The weekly Union times. [volume] (Union C.H., South Carolina) 1871-1894, 1894-03-09

y - sst ~ Nsss - 80 sSss,
turbcd in Rat Row. Big Andy caught
Blinks by that part of his garment
where the collar should have been anG
shook him into stupid protest.
''Blamc yer mizzable hide" III
shouted furiously. "Call i'm back OF
I'll fling We in arter i'm -
Blinks fell Imply to the ground anG
obeyed. But Jags had already turned
to defend his master and bounded
back with growl at his assailant.
"Cussed if the dawg wouldn't figh,
fer ye now, we sneakin' hound - NUT
tered Big Andy with All admiring gri1
Mt Jags He went into his own nest iI
the tenement house and flung Jags 8
bone. ''Hyar, daws! Put that dowr
your neck !"
Jags snatched it with the fervor OF
starvation, but his master was filed
with sullen spite against the limo
cent cause of his shaking, and, look
ing to SEQ that Big Andy was Mt n safe
distance, he called:
"Hyar, ye imp"
The dog came, clinging desperately
to the precious food.
"Drop it,"
Tho poor animal obeyed, cycling it
wistfully the while.
"Now, come git it'll"
Jags bounded ioyfully forward to
meet kick that made him howl. Re.
peating this amusing performance un-
til he was weary, the human brute
finally threw the bone into the river.
Jags started weakly sfter it, but
obeyed with something like tears in
his one pathetic eye when commanded
to lie down.
Well, he had been hungry before,
and if his master willed this, he must
know best.
1t has been seen, long before this,
that Jags WAS an ideal Christian.
Hours after this even Rat Row was
wrapped in slumber-the heavy sleep
of the drunkard or the leadcn one OF
exhaustion and weakness. Blinks, af.
ter taking several more drinks from a
fiat, black bottle, staggered into some
corner of tho Old Mill, after ordering
Jags in language savoring of birthstone
to stay out, when the poor dog tried to
follow him in.
The stars shone rs serenely down on
the foul smelling city slums as upon
the cloversweet meadows far away.
The river murmured and gurgled along
the black piers. Sometimes the
''chug- chug" of steamboat came
clearly through the night; then its
hoarsc whistle one long drawn, three
short, another long-woko the echoes
and it puffed past, its high, colored
lights and trailing smoke making it
look through the darkness like some
iery-eyed demon of the mists.
Jags, lying prone on the rickety
steps of the Old Mill, means and cries
little in his sleep rs vague realiza-
tions of his wretched life and empty
stomach visit his dream.
Suddenly he starts up, nose in air,
and listens. There is nothing unusual,
Jpgs! The river gurgles on softly,
the stars twinkle undimmed, there is
no variation of sight or sound that hu-
man mind can detect. Not human
mind, perhaps, but dog instinct
Jags quivers, he shifts the air and
walks about uneasily. He stops and
whines, tries to push in the barred
door and fails. Then he breaks into a
long, plaintive howl. Surely that will
awaken some one in that narrow
street, that crowded house But there
comes no other sound but the ripping
river, the roar of the far away, sleep
less streets.
Again and again he howls. Silence {!
What is that? A mere shadow of o
sound, faint, stealthy, as if some one
had stepped lightly on dry twig and
snapped it. 1t rouses Jags to frenzy.
Scores of human beings, men, won en-,
little children, sleeping calmly in a
tinder-b box, that tinder- box on fire and
only he, Jags, dumb, helpless ami.
NAL, to know and save them And he
his idolized tyrant, in there!
Jags throws himself against the door
with yell of agony. 1t falls open. A
thin puff of smoke wavers to meet him.
Barking, bowling, fairly shrieking,
Jags tears straight for the room where
he and Blinks have their kennel. He
isn't there! Out again, jumping
against doors in his frantic search,
choked with smoke, rushing through
curling tongues of flame, goes the dog
Are they all dead in there! His mas
ter. where is he? 1t is we'll that one
in that vast hive is not too tired nor
too drunk to awaken. Big Andy
rouses to realize that the dog is making
"a FUSS" takes in the situation in a
fash, and bounds out of the smoke
| filled room.
Great God The house is or FIRE =
Fire, fire, fire ~
Somewhere wire vibrates above
The city streets. A great bell tolls out
on the night. Clang, clang, clang
Rattle. rattle, rush Streams of sparks
in the wake of flying engines. Sharp
and clear the engine and patrol gongs
| str;ka in t;noa with rattlinp hoofs and