Connecticut western news., 1897-11-04
AUNT JOHN.

When old Aunt John started in to sell newspapers at the bridge, she had sorry time of it for awhile. The boys looked upon her as dangerous business rival, because her withered arm and her pinched face touched the pocket nerve of the passersby so often that she created an appreciable diminution in the daily receipts of even Nosey Geoghe- gan, who had long enjoyed the prestige of being the autocrat of the row, a posi- tion he maintained by vociferation or by force of arms, as occasion demanded. But Aunt John didn't care torn paper for Nosey, and for that matter she de- fled him from the very day she began calling out ill cracked treble the printed lies and the printed truths she had for sale.
 Nobody knew where Aunt Jshn came from, and nobody cared. The name by which she was known was bestowed upon her by the boys themselves and was due to her habit of addressing everybody as ohn''-rivals and pa irons alike She had small, wizened face, parchment as to color and triangle as to shape, with tufted chin as the apex, and pair of large dark eyes, that were probably handsome eyes years ago, when her cheeks were rounded and rosy and her wrinkled throat full and white. Her figure was bent, and when she walked it was with a sort of wabble and hop, the punishment that followed the paralysis and shriveled the tissues of the poor, useless arm.
 And what @ curious thing that arm, or, rather, the hand that belonged to it, wasl High and curved at the wrist, long, tapering fingers and white as ala baster-the hand of a patrician on the body of plebeian. It swung to and fro like the hand of jointed doll, and or the third finger there shone with dimmed luster worn circlet of gold. And every day after Aunt John had wound @ string around her old fash toned portmonnaie with her teeth and her living hand she would take the cold fingers of it's dead fellow into her lap and caress it as mother would child, crooning humble of words under her breath.
 The old woman was impervious to ridicule CT abuse. She pushed forward to sell her papers with the rest of them, and gave no heed to the pulling at her skirts or the angry congratulations of her younger competitors. So, when they found that neither tricks, threats nor cajolery could move her, Aunt John was left to herself, and her old purse at night was the fullest of all, not even excepting Annie, who stood at Frank fort street and did what was generally believed to be the biggest business on Newspaper row.
 One day, perhaps it was little more than year after Aunt John made her appearance, small, fragile looking boy, with round, blue eyes and big blue veins in his forehead, essayed timid attempt to enter the ranks of the juve- nile news vendors, who had come to look upon the bridge entrance as their es- pecial and exclusive territory. He was immediately bounced upon, the four pa pers he had started with as stock in trade were torn from him and he was cuffed and knocked about until he near ly tainted from fright and pain. Aunt John had seen scores and scores of fights
 
 and vicious, but she paid no more atten- tion to them than she did to the chatter ing teams that came over the span from Brooklyn.
 With one as with the other, she kept out of the way, but when the attack was made on the frail child with the china blue eyes she uttered strange cry and sprang forward like tigress, buffeting the attacking party with a strength that seemed almost marvellous in such bent and twisted frame. So taken by surprise were the assailants that they scattered like chaff before the wind as their victim sank down ex- hausted on the stone steps that led up to the promenade.
 Aunt John had never been seen to take any interest in human being be- fore and it was something so strange to see her stoop down and wipe the blood from the child's face that Nibsey Clark, the side partner of Nosey Geo. ghegan, gave vent to his wonder by ex- claiming, ''Hully smoke, de old woman is back on eartp' and summoning cou- pie of companions who had not been in the fleeing mob to witness the spectacle. Whatever Aunt John may have said to the weak looking boy or what the weak looking boy said in return mo- body knew. She stood by him until it got dark and time for her to tie up her purse, and then they went off together up Park, row to RocAevelt street and down Roosevelt nearly to the river. Up narrow, rickety flight of stairs she climbed and the boy followed her. Next day he came with her to the bridge and stood at her side while she sold her papers, and the boys observed that her eyes were never removed from his face except when she had to engage the attention of a customer. Day by day this continued and through the winter up to January. The boy came with her every day, and he wore better clothing than when he was first seen at the bridge, but he seemed to be fading away.
 The veins in his forehead became bluer and his white skin became whiter He coughed and coughed, and some- times the blood would gush from his mouth, and he would totter over to the curb and let the life current splash into the gutter. On these occasions the grief and terror of old Aunt John were pitt able. She would throw her papers beside | the boy, kneel on them and put her good arm about his head, moaning all the while like an animal in distress. After the kid, as the others called him,