Beverly banner. [volume] (Beverly, N.J.) 1877-1964, 1890-02-08
POOR SAL.

not possibly DO ISoCuSd lIOll ulSClys
The sight OF them used to lacerate my
heart, and now, when l can consider
most things with composure, it seems
queer when fortunate phrasemonger
tells me that few millions of miser-
ables moro or less do not matter. ]
have known joy. ALL God, have
not2 Through the splendid hush of
the night I have walked on and on,
because I could not sleep for the de-
light of living; and the pouring of
the moonbeams quickened my blood
like wine. But those pretty sensations
can only be felt by people who have
food inside them, and a shelter to stay
In when their raptures slacken. Do
any of the kindly optimistic people
ever try to imagine the course of
bleak life9 One wild morning, about
4 o'clock, when powdery snow was
dancing in wreathes over the iron
ground, found poor chap squatting
in a recess out Kings cross way, and
he coughed with hacking click that
was ugly. He wore the remains of
summer overcoat; he had no shirt,
and he was dying of consumption,
dying on that cruel road, with wind
blowing enough to cut you in two.
did not ask his opinions on the joys
OF life
Then take the case of Sal Fleming.
Sal was married to a good fellow, who
had laborers job in timber yard,
and the people in the long tumble
down street thought that the couple
were rather well off, for Jerry Flem-
ing had II shillings and sometimes u
shillings per week; and Sal could
have a turn at wood chopping almost
whenever she liked to ask for it. So
when the neighbors came to borrow
spoonful of tea or the iron saucepan,
they would say Its well to be you,"
and then they would give details con
corning their own mems i'll luck. In
the street of eightyfour houses, there
was only one clock, and that stood on
Jerry's mantlepiece; it could not al
ways be depended upon to go, but it
had never been in pawn, and that fact
balanced every flaw in its character.
Then there was crib and stool and
two chairs and bed, which had orig
inally been oblong, and some crock
cry. No wonder the women thought
of Sails house as a desirable establish
ment. 1t was said that the back room
contained chest of drawers, and that
in these drawers there were tablecloths
and sheets, but it is unwise to receive
extravagant rumors. Sal was not
good looking, but her rude face, with
It's dull, kindey was not unpleasant
to Sec She cared very little for talk
ing, as she never joined the line of
motrons who stood at their doors,
sl1irling like gulls on fine evenings.
Nor did she like the public houses at
either end of the street. One was
haring place where the landlady wore
black satin, the landlord talked about
his trap and the barman wore white
shirt; the other was q rocking hole
kept by o beetle browed person, who
looked oily and corpulent (you never
see an i'll fed publican in those quar-
ters moro than you do elsewhere).
Sal went once week to the beetle
was on Sunday at midday, and Jim
went on Saturday night; the amount
which they paid weekly to the beetle
browed ono was fourpence, SO you
could not call them incorporate. Now,
there was slow, duh sort of happiness
in all this, and, if one had asked Sal
how she Jared, she would have said,
~ can't complain. We get our grub
and piece Of meat Sundays, and we
can put "a shilling or two away.
There's many would swop with us"
To give the optimists pleasure, /
may say that from to 1915 on Sat
urday night was good time for Sal,
and she sometimes came very near
smiling She and Jerry walked out
into the great, broad, main street;
Jerry lit his clay and cooked his hat
with a most rakish air; Sal wore her
gray shawl, and some of the neigh
bors said they were tofs. The oil
lamps stank and Auttered; the hawk
ers bawled hoarsely; the awful mu-
sic of thousands of voices being in the
air like suppressed thunder, and the
brooding haze from many breaths
whirled into weird shapes that formed
and undulated in the blurred glim-
merings Of the lights. Sal had triAe
of the gamblers excitement while
choosing the meat for next day, and
Jerry felt all the dignity of connois-
seur as he called his silent partners
attention to various things. You,
Sal, when you turns round, just see
this show we're. Amt that show O
meat2 See him. Now he'll swaller that
there poker in art a minute, " and SO
on; and Sal thought Jerry was artful,
because he could tell the meaning of
everything. On Sundays Jerry had
nothing to do, and he stepped himself
in the pleasure Of easing his muscles
to an extent which might damage my
theory-if l had nothing more to say.
He could not read. and he could not
understand newspaper language, but
his mate, Joe Toms, the hawker, trans
lated the history of the more select
murders to him. ''She ups and she
SEE, You amt never goin' to hear the
hast, if you don't bloomin' well give
me my rights. 'Shant, SEE he. 'YoL
shall, she says; or my swell fathern
Jest knock tons of stufin' out o you.
! swear you shall. Not bloomin'
shall, says he; and he outs with his
pistil and he corpses her, and then he
tries the same on hisself, and misses,
and now lies in the horspital" Thus
would Mr., Toms vary the language of
the reporters, to Jerry's great solace-
ment. The friends did not understand
politics. Jerry explained his theories
thus: lone o the blokes round Ber-
mondsey way comes to the yard when
l was a-havin' my bit o grub, dinner
time, and he SEE, If you have bit
left, mate, / don't mind havin' of it.
Amt bit since yesterday mornin'.' So
/ goes him halves, and then he seq,
Well be all right soon. l amt had
howerfor a fortni't; but swell gent
] don't know what they cali him, but
he's one o them what sends the per-
lice and the swaddies over the water
and things he SEE we'll have