The morning call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1878-1895, 1891-05-17
OUT With THE Tide.
A Heart Filled with a YHaTlilg 10 Die and to
Forget Il All.

BY and by all the men in the big ware
house went away, the last vehicle drove off
and | heard the Waterman beginning his
rounds. j sat silent and alone, ENJOYING
the simmer of the moonlight on the waters
of the river and wondering how each HUI
man being in great New York found hOme
and rest at night to recuperate his strength
for the toll OF the morrow.
One can almost hear great sigh of relief
as darkness falls upon a great city. 1t
means that traffic almost ceases; that busy
nerves and muscles find rest; that family
circles are united; that's the Over-weaTy and
OveT-anXiOus may find joyful forgetfulness
in slumber.
'Step! Stepl S:epw
1t was a football so light that 1t might
mean the approach of child. Mol 1t was
a lonely place where | sat, and no child
would come near. | heard children shout
ing and laughing, but they were a whole
square away. On my right all was lighted
up 10y the moon until l could see every
thing. On my left a dark shadow caught
peered into this shadow / thought L saw
darker spot, and l called out to know what
was wanted. No answer.
''Stepl Step! Step"
Thieves would not be here at that hour.
Was it woman? III so, she was drawing
away. What had brought her there? Do wn
past the side of the long building and out
to the extreme end of the wharf l caught
sight of the Waterman as he halted for
moment In the moonlight. | was looking
away again at the track of moonlight as it
climbed the wbarves of Jersey City and
made its way over steeples and roOf-trees,
when those foot falls disturbed me once
more.
"Step! Stepi Stepp
They were so near as to startle me, and
as | half rose, l heard the rustic of
woman's skirts, an object appeared for an
instant about ten feet away, and then came
a splash in the slip below Looking down
caught sight of white lace-an arm up
lfted-a hat floating, and then all was gone.
She had leaped to her death without cry.
She had not even sObbed out as the waters
lifted her up for last bIief chance, to re-
pent of her desperate deed.
a woman? Yes. Young or old ? Who
can say? Her body went out with the tide,
to be thrown ashore down the bay, per-
haps, when days have elapSed-perhapS to
be carried out to sea and never heard of
more. And her nameP And what grevOus
wrong done her2 And how many are left
TO weep and lament md mourn that it was
not otherwise with her?
/ cannot tell you. l only know that she
was woman, and / pity and plead for her.
Want of money makes men desperate and
they Sulk and brood and come to the conclu-
sion that the hand OF the world is raised
against them Then they die by their own
hand-the river, poison, a slash of the razor
across the throat. Poverty seldom drives
a woman to take her own life. If it does
she never goes to her death without leav-
ing scrawl of paper behind, without utter
ing one long, wild cry of terror and despair
as she feels herself walking in the shadow
of death.
When | see a woman die by her own hand
| known that there is chapter in her life so
full OF tears and heartaches-so blank In the
unanswered prayers to GOD, so utterly bar
rem of hope for the future-that the grave
and its silence and darkness is a glad relief.
Married or single, old or young, beautiful or
plain, there was such chapter in the life of
this woman who went TO her death almost
within reaching distance of my hand /
think of her dead body as creeping along the
bottom of the bay, swiring this way
and that as ID meets with the cross
currents, catching at rock and wreck
creeping, drifting The hands are out
stretched, the eyes wide open, and there is
that look on her face which is always pres
ent when a person has been hunted to his
death, Whether it is cast upon some sandy
shore, or to be hurridly buried aud hur-
riedy forgotten, or drifts and swirls and
cTeeps out 10 the blue waters OF the great
ocean, whose bosom has received and
guarded so many secrets. there Is another
name recorded at the gates Of heaven. She
has told her story at the foot Of the great
white thTOne-Of her tears and wretched-
ness, of her hope an despair, of the evil
that some one put upon her TO fill her heart
with yearning to die and forget IL all He
can best judge. He is mercifuL-N Y.
World