Morning journal and courier., 1891-03-31
A Modern Elijah.

He was small and black-a child of an inferior race. There was nothing in his appearance to suggest the hero, and if you had told him that he was hero, he would scarcely have known what you meant. An unschooled, illiterate, ugly, bullet headed negro, he had, nevertheless, been baptized by the same spirit which had caused the face of St. Stephen to shine as the face of an angel.
 One winter day-almost a year before the event which gave him chance to show the stuff that was in him-he came into the hotel looking for job. The of flee was brilliantly lighted and filled with crowd of handsomely dressed men. There were politicians, club men, men about town, reporters, many members of the sporting fraternity, the usual loungers and hangers-on, an occasional hayseed- all forming very startling background for the rags and filth of the poor, shiver- ing, half lf-starved little darkey. It was no easy matter for him to steer his course to the desk, and when he got there the splen- dor of the man behind it dazed him so that his voice almost failed him. He had, however, even at his early age, reached the point where he had to work or starve. So his necessities made him eloquent. His el- ouuence prevailed. He was, on the next day, placed on the payroll of the great hotel
 As boy he was not a success. fear I must confess that he was lazy. People liked him-I do not know why, and for some reason or other he was favorite with his employers. If he had not been they would have dismissed him before his first week was out. Instead of doing that they concluded to find more congenial work for him, so they put him in charge of one of the elevators.
 Among the passengers who used to ride up and down with the boy was a little five year old girl, the daughter of family liv- ing in the hotel She was as perfect a type of her race as he was of his. With her fair white skin, golden hair, deep blue eyes and pretty womanly ways, the child was general favorite. Every one knew her; every one loved her. Between her and the boy great friendship had sprung up. He was devotion itself, and his at | tentions to the little Caucasian were so grotesquely chivalrous as to be almost pa- thetic. She accepted them all with dig | nifty and grace that were charming. Her | family lived on the top floor of the house and as she always rode in his elevator when she could manage to do so the boy ana 81rl saw much or each other. Once she was i'll. The medicine that helped her most was a wretched little bouquet sent | her by her duslzy friend.
 | It was winter again: The evening of | which I write was very cold and clear. The stars were diamond-ike in their bril- liancy. Everything was frozen up-the wheels creaked on the snow.
 | The hotel was crowded with guests. Not more than two or three of the hun dreds of rooms were unoccupied A bela- ted traveller who had been on weather bound train came in at one o'clock, tired and cold. He ordered fire in his room and then went to the bar for a drink. A few minutes later he stepped into the boys elevator and was carried to the top floor.
 The great house was quiet. Most of the lights in the office had been extinguished. Two night-owls were talking in low tones on one of the settees which lined the
 walls of the lobby. The bell-boys were
 most of them asleep. The clerk wal
 drowsing.
 Two o'clock The night-owls got ul
 and walked out into the cold air. drunken man poked his nose in the door