Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1896-02-03
How Toby was Converted.


1t wasn't an old fashioned, Method
ISL sort OF conversion, Toby's wasn't
l6 was rather the result of series OF
incidents, the which I will tell you
he was about the toughest speci-
men OF street urchin you ever saw;
he was always the center Of the mass
OF juvenile masculinity that whirled
IKE small maelstrom about the base
ment door when it was time for the
paper to be out-a maelstrom that
dispersed to the surrounding air q
spray Of oath and vile talk that was
appalling. There were nimble tongues
with everything they ought not to say
waiting at their saucy ends, keen eyes
used seeing more than young eyes
ought to see, untamed minds full of
perverted ideas supported at all times
by dirty little fists.
There was no discount on Toby; he
was a regular outlaw. His honor was
as changeable as his abiding place,
and he boosted of having sold papers
in % States, yet his bony, stunted
frame could scarcely have had ten
years growth.
s'Cousin of Jay Gould, I am," he
would say when he was questioned as
to his antecedents, travelling for my
health till the estates settled up"
and then he would wink at you con-
fdentially, square out his ragged ell
DO ws and strike you for a cigarette.
Inveterate user of the weed, Toby
was, and of something stronger when
he could get hold Of it; at last Mac
said that he saw him once fighting
drunk-not that the fighting was any
and that he had narrow escape from
being run in.
Toby was hardened little villain.
Dogs and cats shrank from him in
and smaller boys, and
good many larger ones, had whole
some fear Of his knuckles. He would
lie for the pure love of lying, and to
palm off an old paper on an unsuspect-
ing transient customer was his great
est delight. There was always some
thing exciting in Toby's paper "ere's
all ABOUT the fire; ten men burned
up" or a double murder Or something
were his bats for custom. Utterly
without principle was Toby.
There was woman in the case. She
was the stenographer up at Paine &
Aliingham and she used to stand
down on the street corner waiting for
a Fifth street car just as the boys
would get their papers and break
away over the city like pack Of
dervishes. She was one of
those pretty, neat-looking girls who
somehow impress you as being SO
stylish and all that, and yet you never
seem to notice what their dresses are
like; she wore her hair short and cur
Iy, and generally had on white sail
OR hat with white band around it.
She always looked so bright and fresh
standing there on that dusty corner,
and was so quiet and lady like that it
was pleasure just to see her.
The Fifth street cars are not very
regular, and sometimes she would not
have to wait five or ten minutes, and
she got in a habit of always getting
her evening paper of Toby.
What womanly instinct enabled her
to detect grain of the leaven of de-
cency in that incorrigible little bar
barian I cannot explain, but she used
to watch for him and take her paper
from no one else. She used to say
''thank you'' and make some pleasant
remark about the weather and so on,
and Toby got to feel as if he was &C
quainted with her and would lift his
hat to her when he brought her paper
a proceeding which must have aston
ished the hat very much, for thong
it was very flexible in the brim it had
not grown 50 from being dotted to la
dies, but rather from habit he had of
using it as a weapon of defence and
offence by beating other boys over
the head with it.
1t was a dead sure case with Toby,
he was rather young for the
tender passion, and great was the am
azement among his CO. laborers when
it was discovered that he was getting
way back from the head of the class
as an aggressive pugilist, and had TAX
en- to washing his hands. The reform
even spread to his face, and Toby was
found to have quite engaging features
under the mask of dirt which had so
long obscured them. Of course, these
changes were made gradually, but
they were perceptible to all of US.
How long the reformation would have
taken in the natural course of events