Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1893-09-28
THE RED FLAG.
CHAPTER Ii.
CONTINUED.
Wayside i lowers.


the fashionable streets Of Paris. Ii
does not belong to the English quarter,
or the American quarter, OF the Legiti-
mist quarter, or the Diplomatic quar-
ter Art, or Learning, of Science, or the
demi monde. Beauty and fashion never
visit the spot. 1t has hardly Il place
on the map of Paris. And yet, like
many another such streets, it is little
world in itself, and human beings are
born and die in it, and passions pure
and holy, and base and wicked, are
nourished and fostered there; and
comedies and tragedies are acted there,
turn by turn, as the wedding feast is
spread, or the funeral drapery hung
out, black and limp and dismal, against
the dingy dOOr-pOsts.
Git lie COeru is q narrow shabby
little street, hidden somewhere in the
densely populated district between the
Boulevard ST Michel and the Rue des
Saints Peres. 1t is near the Quai DIES
Augustins, which makes Il pleasant
promenade for it's inhabitants on sum-
mer evenings, near the river, within
sight Of the mighty towers Of Notre
Dame, within sound of her deep-tOned
bells. 1t is near the Morgue, and not
very far from the hospitals; near the
fiOWer-market; near much that is cen
trail and busy, closely hemmed round
with the teeming life Of the WOrk-a-day
world of Paris; but very far from the
haunts of pleasure, from the famous
restaurants, from clubs and cafes, from
parks and parteTes, from Opera-hOuse
and ariStOcratic hotel.
1t is Il narrow street-croOked too
and the houses are of the shabbiest
In one of these houses, a house which
lay back from the street, and, with
three others, formed Il stony guard
rangle, enclosing little yard, dWelt
Rose and Kathleen O'Hara, two Sis
ters of Irish parentage, the daughters
of poor irish gentleman, who had
come here from the good city Of Bruges
in Flanders, just twelve years ago, and
had occupied the same little apartment
on the third story ever since. Just
nineteen years ago Captain OHara was
living with young second wife and
a seVen-yearold daughter, the issue of
his first marriage, in the city of Brus-
sells. He had been in the army, in the
SIth Irish EusleerS, had run through
his little patrimony, and had sold his
commission, and thrown himself al
most pennileSS OH the world, after the
manner Of many other gentlemen,
English rs well rs Irish. Twice had
he married in ten years, and twice for
love. Nothing could have been more
honorable or less prudent than either
marriage; and now he was living from
hand to mouth in furnished lodgings
in Brussels, writing a little for the
English newspapers, getting a little
help now and then from his own fami-
ly, and now and then ten-pOund note
from Il wealthy maiden aunt of his
Wife'S-the aunt from whose handsome
house i'll the Circus, Bath, pretty
kathleen Reilly had run away with
her handsome Captain. The aunt had
not forgiven or taken back to favor;
but she sent little help occasionally
out of sheer charity, and always ac-
companied by a lecture which gave a
flavor of bitterness to the boon.
Captain O'Hara and -. wife were
not unhappy, in spite of their pre-
carious fortunes, 1t was summer, and
the scent of the limebloSSom was in
the air of the park and the boulevards;
the lamplit streets and cafes were full
of brightness and music III the balmy
eyentides of July. The young wife was
looking forward tremblingly, yet hope
fully, to the cares and joys Of mater.
nifty. The dark-eyed stepdaughter
adored her. Too young to remember
her own mother, who had died in Ben
gal, where the girl was born, the child
idolised the Captains fair-haired wife
and was fondly loved by her in return
Never was there a happier family
group than these three, and when the
expected baby should come, it was tc
be boy the Captain declared in the
pride of his heart; son and heir
heir to empty pockets, wasted oppor
tunitieS, bankruptcy, and gaol. He was
pining for a son to perpetuate the
noble race of O'Hara. The baby was
to be christened Patrick, after some
famous Patrick O'Hara of days gone
by, the age of war and chivalry, and
poetry and pride, when Ireland had not
yet yielded her sweetness to the proud
invader
Alas for the unborn child on whom
such hopes had been founded. such
dreams had been dreamt! The fatal
day of birth came, and the child was a
girl; and before the Wailing infant was
six days old the young fair mother
with the ripping golden hair and in
n0cent blue eyes, was lying in her
coffin, streWn with white lilies and
roses, and all the purest flowers of
sumner-tide The brave young heart
which had never flinched or faltered
at poverty or trouble, was stilled for
ever. The wife who lad been content
to bear Fate's worst ills with the
husband of her choice was gone to the
shadowy home where his love could
not follow her.
Captain O'Hara never looked the
world or his difficulties bravely in the
face after that day He lived to see
kathleen a lovely girl of five years old,
but he was a broken man from the day
of his Wife'S death. He rOamed from
foreign town to town, living anywhere
for convenience or cheapness He
spent six months at Brest a year in
Jersey, the two girls with him every
where, nursed and cared for by Bridget
Ryan, the faithful Irish maid-servant
who had taken Rose from the arms of
her Indian ayah, and had followed the