The Virginia enterprise. [volume] (Virginia, St. Louis County, Minn.) 1893-19??, 1896-04-24

dreams again.
Household Words.
NEVER DESPAIR.
Who has not heard OR read about Lon
don bridge. that famous thoroughfarc of
England's busiest center of traffic, Of its
endless stream of humanity, constantly
passing to and fro in their daily pur-
suits, of ii1huinetnble tales of woe, OF
lives lost, misspent and forlorn, of TRACE,
dies, occurring only to be at once forgot
ten and followed by more startling
crimes, the inevitable result and outcome
of everyday life in the English mctropo-
lis-the seat of untold wealth and of I'M
told misery-that unrolls before us the
depths of human nature, only too often
in their most revolving form?
1t was Oh a dark and foggy evening.
The hour when the tired toilers seek the
comfort of their Preside, when everybody
goes to his hOme-provided he has a
home-had come and gone. Suddenly
two pedestrians approa ching from oppo~
site directions came to sudden and
rather unpleasant collision on the bridge.
One of them, young and dressed III the
height of fashion, had come from the
aristocratic regions of the west end,
while the other who had approached
from the laboring districts of Southwark,
was much older and was poorly clad,
Their heads had felt the effects Of the
sudden contact, and both had come to q
full stop, each feeling the injured mem
Der with his hands and nursing it, while
the compliments they exchanged Were
anything but polite.
Thunder and lightning, SIR ex-
claimed the younger of the two, your
Uranium is not exactly bolstered up with
springs, l assure you. bounds! WHY
could YOU not get out of my way, when
you saw me approach?'
shrugged his shoulders and threw Il long
ing look across the railing to the dark
waters of the Thames below.
where We're you going post haste"
continued the first speaker, noticing the
mans detected attitude.
There: came the hoarse answer,
pointing down to the river.
There: Well, my man, our road is
the same. Take me with you!
The poor laborer cast Il surprised look
at the vel dressed young man.
'Nou:' he said: You to 20 down
there: lmpossiblc: What has put such
a dreadful thought into your head! You
are surely not suffering from want; you
cannot possibly know the sorrow and
the misery that is the poor mans por-
ton: iou look like rich man, you have
youth besides. consequently you are happy
and to be envied!"
Wrong, my friend. altogether wrong.
Wealth is not always akin to happiness"
responded the voiiiig iiian. Gone, rouse
yourself, can see things also have
gone wrong with you. walk with ME a
short distance and let me explain
Strange! Here We're two persons who
had not even known of each others OK
istence five minutes before, but with:l.
they felt themselves drawn toward one
another by that sympathetic fash which
so Often influences our destiilies.
l'eareably and contcntcdly they
walked side by side, while the rich man
poured his heart out to his poor com
panion. telling him with impulsive words
that he led Anything but Il happy life,
although possessing everything that usl-
ally goes to make life worth living. He
was bachelor who had inherited great
wealth from his uncle. He had drained
the pleasure cup of all kinds of amuse-
| ments, had kept servants, horses and
carriages; numberless friends had con-
gregated at his splendidly furnished
apartments and in his country resi-
dences; he had even wildly specnla ted
without rhyme or reason in Lombard
street. but won in spite of his folly; he
he had lived like a sybaritc and thrown
away his money with both hands, and
now he was tired of life, satiated and
blase i'll spite of his youth. Melancholy,
renlorse and misanthropy troubled him
necessarily, and he could not help re-
peating to himself that his life had been
an utterly useless one Therefore he
had finally come to the deliberate con-
clusion to end his worthless existence in
the waters of the Hivef THAMES.
The laborer was dumbfounded. Never
i'll his life had he listened to such a queer
tale.
How incomprehensible" he exclaimed.
MY life tells exactly the opposite story.
l am very poor, having an ailing wife
and seven children, and, alas, no food
for them; thus far have honestly and
meet-in manner-by hard work, but
few days ago l lost my place in the
factory Oh account of the. dull times.
l cannot witness the misery at home
any longer; it tears my heart to look at
my starving loved ones; and though my
poor suffering wife tries hard to console
me and to give. me courage, bidding ME
not to despair, seen no escape. l have
no hope left and am resolved to put an
end to my miserable existence. May
my family!'
Poor fellow! The rich young mans
countenance was full of deep-felt pity,
and unbidden tears gathered in his eyes.
Such tale he had never heard. never
dreamt of amid the atfluence of his sur
roundings.
.'Now know that there are people in
TINS world who are a great deal more
unhappy than l considered myself to be,
fool that I was" he reflected.
but cheer up, man, there is help in
In II.
take me to your house. l guess I can
end your troubles, and as far as the-the
jumping into the Thames is concerned,
it, do you?'
a cab soon brought the two former
dirty narrow lanes of the workingmen's
quarter i'll Southwark, where it stopped
in front of tumble-down cottage. Pow
erty and want stared at them from every
nook and corner as the master of the
house and his young companion entered
a small but tidy and sscrupulously clean
room. A group of children Of a pro-
nized their father when they RAN up to
him and pitifully begged for bread. Her
eyes, red and swollen from crying, her
body emaciated from want and sickness,
the mother painfully tried to rise from
her work, as soon as she beheld the
her 17-year-old daughter Mary.
The young man was shocked when he
beheld this scene of what appeared to be
Enmerited but great misery: But when
his sympathet and astonished gaze
full Of pity fastened itself upon the face
and figure of the beautiful blue-eyed,
slender blonce girl, he gave start of
genuine surprise Full of generous inn
pulse and quickly resolved. he grabbed
the )aborer by the hand. exclaiming:
"Cheer up, I shall be back in an hour"
he explained, and left before the family
bad time to recover from their astonisL-
ment over the unexpected visitor
ALL the father was able to do in re-
ply to the many questions of his wife
and children was to console and cheer
them in half-hearted manner. The
poor mans sufferings had made him
skeptical: he had lost faith in himself
and in others, almost also iii God Burt
L he said nothing about his suicidal inter-
/. tons or about the strange meeting that
had prevented their contamination.