The Owosso times. (Owosso, Mich.) 1897-1926, 1897-05-28

tremely tantalizing, "Nice fresh oranges,
ten for quarterr' A stoioal warrior with
out a cent could repel that, but the music
al throat of one young girl in the crowd
had decided charm. There was q rush
to the spot by all who were able to use
crutches, although there was not dime
in the entire party.
Some one called out, "Do you take
stamps?" OF course the answer was
eyes" as soon as tho money panic was
known to the hawkers. Some Of the live
Hest of the crippled ones then hustled into
the barrack, and one by one they returned
and counted out their last fiscal symbols
and sat down on the grass to enjoy their
fruit. Those who could not join certainly
felt no better for looking Oh. Among the
latter was furnishing lad whose wits had
been turned by his suffering, and when he
saw some of the men eating oranges he
reached ont and seized one from q basket
and began to devour it, and that without
question or bargain or pay. The girl with
the musical throat looked startled at the
bold act, but soon smiled and continued
her cry, mice fresh oranges" But the
girl was only helper of the real owner,
and now swarthy, hard looking Hun
stepped forward and held his hand out to
get the proceeds of the sales. He counted
the money and then the oranges in the
hands of the men, and as he saw there was
n difference he demanded something from
the girl in a jargon we could not inter
pref The girl began to weep, and just
then the famished boy, unconscious of ev-
erything but his desperate craving for
food, reached for another orange. He So
cured one, but the old Hun grabbed the
basket, gave the girl rough shaking, and
then, after placing his goods beyond reach
of the soldiers, returned and attacked the
boy. The lad was too weak to stand, but
he chung to his prize, and the brutal hawk
or wrung the slender wrists to make him
lot ~o.
There wore some strong, cool men there
who could I.ut endure this sight, and be-
fore could sec Jdst how the melee opened
the soldiers had raiaCd 10 whole pack of
gypsy peddlersand gathered UP every scrap
of edibles, overturning the baslcta and
beating off tho owners, some of whom
fought like beasts. / could never SEQ any
glory in the black eyes and bruises OF q
common brawl, no matter what the occa-
sion, and was only n sad spectator here.
At the beginning of all this business had
taken parcel of kcepsakes from my pock-
ct, and, just to make sure for the twen-
tieth time that had no current values
about me, ran over the pile carefully. The
torn stamp was in the lot and caught my
attention, and with flood of memories, 1t
bore my thought away from the present
scene. First, Lucy's letter and what was
she thinking now Of me- There were two
heads bending over it now, for wounded
comrade stood SO close that he could look
into my hand and was studying nae as In
tently ne l studied the stamp. What his
thoughts were / never knew, but they were
equally distracting with mine, for we two
had not yielded 10 the passionate drift OF
the crowd, and when these broke out upon
peddlers we alone were cool. We vainly
begged them to stop, but their slogan was
unanswerable in words:
"Down'with the foreignersl They have