The Mount Holly news. [volume] (Mount Holly, Burlington Co., N.J.) 1891-1942, 1898-10-18
AUNT JOHN.


4 rival, because her withered arm and her
of the passersby 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 autocrat of the row, a 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
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 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 a plebeian. 1t swung to and fro
like the hand of jointed DOLL and on
the third finger there shone with a
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
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 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 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
~ 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 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 eartl' and summoninga 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
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 tace 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
she 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, neel 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-
rhages he would be desperately weak
for at least an hour, and Aunt John
would watch over him until he was able
to walk
One day the old creature came to the
bridge alone. She was in strange and
unusual state of excitement and made
no attempt to sell any papers. She
sought out Nosey Geoghegan and in her
half paralyzed way of speaking made
him understand that she wanted him to
go with her, and Nosey, not being
bad fellow at heart, only little loud
mouthed at times, took Aunt John by
the arm and walked with her to the
tenement
On cot under the window lay the
kid His wan hands We're crossed over
his breast and between his finger tips
was faded daguerreotype, which the
old woman tenderly removed and hand
ed to Nosey. The newsboy saw the pic
ture of fair haired boy, with wide
open eyes, and he looked at the child
on the bed. The likeness between the
two was startling enough to impress
even the unimpressionable Nosey, but.
of course, the daguerreotype was that
Of another boy, for on the back was
pasted slip of paper on which was