The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1896-05-27

It was a hot, broathless August day in
New York. The hour was high noon. Yet,
beneath that vertical sum- blind beggar
sat asking aims by the wayside.
His worn dress, though scrupulously
clean, betrayed the utmost poverty. His
hand shook with palsy as he held forth his
tattered straw hat for aims. On his barred
head, bald on top, but with a few thin,
gray hairs around the edges, the vertical
sun poured down its fierce heat pitilessly.
Poor old mani
Suddenly a splendid equipage drew up
TO the sidewalk and a portly, pompous
man descended. Could the mendieant
have seen that face he would scarcely
have ventured to solicit aims, and now,
when he did, his extended hat was rudely
rebuffed.
"Get out Of the way, get out Of the wayi
Where's the police, I wonder?' cried the
millionaire in a quick testy voice, rude
ly pushing the old mendicant aside.
An officer, who happened to be within
hearing, stepped Immediately up and was
obsequiousness itself He shook the beg
gar roughly.
Come, be movingi' he said And OBJ
serving that the old man hesitated, but
whether from weakness or to arouse pity
be did not stop to inquire, he gave him q
push, adding g on with you at onceP'
The aged nendicant resisted no longer.
Feeling his way with his stick, he arose
and was soon lost to sight in the hurrying
crowds which even on that summer day
poured ceaselessly along the streets.
But as he went though his tongue was
silent, his heart was not He Thought of
his early life, when in a distant land he
had been prosperous and happy; his hearth
shared by q sympaUhizing wife, his board
surrounded by lovely children.
Then he recalled the misfOrtunes which
had driven him in his old age into exile
the fever ship where his remaining grand
children had died and the first day Of ut
ter beggary. a type Of mary day since
he had landed on a foreign shore. As
these things rose before him, he groaned.
"How long O Lord, how lougT'
Jostled and often almost overthrown,
the mondicant had nevertheless succeeded
at last in advancing several squares. He
had now reached a point where it became
necessary to cross Broadway. For some
time he hesitated, the ceaseless roll Of We
hicles disheartening him, but finally there
was Iull, during which he thought he
might venture.
He had achieved about half the distance
when a pair of proud high stepping horses
approached at a rapid rate. The liveried
coachman, peroeiving the beggar, drew par
TALLY in But his imperiOus master, al
ways impatient Of delay at this angrily
spoke up.
''What business has the old rascal to be in
the way? Hen jump quick enough when
he hears you on top of him"
He did jump quick enough, too but it
was the wrong way. Catching the sound
of the horses hoofs, he had turned his
sightless eyes toward them, and then, for
the first time the coachman saw that be
was blind. To pull up again was the work
of a moment, even though the servant
knew he was disobeying orders. But it
was too late. The mendioant losing his
presence Of mind had sprung the wrong
way-had fallen under the horses feet and
was run bodily over before the impetus Of
the carriage could be stopped.
He was not killed instantly. He had
recollection of being picked up, of hearing
a crowd around him and of recognizing
the voice of the rich man whom be had
vainly implorsd for aims an hour before
"Humphl' ~ that voice had said. He seems
done for. a doctor would do no good.
Some Of you carry him to the hospital and
say that Alderman Brown sent him there. "
Then the sound Of carriage wheels roll
ing off and of those proud horses mixed
with the murmured voices of the crowd
until all became s. vague dream. When
the mendicant was lifted on q rude tenn
porary litter he was seen to be totally IN
sensible. When his bearers stopped at the
hospital he was discovered to be dead.
The next day was Sunday. The rich
man, the pompous official, had quite forgot
ten the incident Of the preceding morning.
At 10 O'Clock his sumptuOus equipage
was at the door, for he respected the de-
cencies of society and went duly TO church,
his richly cushioned pew being in a fash
ionable up town Gothic sdifice. And
while he lolled back in his corner calculat-
ing the chances of a rise in stocks or spec
ulating on the complexion Of political par
ties his liveried servant waited outside
with his coach and horses that all might
know how exemplary a Christian Alder
man Brown was.
Principally at I've minutes past 10 the
rich man entered his carriage, which i'm
mediately moved off, the horses stepping
stately, but with SO restraint, as became
the day
Presently plain hearse, containing a
coffin of the conmonesb description and
without a solitary follower, crossed from
bystreet and the c0achman was compelled
for a moment to draw in that it might
pass. It was the p0orhouse hearse. Need
we say who was in that coffin? And thus
for the third and last time the millionaire
and mendicanb met.
The Dives of the parable was not the
last Of his kind. Many a Lazarus still lies
at rich mems gates, denied even the
crumbs they seek and with only dogs to
lick their sores. Exchange.
Artificial Memory.
An old Welsh hfaclzslnith who was also