Wheeling Sunday register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1882-1934, 1894-06-24
This was the "other side" OF Boston
"A unfSprlbla Uother side"

This was the "Other side" OF Boston
"A miserable "other side"
Three girls In three Salvation bonnets,
we went from saloon TO saloon, and as
we filed into the barroOm Three little
maids from school," several faCetious
barkeeperS suggested.
As the night closed In and ii grew
toward 6 o'clock, and the lights came
out and the saloons were brilliant as
MONDAY, the ordeal grew more trying.
The men were more hilarious, and
| shrank back and had scarcely
courage to bold out my little
paper. There is always a vague
terror Of drunkenness la the feminine
mind, and when tiDsy man touched
my arm as l brushed by him toward the
door, aud made some hicCoCghed obser
walton, could scarcely suppress a nerV-
Gus scream, ard when be put out his
arm and l saw the loungers smiling, |
drew myself away as if he had been a
leper.
The hard words that had been spo
ken, the jeers that had been cast after
Us, all the awful experiences
of the day-taough my lass told me
cbeerfuly that it had been a very easy
day, except that it was not the right
time Of the week TO sell Var CryS-
dampened our spirits as we walked home
TO the little JOY street domiCle.
But there was the bright tea table, the
girls sympathetic faces, the Steaming
tea pot aud the comfortable security OF
being shut out Of the sight OF the big,
unkind world.
After supper, prayers and more
promises" there was the evenings
programme-a sIum meeting at l15
Beach street.
For this we discarded the big bonnets
and put on ordinary unObtrusive hats.
The opeu-air meeting collected a
goodly crowd, but rough one, from
the South Cove, and the slum officers
who led wore gingham aprons, and
nothing more distinctive OF their office
but a little badge. There were pray
ing, singing and testiiying, and then
| the march to the hall, with small boys
and hard faced, half.drunken men and
women in line.
II was like the familiar Salvation
meeting, the praying and sraising only
| infinitely more pathetic because OF the
miserableness or the audience, the
wretched dissipated faces that crowded
there,
1--WE will do some midnight slum
ming" said my lass, when the meeting
was over, land see If we cannot find
some poor girls to be saved.
1t was IL o'clock when just turning
into Pitts street, there was noisy
crowd OF boys, and somebody said,
"Only a drunken woman. She came
down the street with a man, and she
had a bunch Of flowers the boys were
teasing her for, and she tripped and fell
there. She's only drunk"
Into the crowd we passed, and there
in its center, doubled up in strange,
dark, silent heap, lay woman on the
pavement.
"De bloks hit 'er over de head wild er
BOTTLE" one of the boys volunteered.
Nav. l seed her fall; she's only
paralyzed with beer" said another.
a young man stood at her head, Law
ing her face with water from cup. 1t
was a bloated, purple face seen there by
the Pickering OF the matches which
soma OF the boys struck and held there
above the still heap in the darkness.
"lt's Baltimore Annie, sure!" they
said. "She's only drunk again"
A boy kicked vicioVSy al the pros
trate form, and hY lass cried
stop! the woman may be dead. !"
just then q man from ihe crowd stepped
up to shsre the wo an lay. BE at
tempted TO raise her, bot she did not
move. She was dead. Thus ended the
career of Baltimore nnie."