Delaware gazette and state journal. (Wilmington, Del.) 1883-1902, 1894-02-22
DOROTHY HARDY'S MASCOT.
"ralos of Ton Travellers" Series.



ceaseless battle for love and life and
home.
Hard times
pulses Of trade are stilled by the
wrangles of leaders Of men; when the
rich fly from The presence OF poverty to
the makeshift of travel in foreign lands;
when the m!serly hoard more closely
and sayagely; when the charitable are
broken by the great wave of appalling
want beating them down; when
the crafty fatten upon dolor and mis-
fortune; when the lawgivers, tenn
porarily safe behind their fortress Of
plenty and power, drowsily theorize,
speculate, bubble and delay; and even
when the apostemic heads of great
governments dawdle through weeks,
months, almost years, among the de-
lusions of diplomacy, the turpitudes Of
place-giving, or the senilities of wrang-
ling with senates, while millions are
starving beside the rusting wheels of
trade
Hard times
Bitter, dark, rayless hard times to the
wretched poor, with no outlook be-
yond; with bowling blasts searching
them out to hurt and sting and scourge;
with hunger pinching and with winter
freezing; with disease lurking topounce
upon them when manly hope is done;
with lonely agony to rack them when
reason is almost gone; and with gaunt
death to claim them, and at last release
them from their pitiless struggle just to
hve-kinder tenderer and more com
passionate far than the bland, flint
hearted inquisitors above them, who
maunder still Of the wrong of this party
or that, Of wonderful theories, Of
political advantage, OF tariffs, of re-
forms, of trade free, trade fur and trade
fUu, while lmputent lethargy Is unctu-
ousIy filling countless thousands OF
panper graves.
Hard timgsl
Humblers of the proud, victors over
the strong, Jewellers Of the many. How
their remorseless hand strikes where
least expected, snltes IN remote and un-
fOrseen places the half-attained fTui-
tons, and shifts and changes the rela
tons Of men In all that measureless
land between the wretched poor and
the wretched rich, the land which zones
the world with blessed aspiration and
with building and bullded homes, how
their blight palsies the arm of effort and
of love! How their threatening wraiths
walk beside the father in his toll, the
mother in her endless help!ngs and
hopings, the student in his delVlngs, the
professional man in his all but reached
success, the inventor in his vigils, aye,
even the lover in the most blissful hopes
he ever may know, changing the
cherished dreams of years to black pic
lures of despair Liquidation, the
great economists may call them; but
petrefaction Is the truer word. And
whoever shirks, withholds, or plays vul-
ture with his fellow man when such
dark days are come, puts back the hands
of universal human good and progress
on the dial face of time and shall be
known as an enemy of his race and
kind. ,-a.#.
Something like this was rumbling
through Richard Hardy's tired head and
discouraged heart, as he walked the
streets of the great city of New York,
for he had not the wherewithal to ride,
and saw the pitiful scenes of want and
suffering on every hand in that hard
times winter of 1894, finally coming, by
circuitous route to his own home in
the sky piercing Spuyten Duyvel Flats.
From q safe distance his near-sighted
eyes furtively and with difficulty through
his spectacles for long time regarded
the carved entrance to the Flats with its
gaudy glass, its gay chandelier, and its
rows of polished speaking tubes and
electric bells, hoping to escape the al
that moment most distressing ogre OF
his distressfui poverty, their alert and
cal, Sal DO A. Ia 10, .1s a.
plunged into the entrance, touched his
own bell, "Ninth Floor, Rear" was in.
side the door in an instant, and was
making fine Roadway up the stuify stairs
when frowsy head with a hatchet face
hooking itself over the lower newel-post
as ii it had been sprung from its capa.
cious panels by his guilty tread, snapped
out.
"Mister Hardyp'
"Oh-ah 7" he stammered, hating on
the last stair as if caught red-handed
in the apartment house domestic crime
of ascending to his own domicile with.
out having given account of himself.
SIS that you, Mrs. Rasper?"
"Yes, its mel"
"Well, my dear Mrs. Rasper," he TEN,
porized while his heart beat rapidly, fol
he did not know just how to handle the
virago turnkey of these modern penten
tiary home-cells without penny in his
pocket, "what-what is it you wish ~
"Stutfl" chopped out the newell pos
gargoyle.
"Well, frankly, my good woman, dc
toow
"Coal IS outer your bin"
"Ah?"
"Grocer S rampin' round"
"Well, we'll"
"Milkman says youse givin' him tn
Bowery."
"The BoweryH"
eyes, the faucet"
"Yes TIL d. b."
swell, we'll, WE'LL I'm surprised !"
81 amt M tn landlord says rem
Saturday, er out youse CO."
dear, dear mot quite so loud Mrs
Rasper; there's good woman; I'll SEE
about it, at once; at once, Mrs. Rasper.'
"Youse better" And with this, tn,
frowsy head, Ratchet face and bltin,
tongue of Mrs. Rasper, ianitress, disap
peared into the newell post or the equally
dark mahogany Somewhere with
sharp click and loud bang.
Up, up, up, he stumbled to wher,
another head, little, round, kindly
smiling, head, had hooked itself over
baluster; not as hldeous gargoyle lik,
the one below, but as calm, clear, eve
steadfast beacon light to his humbl
home, and he mentally exclaimed, 600
bless that loyal FACET as he at las
espied ii and smiled back its bright vel
come; though his heart sank within hin
as he reflected that he could bring it
precious owner no other news than u