The Somerset reporter. [volume] (Skowhegan, Me.) 1868-1909, 1897-10-07
AUNT JOHN

VI inc passerSDy SO often that she
created an appreciate diminution in
the daily receipts Of even Nosey Geoghe-
gan, who had long enjoyed the prestige
OF being the autoerat of the row, posi-
ton 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-
fed him from the very day she began
calling out in cracked treble the printed
lies and the printed truths she had for
sale
Nobody knew where Aunt John 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 John 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 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,
wasi High and curved at the wrist,
long, tapering fingers and white as ala
baster-the hand of patrician on the
body of plebeian. 1t swung to and fro
like the hand of jointed doll, and on
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 its dead fellow into her lap
and caress it as mother would child,
grooming a humble of words under her
breath.
The old woman was impervious to
ridicule or 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 expostulations 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
tort street and did what was generally
believed to be the biggest business ON
Newspaper row.
One day, perhaps it was little more
than a year after Aunt John made her
appearance, a small, fragile looking
boy, with roGnd, blue eyes and big blue
veins in his forehead, essayed "a 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 pounced 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
between the boys-some of them savage
and vicious, but she paid no more atten-
ton to them than she did to the clatter-
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
strength that seemed almost marvellous
in such bent and twisted frame. So
taken by surprise were the assailants
that they scattered like ohaff 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 a 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 eartl' 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 no
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 Roosevelt street and
down Roosevelt nearly to the river Up
a narrow rickety fight 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 whittier.
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,
had recovered from one of these hemor-