The morning call., 1892-07-03
THE KIDS CELEBRATION.
A SKETCH FRGN LIFE.
Written for THE NonS1Se CALL.

'The little Kid" his small fellow-laborers
at the jutemill called him, not because they,
themselves. were so much larger, but he was
so very small. by far the smallest and the
youngest of all the little army of child
laborers there. He had another name, of
course, than Kid. and sometimes, in the
evening, when she was not too tired from
her days work to talk at all, his mother
called him by it. and ne heard it just often
enough to remember that it was Charlie.
but he never heard it from auy one but his
mother. To all the rest of the world he was
just '.rhe Kid"
lie had only been in the mills few
months. Before that he had helped his
mother at heme. She sewed for one of the
shops in San Francisco, and the Kid used
10 sit by hef by the hour aud pull hastings,
when he was so little he had to be lifted
into his char beside the machine. After
that he grew so handy he could be trusted
to sew on buttons, and latter still, when he
had grown-not exactly bigger but a little
less small, she had actually allowed him
TO press seams, when they We're not too
heavy. That had been proud time for
MIN. lie felt that he was becoming really
useful. Then his mothers eyes gave out
They had been threatening to GO so for
some time. but she had not been able to
pay an oeulist to treat them, and had neg
lected the trouble, fondlv hoping it woald
prove but temporary. Finally, however,
she reached the point where she could no
longer sew, and, driven to consult spe-
clailst, she sought out the attendant at one
Of the few free dispensaries that the afore-
thought of the charitahly disposed have es-
tablished in the city. He made thorough
examination of her eyes, and then told her
she must give them absolute rest. You
need rest, he said, "out-of-dnor exercise
stimulating and nonrishing food
The Kids mother ref cted that this!was
all quite true, but said nothing. The phv-
stclan, however, was kindly disposed and
earnest young man, and had interested him.
self III the case so far as he could find time
10 spare for one among so many. He had
also interested some friends of his, who
lived across the bay. aud as result of all
their efforts she had moved over there, and
procured TWO or three places to 60 out by
the day for washing and cleaning, and SC
they had managed to live, and for the first
time in his life The Kid. released from bast-
ing threads, buttons aud pressing, had gone
to school for few weeks. He did not like
ii, however, he was so far behind the others
that they laughed at him, and so when the
chance came to go to work in the mills he
seized it eagerly, and was now proudly
bringing home 81 every week.
The Kid and his mother lived In a single
room in downtown part Of the city. where
residence. The rent was cheaper on that
account, and as she was not given TO neigh
boring the Beghborhood did not trouble her
much.
As for the Kid, his chief companion during
his few hours Of respite from work was a
small Chinese lad. the son of a boss laun-
dryman in the neigh6orhood. Little Hop
Sings father was quite an affiuent China
man. He kept a horse and wagon, the
former very tat and lazy as most China
mems horses are apt to be, the latter decid-
edly ancient in appearance and rather
doubtful as tn running gear, but a useful
vehicle. nevertheless, and once or twice the
Kid had had the supreme delight of riding
with Hop Sing. and Wing Lee, the head
man at the laundry, on the Sunday round
after soiled linen. Little Hop Sing was a
pupil at the mission school, where he was
making such progress in the English lam
guage and the general branches of ''AIeli-
can" education as caused his fathers cue
to stand upright in admlring awe. Him
velly fine boy," he said to the teacher.
him know muchee as Mclean man
bime-5y
1t was Hop Sings delight to impart some
of his rapidly accumulaiiDg store of infor-
nation to the Kid as they sat in the laundry
door evenings after the latter's days work
was done. and it is hardly TO be wondered
at that the cup which he held out TO this
fountainhead of knowledge became rather
curiOuSly filed.
Ecu Jullee comee mex mont" said the
Chinese lad one night as they sat ON the
doorstep. That's so," exclaimed the Kid
interestedly. ''Pd forgot" He had small
reason to remember, poor child, for al
though he had been brought up in the city
and was 10 years old, aud a boy at that, he
had never yet taken any part in the annual
celebration OF Independence day. His one
recollection during past years had been
work. work so steady that his sensihilities
had become bIunted even to that high car
nival of noise that comes once a year to de-
light bOyish hearts and arouse our patriot
ism from the lethargy in which 1t usually lies
during the other 364 days of the year. Prob
ably if his father had lived he would have
taken more interest in such things. but his
quiet life under his mothers training had
not developed any thus far. and he really
had but vague notion of what the holiday
was for. No so with little Hop Sing. His
small brain was teenliup With knowledge on