The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1894-03-14
CRIPPLE DICK.

this an that. III break livery bone In Yer
ugly body. Now go. an may the curse
of Crummel go widgye"'
The woman who shouted this was
stout. nliddle-aged and had a double
chin, big Te5 arms and dirty plaid
shawl crossed over her breast and tied
behind in knot that looked TO be as
hard and stubborn as herself.
Mrs. Ford that was the woman's
name stood at the top of the stairs on
the top floor Of a very high and very
dirty tenement with dark halls rising
one above the other I'm tiers, far more
forbidding in appearance than the corri-
doris in the Tombs. and into which, on
either side. were long rows of grimy
doors, like the entrances to cells in the
walls of a fetid prison.
Preceding the fierce threat and curse,
an old boot, in the last stages of dilapi-
idation, had been hurled down the stairs
at a lad of fourteen. who stood painting
and pale-faced on the lower step the
left hand holding crutch and the right
Tclinging for support to the rckety banis-
1ers
The boy was dirty and ragged and the
pale. pinched face, and the look of alarm
in the big, brown eyes, gave him an aged
appearance that was out of keeping with
his smooth, thin cheeks and stunted
growth yet there was a certain pathetic
something in the shape and expression of
the face that told of superior intelligence,
and a heart hunger for sympathy that
is often more cruel and burning than
The hunger for food with which this
poor lad had long been familiar
At his birth. when his father a
fairly well-to-dO mechanic and the drink
habit had not yet brutalized and i'm
pOVerished him. the child was known as
Richard Ford" but his memory could
not run back 10 a time when he was not
called Cripple Dick" by his associates.
Cripple Dick was less than two years
Of age when one night his drunken
father hurled him from the bed to the
floor and dislocated his hip-an injury
from which he never recovered, and
which forced him to take to a erutCh
and bear the name
The boy was just six whom his mother
a good woman. who had vainly tried To
win back her husband 10 right living
and wore out her sad life in caring fo~
the child, gave mp the struggle and was
taken 10 the POtter's field.
Whiting less than year another
mother. the woman who had just sent
the poor lad Gathering down the stairs
with his crutch. was brought home. by
the drunken father: and from that day
on for nearly seven years every torturiug
influence to Kill the body and every
debasipg influence To- blacken the soul
had been brought to bear on Cripple
Dick.
If he had had less Of tho dear dead
mothers noble nature i'm MIN tho boy
would have developed into q moral mon
stcr. and would have been seized and
taken To some institution where the law.
with its machine methods. would nave
fed and clothed him and tried 10 educate
him. but being gentle and uncomplaiuinG.
hN was allowed To suffer and grow UP
n s best he could.
Three months before this Cripple
Dicks father died at Bellevue hospital
from alcoholism" tho doctors said. but
the neighbors in the Essex-st. tenement
who had known his hs bits for mary
years. called the disease '1fm-iams. arl
wondered why he had not died years
before
cruel and selfish though the father
was, the boy chung To him and laVished
all his affection on him. for he was the
only living being with whom he could
claim kinship: and so when the rough
pine coffin was carried down the dirty
stairs and away 10 the pOtter's field
cripple Dick felt as if the last ray Of
light had gone out of his life
Since the eighth year he had been sell
ing papers and making enough to have
supported himself after a fashion had he
been allowed 10 spend his little earnings
for his own humble needs but this has
never been the case.
From the first the new mother had
been brutally harsh and cruel but the
boy was used To this Kindness on her
part would have SO surprised him that
he would not have known how To take
It; but his fathers coffin was hardly out
of sight before Mrs. FOrd's creulty was
redoubled, and il ended in the scene I
have just described Another man of
the same type was coming TO take the
dead fathers place and even the neigh
bors-poor as himself-acknowledg one
To the other that Cripple Dick had no
natural claim on Mrs. Ford"
Before the woman had thrown the boy
out she had cunningly taken from him
his last cent, so that as he stood there
leaning on his crutch al the foot of the
stairs he presented as complete a picture
OF dbJect poverty and helplessness as
can well be ina gined.
Cripple Dick was homeless. friendIess
aud mOneyless His sole property was
mis- crutch and the few rags that chung
70 his attenuated frame.
Overcome with the thought Of his con-
ditiOn. he limped down 10 the third hall
midway in the tenement. intending Ia
make his way 70 the street. where a cold
March rain was beating down pitilessly.
when overcome by his feelings, he tot
tered against a doorway and cried a. il
his heart was breaking.
\ bushy-headed. fierce-looking man on
the floor of the hall above looked over
the oanister and shouted down:
Hello. YOU poy down dere, You
shoost stop dem noises pooty tam quick
or / comes ride down unit make a het
on YOU az, you hears YOt I say, don'd
it,"
The boy did hear and tried to smother
his sobs in his ragged hat. but this did
not suit the man looking over the rail.
Holt oop," he shouted. with another
oath, I COON down ride away. den YOU
haf good reason for dat noise, now you
see"
The boy pulled on his hat and grasped
his crutch, for the man was coming down
The stairs with anger and an oath i'm
each heavy step. when the door against
which crippled Dick had been leaning
opened. and he heard voice that sound
ed like music saying behind him:
Poor boy. he has sore trooble. Come
In. I vii spik Wis you
These sympa thetic words were adj
dressed 10 Cripple Dick But suddenly
the sweet voice changed into tones of
anger and defiance. and a 1.-THE figure
darted past him and interpOsed between
him and the man who had come down
from the hall above, with blood in his
eyes and the Odor Of schnapps on his
breath
Wat YOU ger-rsit beesti You sail
not dare 10 hurt ices poor boy
Den. he moos stop dem tam noises
grOwled the man, evidently alarmed BY
the bearing of the slender little black
eyed E'rench WOnau uyho confropfad hin,