The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1895-08-02
THE BABY ON THE ROOF.

The Maniac Held il in his Arms at the
Raleigh Insane Asylum, While the
Farmer-man and Wife Looked Help
lessly ON From Below.
To be sure, the man looked kindly
enough, and he took the baby from its
mothers arms like any kindly man would
do, and the mother was proud to see her
baby made much of like any mother
would be.
She was farmers wife from Samp-
son, and being stout Of arm, had carried
the child all day except when the hus-
band would sometimes take turn, and
the two had walked from the time the
train got to Raleigh, for they were used to
walking over the fields; but somehow city
streets have way of making those from
the country tired, and so the farmer wife
was tired when with the little one-year-
old and the farmer husband she had gone
afoot as far as the Asylum for the In
sane. Over seven hundred Of the ex-
cursionists had called on the good Dr..
Kirby that day, and so there was moth
ing ode now about these two farmer
folks among the others there.
"Tebe sure the man is kindly enough, "
she said to herself, and so she let him
take the baby in his arms. And
then she was glad she was away
from the city and it's buildings
and museum whales, and shops that fret
the eye that is used to travelling over
fields of waving corn, and she looked
out from the piazza way and she and
the husband and the farmer friends
looked upon the deep green swell of the
home-like hills and saw that they were
good.
And the baby was gone
"What did you do with him ~ asked
Joe, the farmer husband, in mans
way, that came like bolt.
She was in an insane asylum; it all
came to her in way that things about
their own young come to all mothers.
And too the kindly man was gone.
She listened and they all listened and
looked, but her ear caught the first
sound of the child. 1t was laughing
somewhere from above.
1t was ever so happy; for the man was
| tossing it up and up higher and higher
and its little heart leaped for joy, and
the eye of the kindly man cleaned with
| the cunning consciousness of a new eX.
perience, aud perhaps broken shaft Of
what was once a home light came
| through the distant years to br8ir
| Whelmed beneath troubled waters.
There he stood on the edge Of the rooI
/ three stories up, tossing the baby.
| He was maniac.
| And the baby was in a fEolic and il
was q strange sport for the mad man.
"What will he do?' The woman fell
under the horror Of it in dead swoon
Then the men counselled, while the
baby went up and down, and the
counsel was not taken with waste Of
word. Every word counted and every
thought counted: for the baby was in
frolic, as he kept tossing it away uI
there in the air. Some suggested
feather bed in case the little
one should be thrown down. DR.. Nc
Geachy suggested ladders to creep upon
the maniac, but where is the sane man
that can creep upon maniac even with
ladders, the mailman who sees every
movement quick as an ape2 The fire
alarm was suggested the words fell to-
gether helplessly and with despair
Meanwhile, Mr.. Crawford was not idle;
he had gone into the Office, and he ran
out with a great slice of watermelon,
and the baby was kept still in arms
on the roof while the man looked down al
Mr.. Crawford.
"Come down Colonel, said Mr.. Craw-
ford, and let's have some Melon" He
said it so quietly that the man looked
again and they all wondered for an ms
tant what he would do. He hesitated;
that was the supreme moment. "Come
Colonel" said Mr.. Crawford coaxingly.
The maniac turned deliberately, walked
to the man. hole On the roof, came down
with the baby, and his face had lost the
wild CLEAN it wore on the roof. He
looked at the farmer mother in the same
kindly way as ne handed back the baby.