Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1896-03-13
SIDE TRACKED.

"Moll pour littlo Molll It's awful hard
TO lie here day in and day out, isn't iil
Never mind. when buy out tho road You
can have your own pri vnto car to - where
you pleased IIo ran his hand along the
rusty old lounge upon which lay the poor
little cripI and they both laughed rI,h
or pathetic. " over tho idea of his over
buying out the road when no could scarce
ly keep himself and the little woman from
starvation.
Jack Bunting was strong sturdy, iron
muscled son of toll, tender hearted as IA
woman. His hands were rough and black.
ened with labor, but as gentle and kind
as a mothers in the care of the wife de-
pendent upon him. He was stokcr on
freight train running out Of Lewiston and
was compelled by his duties to be much
away from the woman whose protector he
had been for little over year.
The first year of their married life had
not been n lucky ono, for Jack had been
out of work great part of the time and
when they had been married but few
months Molly, the girl wife, had received
injuries in fall which made her "a help
less cripple, and day after day she lay upon
her back watching the little streak of sun
the room. until at last it disappeared in
the evening. She had grown to know it
so we'll that she could tell the time of day
by its position, but some time it grew
very, very tresomo watching it move, oh,
so slowly, down and Quit
'That's the way I'm going!" she said
one day tn Jack "Just So slowly and
easily you will hardly notice it, but some
day you will come to look for Molly and
find her goner'
Poor Jack bowed his head on her breast
and wept bitter tears, for he knew it was
true. He knew she might be saved; but,
alas, he made barely enough to feed them.
The money which might pay the great
specialist to save his little wife was lying
in the heaped up Golfers of some multimil-
lionairc, and though poor Jack loved his
wife rs well, aye, even better, than many
of his luckicr fellow men loved their wives,
he must stand by and SEQ her suffer and
sink and die because, though he wear his
fingers to the bone battling for her daily
bread, he caLnot earn enough to provide
the means to save her life.
Ii * hard, God knows that it is hard
that here in our dear country, which we
love to call "tho land Of the free, " human
hearts and human lives ara placed at 81
low value that one man may buy anuth-
or for IA mere pittancr and work him until
he drops dead in his tracks like II weary
pack horse.
Some thirty odd years ago our country
was thrown into thoawful throcs Of Il war
for the abolishmcnt of slavery, but today
she is in the bondage of IL slavery ten thou
sand times WORSE for in those days the
slaves were well fed, clothed and housed,
and the objects of their masters care ana
love, but the white slave of today-the
poor man who wears his life ont laborng
to fill the Golfers of the rich-recrives in
return barely enough to buy him crust
of bread to keep body and soul together.
If he refuse, his alternative is to starve
and to see wife and children cast into tho
street like rats to die
Jack, Molly said, lit wouldn't be so
hard If you wcren gone SO much. | lie
here and think of you so far away and
think of what might happen. and my
heart grows cold with fear until you re
turn"
Poor little womanl' hereplied. You
are nervous. You mustn't think of those
things. old 4G never had an accident,
and guess the worst hat is likely To hap
pen is to he side tracked in some lonesome
place for few hours while the express
passes by, and that doesn't happen often.
You know we run pretty close, and sci
dom have to wait long at siding"
Yes, Jack, you run close, as you call
it, but some day you may run little too
'close!' Such things arc happening every
( day. Well, III try not to think" Molly
said. You II he back soon, won't your"
She invariably asked that question, and
Jack as invariably answered yes. -
We come in Wednesday night, and
nothing but death can keep mo from YOU
dearl'
She lifted her thin, transparent hands
and olasped them around his neck
Don't, .Iark-dun't speak of death"