Fisherman & farmer. [volume] (Edenton, N.C.) 1887-19??, 1894-03-02

He raised his head from his paws
and snapped eagerly at great, bulgv
bluefy that buzzed lazily around, and
swallowed it with a gulp. But one
fly is not much when one has a hollow
within him that feels as big as a
church.
Those hOlIOWs were common in Rat
Row. It was the river street of a large
city, where squalid men, women and
children fought, Guarreled, cursed and
stole their wretched lives long to keep
that inner void Just sufficiently filled
to ward off the Potter Field. ''Stole, -
| said. The younger habitants, per
haps, limited their achievements to
this. As for their elders we'll, if a
man with comfortably filled stomach
give up his "ticker" and other valu-
ables like a gentleman and evince no
disposition to "squeal," all right,
perhaps; if he rebeIled, the river was
handy. Then a fresh flow Of fire
water, more desperate fighting, ours
ing and cutting for II day or two.
Sometimes rush of patrOl-wagon and
armed police, bleeding body carried
away, a living, sulIen, horrible one or
two to answer for tit was an old
story to the blue-coats
Thus, Jags was dog of the slums,
kicked, cuffed and starved, with good
points i'll him that once led all uptown
clubman to coax him off the street
when Jags inadvertently wandered,
fOraging, to a respectable quarter
For three days Jags was fed, petted
and began to grow handsome. The
first hour of liberty found him fawn-
ing joyfully at the feet of Blinks, the
most brutal of all the Rat Row brutes,
whom Jags followed with worship
ing fidelity only found in some women
and most dogs. He was ready to
starve with his horrible idol rather
than desert him for soft treatment
and unlimited bones with meat on
them.
'Here We be, be ye, ye cuss?
Thought ye'd mosey, did ye? Been
feedin', has YEP Thought ye'd sneak
Take that-'nd that--'nd that -
That WAS a series of brutal kicks
that made the poor dog yelp out IL
piteous agony. When they ceased
one of Jags's beautiful, loving brown
eyes was gone, knocked out of its
bleeding socket by the master for whom
he had sacrificed wealth and comfort
That WAS merely q variation of the
tortures that Jags's master habitually
put upon him. If it ever occurred to
the dog that he had anything to for
give he did SO, freely, generously and
loving ly, creeping all the more
adOringiy to the feet that kicked him.
If he ever thought, wistfully, that his
master might have done more merci-
full thing and relieved him of a
real trouble by kicking out his
stomach, he never said SO.
Just now he dragged his bony length
to the side of Blinks, keeping watch
full eye for kicks, and Dreathed long,
s0bbing sigh of relief when he got
close to his idol without awakening
him. The man was seated on broken
chair outside the tottering tenement
house where he and Jags had a kennel.
His bloated red face was turned up
ward to the sun, his breath reeked bad
whisky, the soft summer breeze stirred
his loathsome rags. One wonders
how even the breeze could touch him.
Blinks was happy. He was full, not
of that unnecessary luxury, food, but
of vile whisky.
His slumber was soon disturbed by
q splash, chorus of yells from the
ganins on the river bank, and with
bare, red arms dripping with soap
suds, her frowsy hair flying in the
wind, Betsy O'Riley rushed from her
wash tub.
The babby! The darlint! It's
drowndid he is intoirely! Howly
Mary! Run. ye murtherin' divils /!
Save i'm! Hip"
1t would not have created much of
a sensation in Rat Row society if a
half dozen little ''rats' had been
swept away altogether by the river. A
few draggled women lounged to doors
or windows, two or three blear-eyed
men, among whom was Blinks, lurched
lazily toward the place where the
small, dirty figure had gone under the
muddy water, giving it plenty of time
to drown in the most leisurely way
before their arrival. Only the screech-
ing mother and the dog were really
alive to the situation.