The morning call., 1893-12-03
kITTIE REILLEY'S KID.
A Sketch From Life.

He was exactly as many years old as he
was inches high, and that was just twenty
nine. In Little Church alley, in the slums
of New York City, where his wretcbed
childhood and still more pitiful young man.
hood had been spent, he had always been
known among the boys and girls and such
of the older deniZenS as ever saw him as
Kittie Reilley's kid.
Few grown people ever saw him, how
ever. for Kittie Reilley. even when she was
in the clutches of the horrible demon that
had first wrought her downfall and had
since kept her bound in its chains In Little
Church alley. had always stood before this
strangewee son of hers and sheltered him
from the curious gaze of the rough hearted,
heavy-handed populace about him. Social
as Kittie was she Eever encouraged visits
to her sixth pair-back apartments under
the very roof of the ramshackle old tene-
nj ent that stood at the head of the alley,
and so it came about that very few besides
the children, whom he did not mind when
they came mp the stairs and stood in The
little room to gaze at him in half-frieh htened
awe, knew that "Kittie Reilley's kid" bad
never grown up. Most of the passers up
and down the rckety staircase, who met
him creeping down 10 his daily airing in
the courtyard just al dark. mistook him for
a child. one OF those weird, old-faced chill
dren who swarm in Little Church alley,
and in the tbrong Of whom his tiny figure
escaped notice.
But in course of time Kittie Reilley sue
cambed 10 whisky and the fate that, sooner
OF later, overtakeS her kind and she was
carried ont, in rough deal box. TO make
one more in the trenches on the island.
Then 1t was that kittie Reilley's kid be-
came A Problem. to settle which several
score OF city officials aud charity boards
were sorely puzzled. There really seemed
no adequate place to put him. "rhe little
fellow ought to be in an orphan asylum"
SAID visitor from the Associated Chari-
ties. "a 28-year-old orphan is just little
beyond the provisions of our charter"
murmured one of the lady managers of
the Saint Such-a-One's Children's Home,
and the argument was telling one. He
Is unmistakably q pauper, but what to do
with pauper scarcely higher than a two
year-old baby is question for serious con-
sideratiOn, said the missionary of Little
Church alley.
just how the question would have de-
cided itself will never be known. for the
sky was suddenly cleared for the various
representatives by the appear
snce upon the scene of Manager de
Lonnevllle, who had heard of Kittie
Reilley's kid through Jennie Schmidt, the
CIrcassian girl of bis unparalleled man.
moth museum, who had seen the midget
on one Of the occasions when, with ner
yellow hair combed SIN ootn and done in a
sleek French twist, she had been home on
visit TO her maternal aunt in Little
Church alley. Manager de bonneville.
seeing In the kid good spec," came for
ward and maRnanimously offered him the
handsome thing OF SO q week ana his board
and clothes to appear for sixteen hours
day. seven days in the week, on the stage
of his unparalleled mammoth museum.
To klttie Reilley's kid. who had never
In his life possessed a dollar, who had
been accustomed to go hungry for weeks
at a time, never, indeed. to know the
meaning of good square meal, this paltry
sum seemed fortune. He knew abso-
lutely nothing of life. this man in years.
and babe in body, save the four dismal
walls OF the tenement IN Little Church
alley. and the drunken mother. who. even
at her worst, had always managed some
how to keep that little hole in which to
stow him and to crawl away herself. 1t
had seemed incredible to the visitor for
the Associated Charities when he learned
for the first time that for twenty-three
years, ever since he was five years old, In
fact, and Kittie, then scarcely 20 herself,
had drifted into Little Church alley and
IN his little room, aud had never
been beyond the shadow OF the
tall house at the head of the
alley. As a child, Kittie had kept him
in cy fierce threats of vengeance did he
dare dsobey her. and as he grew older an
underlined shame at the differences between
him and his kind had kept him out of
sight. except for his brief airings after
dark. 1t would be incredI BILE but for the
fact that is slowly creeping into our
knowledge that many things are becoming
ossibe in the teeming lower districts of
the great American metropolis, that are
rapidly making il a formidable rival in
this regard with even London.
The kid was not deformed. His tiny
BODY was as perfect in its way as that of
John l.. Sullivan, but it was exactly 90
inches high, and thin to attenuation, from
lifetime of short rations.
He began 10 plump out after m onth or
two at the museum, where he figured on
the bills as Colonel Mite, the celebrated
dwarf from the mountain regions of Ken
lucky. Manager de bonneville, whose
wife, by the way, bux0m, bustling per-
son, always called him Jones, had made
for him a pair of big russell boots reaching
half way up his little thighs, and In these
and costume Of blue jean trousers, a
jaunty shirt OF friDged buckskin. broad
brimmed hat and a pistol belt he was sup
posed TO be a perfect image on reduced
scale of the M oun tain ranger of Kentucky.
''Pd liked to made i'm an Eyetalian
count or suthin o. that sort" said Man
ager de bonneville. "but he'd a given it
away every time he opened his mouth"
In truth the ColonePs language Was un-
couth, save for the region from which he
was supposed to come, but fortunately the
freQuenters of the unparalleled mammoth
museum were not skilled In their mother
English and could not discriminate intelli-
gently between the dialect of the Ken
lucky ranges and the patter of Little
Church alley. go the Coloneps ascribed
antecedents passed without challenge
from the throng who daily and nightly al
tended his receptions and stood around his
platform while he walked about and an
swered the questions put to him. These
were principally relative to his age. weight,
height. why didn't he let his beard gro W,
for the Coloneps face was as smooth as
that of the baby he resembled In size, and
requests from the ladies that be kiss them.
This had been sore trial to him at first,
but he had gotten over bis first shyness,
and WAS always willing to kneel down at
the edge of his platform and bestow the
coveted salute that each woman felt
prompted to ask of him for his cuteness.
As the months wore on, however, he
grew discriminating.
''The ColoLefs a-comin' on" chuckled
Manager de bonneville one night as ne saw
the kid hesitatiDg between two of his
fay, inis vi, all ho 81.