Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1896-04-20
A STORY.
Translated from the Spanish.)

WHICH l. ALL dOOuU W UOlt va 40
not fancy sketch; it it is a deed done
before my eyes, in the early hours OF
winter night, under dark sky, upon
the wet and sodden earth, under the
white light of an electric lamp.
Listen to it. It deserves to be heard.
1t has done me the favor to reconcile
me to my fellow mortals for little
while.
l will tell you just as it happened,
without adding anything of my own
invention.
Near the grated window Of the Of
flee of the minister of war, blind
man, whom all my readers in Madrid
have seen, asks aims He sits in
folding chair, with torn garments,
wasted form, withered features, with
a discOrdant violin in his arms and
brass tray on his knees. Whether it
rains or freezes, whether the heat suf-
locates or the cold benumbs him,
there he is shut out from the daylight
scraping inartistically the frayed
strings of his instrument, destroying
y
hearing the bank clock strike the
hours, and the people and carriages
pass through the broad street, wait
ing for bit of copper coin to fall in
his tray SO he may put his hand in his
pocket; going away at dawn, with the
violin under his arm and the folding
chair in his hand, to sleep, God knows
how, and no matter where.
Existence must be sad thing for
the poor blind man. Fortune has de-
prived him of the comforts that make
life endurable; nature, of those pleas
ures which cannot be bought with
money, because money will not pur-
chase them. With what shall one pay
for the spectacle of the blue heavens,
of a mass of clouds colored by the sun
of dark horizon, which sometimes
glows and opens enough to paint on
its background rosy angles and zig
gags of purple? With what shall one
pay for the sight of a spring full of
blossOm ms, an autumn laden with fruit,
of winter covered with snow, Of a
SulnI1SI Iull vi w 1Uil WudU UI1S
coming and going of multitude that
passes and undulates by our side,
while here stands out the golden head
of a child; there the elegant form Of a
woman; and still further in the dis
lance are heard the shrill voices of a
noisy crowd?
This, which is beyond price, we en-
JOY freely, and the unhappy blind man
loses it all; this beggar who is always
alone, who, very likely, has no family,
and for whom, perhaps, no one is
waiting when he feels his way up the
stairs to his room.
After all, we'll or i'll, unhappy Or
happy, he gets enough to keep him
from dying of hunger, and he begs !
alone every night at the barred win
dow of the war office in front of the !
bank of Spain.
One night of last winter I was
standing in Alcala street, in front Of !
the blind man with the violin. The /
presence of that poor man interested /
me so much that [ stood gazing at him
in spite of the pricking of the cold and
the tapping Of the rain upon my face.
The blind man scraped his instru
ment, and | kept on waiting, waiting
without paying much attention, either
to him or to a poor little fellow of
four or five years Of age, who passed
and legs bare, his body hardly cover
ed with ragged jacket, and his face
purple with the cold.
The little one was crying, rubbing
his eyes with his fists, choking with
grief, trying to keep back the sobs
that came up in his throat; one of
these sobs was stronge- than the
power of his will; it turned into
shrek and brought me out of my rev.
erie and made the blind man inter-
rupt his music.
s'What is the matter, my lad?" he
asked of the child, who was only two
steps away from him.
ssDios n1io-Dios noion' sobbed the
little one, drawing nearer.
"What has happened?" said the
blind man. "Why do you cry SOP"
he added, catching hold of the boys
jacket and turning his face toward
him, just as if he could see him.
81 am crying" exclaimed the boy,
because I am hungry and cold and
Haven't they given you any
thing?"
"No.D
Haven't you father and mother?''
ssNo"
"Haven't you had anything to eat?''