are you living now7" I
asked.
He hesitated little and then said:
'.After we lost our place l got another
job at one of the mills. but was sick
with the fever for time, and when
got up again could get no steady en-
Ploymen., and we weie forced to rent
some rather poor rooms on street.
fronting on the railroad track. Well.
the railroad company ella med the
ground that this building and others
8 God on and wanted possession. SO ey
ordered us put out without ceremony.
l anne home from long tramp after
wor one day and found Jennie and the
children on t 9 sidewalk with what few
household goods We had lett. CRYING
their eyes out with fear and anxiety"
And then what?'' l asked seeing
that he hesitated again.
''Well. l was out of money, and rent
had to be pad in advance, and as we
ha moth ng to pay with. and could not
borrow, we moved into an old building
with another amilv down by the river.
unit can find work and rent bet er
place. We don't Call it Ii ing; it isn't
living; its only us II can ping: but what
can fellow dop l assure you there are
hundreds of other families in the CITY
who are equally bad Off"
The story '.Driven from Sea to Sea-
is finished no, not finished. John
Parsons and krastus Hemingway are
dead. One sleeps with his crippled
chi d upon the mountain side; one es
buried in the valley, side by side with
his ne'ghbors, who fell like him, the
victims of tn rapacious greed of cor
porate consplralors on that fatal n n
ing of May, 1880; but Martha Parsons
and Lucy Hemingway still I've. and
living still contend with corporation
for tn shelter above their heads and
the heads of orphaned children. With
them battle 9th rs whose homes and
farms are in jeopardy from the same
source.
Occasionally some settler, driven
from his homo. made desperate by
long-continued suffering. by wrongs oft
repeated. takes vengeance upon the
immediate author of his woes; and
ton sent to hold possession of the land
from VIII Oh the settler has been evicted,
| is found dead upon the spot where the
wrong was done. Even as you read
these lines and wond if such tn ngs
are poss BILE, hon. st settlers. not alone
in California, but in any of dozen diff
ferent States, it may be, are being driven
from their homes, their affairs over
| thrown. their household gods destroy ID.
| their lives So rifle d, their wives W ID owed
and their children made orphans.
No, the story is not vet finished; but
SO far as told it is q true story. All Of
! the main incidents have takrn place
substantially as related They are part
of the history of our count y; have &C.
Cured to our own citizens, beneath the
shadow of our own Gag
Had it been other than q true story
it night have ended with br' ghter
picture; with tho brightest and best OF
all pictures-the picture OF a loving and
honored old couple enjoying the last
years of their well-spent lives amidst
scenes of plenty and beauty. the work
loving children and laughing bah es, the
| NAAuACA Va IuCA Culu1 GU oOOut tuOIu
AS it is true story it could not be-
told otherwise than as it has been. and
if the pictures presented have been sor-
rowfu1 instead of pleasant ones. anl II
the reader has been fol- ced TO weep.
whom. like the writer. he would pre- er
lau9 liter to tears, it is not the writer s
fault.
If sometime the people shall make it
possible to write a story in which,
without being untrue to life as the great
mass of the people live it, the pleas mt
pictures shall crowd out and force us
and them to forget the sarrowful ones,
then will the writer of tn be only too
glad to write the sequel of Driven
from Sea to Sea: or. Just a Campin'. "
THE END.