River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1891-05-21
OLD wiLLlE's QUEST.
. Ro~ery Character whose Experience
Demonstrates Bowery sympathy.

q Ro~ery Character whose Experience
Demonstrates Bowery sympathy.
There's a character" said the clerk
OF twenty-five cent Bowery hotel, in
dicating a shabbily-dressed old man
who stood with his back to the stove.
"Willie, come over here a minute"
The old man by the stove evidently
answered to the diminutive name, for
he glanced up to see who called, and
then shuffled quickly over to the desk
Tell the gentleman about yourself.
Willie" said the clerk.
Willie took off his dilapidated hat to
the stranger, and said: twenty-five
years ago / had daughter. One day
she went away and left me. She was
mighty pretty, and not more'n fifteen
years old. Where had she gomez No
one could say. began my search one
night in March, twenty-five years ago.
hunted for ten years. and never found
her. Then one night in winter saw a
man and a woman crossing this very
Bowery. / looked closer, and there
was my child. / called, Julia! Juliar
She turned her head and looked
at me. / was hurrying up to take
hCA AAdhIcs NhCh caN UNIV oAAS
was leaving me. She and the man went
fast through the crowd. and l fol-
lowed. calling Julia! JuliaP A police
man stopped me, and then they all
laughed. I had lost her again. That
was fifteen years ago I've never seen
her since, but I'm still looking, and I'll
find her yet"
We'll. life has gone hard with you,
hasn't it?' said the stranger. suppose
you have drink. You look cold"
Thank You. wont drink I'm not
so very cold. The trouble is my kind
friends give me a thin coat TO wear in
the winter and a thick one TO wear in
the summer. That's the way it was
with the Italian that keeps the fruit
stand out on the corner here. He gave
this little blue coat to me last Novem-
Der. and i pawned the old thick one
that the cigar man gave me, because it
had the most holes in it."
"Are you very poor?"
mot as long as stay right in this
neighborhood The cigar man lets me
sleep on the floor in his shop. and this
good young man here let's me have the
use of the hotel office" t.
where do you get your food?"
ut comes to me from various direc-
tions. / have the same trouble with
that, though. that do with my coats.
get piece of sweet rice pudding for
breakfast as a rule, and buckwheat
cakes for dinner, when, of course, the
order should be reversed. 1t is left over
in that way"
"well, you expect to find your daugh-
ter some day?"
Eyes. I'm seventy-six now, and /
think l will live ten years longer In
that time shall meet her again. / am
always on the street, except when /
step in here or at the cigar-store to get
warm. will bidy good day, sir, and
start out again on my hunt."s
The old man hurried out into the
Bowery and disappeared in the crowd.
THE worst of It is" remarked the
hotel clerk after he had gone, ''Old
Willie's daughter has been dead for ten
years and he's never been told of it.
She was pretty queer, and after she had
gone down the full limit she committed
suicide. We all heard of it, but thought
it best not to tell the old man. II would
have killed him. think, and now he'll
die hoping up to the last minute he is
going to find his Julia. Poor old duckl"
N. Y. Sun.