The morning times., 1895-08-18
Crime-tOssed Men Who Stop at
Central Union Mission.
SOME UNIQUE CHARACTERS
Before He Tasted the Fruits of Sin.
Prison-EllenA Ale Had Been In the
workhouse Eighty-six Times.

set gray eyes, stood in front of the Central
Union Mission reading room last evening.
His clothes were shabby and he seemed
glanced nervously up and down Louisiana
avenue, as though he were expecting some
one to come. Had you asked Supt Don
nelly, of the Mission hobo" department,
for what the man was waiting he would
no doubt have replied:
Like many others here, he is waiting
for something to turn up"
Five years ago that man was president
of railroad in one OF the Southwestern
States To-day he is a tramp, without
home or friends. He sleeps on a cot in the
dormitory in the Mission building and gets
a 1O-ceDt meal down stairs, occasionally,
through the charity OF the Christian work
ers, or by saving wood down in the dingy
cellar under the Mission building.
AS he stood out in the glare OF the en-
trance arc light, this one-time man OF
wealth, now reduced to beggary by wine,
women and song" race tracks, and the
seductive gambling dens, he presented a
striking picture.
HE Is AN EXCONVICT.
A thin, nervous individual at that moment
emerged from the reading room The latter
is an eX convict and was recently released
from the Sing Sing ''pen,' where he spent
twenty long years for a heinous crime, OF
which he declares he was guiltless. The
eX-couviCt stepped out with peculiar
tread. He has not yet gotten out OF the
habit Ofwalking with the prison 'lock-step,"
which was his wont during the score OF
years he had spent behind the bars. The
fellow appeared light hthearted. He had
Just finished eating a l0-cent supper in
the mission dining room. AS he passed
out to the sidewalk the man who had
worn striped penal uniform so long burst
into song His clear baritone voice echoed
on the night air as he repeated the we'll
| known melody:
This lie is but a mighty river
Flowing on from day to day;
Men a.e vessels launched upon it,
Some are wrecked and cast away"
The ex railroad president glanced around
at the former convict The song had
touched a tender chord somewhere beneath
his ragged vest. Something glistened II
| his ewes. 1t might have been tear. Per
haps it was only stray reflection from
the sputtering electric light overhead.
The dormitory OF the Central Union Mis-
sion, OF ne of the upper floors Of the great
building on Louisiana avenue, between
Sixth and Seventh streets, its meetings
and reading rooms, form a veritable ka
leidoscope of human nature. George w
Havell, one Of the mission directors, truth
fully explained it when he wrote:
"Eas- yoiBg and well-to-do people, who
| spend considerable time in their libraries
perusing among other books, those catch!
character sketches by Dickens and Thack
cray, could, if they would spare the time
find at the Central Union Mission living
characters, whose biographical sketches
of themselves, would perhaps prove yer.
interesting and perhaps instructing.
HOPE STILL LINGERS.
1.-THE hobo element is not referred to
but men versed in the liberal and fine arts
men who have won success in every pro
fession, and who, through those strange
and peculiar revolutions, or evolutions, il
the whirligig of time, find themselves sub
merged in the slough of misfortune-bu
not OF despond 1t is to their credit tc
!
same whirligig will bring them to the toI
again and land them, not in a ditch o.
desert, but upon the rich, fallow grounC
that produces its harvests of plenty and I,
spare. AT present their appetites are good
their clothes seedy, purses needy, and thei
eutloOk-misty.
Not all the unfortunates who find foot
and shelter beneath the welcome portal
of the mission were brought down to tn
sub-strata by strong drink, gambling, o
other vicious habits Some are the victim
of circumstances and other unavuida bl
conditions. There is an artist, one o
natures own painters, who occupies q room
high up in the big building and he has hi
studio there He has made likeneSses in oi
of many of the great men who have Ions
since passed into history as prOminen
figures His work is marvellous, but lik
many other men of talent his kite of FAM
came down to earth, through no fault o
his own, and he is now a poor man, bu
devout Christian.
On the same floor with him is the e.
convict, with twenty years imprisonmeI
to his record. He also is a devout Christia
now, although his picture graces nearl
every rogues' gallery in the country
After leaving Sing Sing prison, he kne'
not where to go. He believed every man
hand was turned against him. He coul
not rid himself of the lock-step which b
had practiced daily for a score Of veal
In the pen Policemen and detectives kne'
the hateful step and spotted the poor fello'
at every move.
BETRAYED BY HIS STEP.
Going to New York he was approache
by two detectives. They took him into cu'
tody and brought him before the inspecto
He was told that he must leave the city a
once, or he would be sent TO the island
for a term as a suspect. From the MT
tropolis he went to Philadelphia. There
was the same thing. He was warned
cg