The daily morning journal and courier., 1899-10-02


 wood for her in the yard His hands were too young and too weak, the blocks too large, the axe too duil More than once he had frozen his feet but he was silent. did not complain even to his father"
 "The drunkard!" the prosecuting at- torney laughed out loud and shiver passed through Bontsie's body
 "IIe did not complain" the advocate emphatlcally repeated,
 Please, don't repeat" exclaimed the president.
 "TTe was always alone," he went on, mo friends, no religious instruction no schooling; not even good sult ol clothes to wear and a free minute TOT play!"
 He was silent even then, when ms father, in drunken fit. once caught him by the hair and kicked him out or the house on a stormy wrter night He quietly arose and ran whither his legs carried him. He was silent through his journey When he Was very hungry he only begged with ms eyes Once in a nasty, wet sprins night he arrived in large city. aho' ar though insignificant among the multi tude. yet it was his i'll luck to be ar rested and to spend the night in jail He did not ask why; he was silent. l And when freed he looked for worK III silence. The hardest part of the WorK to him was to find it, but he did not complain Even while wet with colo sweat, bent under the heaviest burdens during the severest cramps of his empty stomach, he was silent! l Besmirched with strangers mud, pe- spat by strangers mouths, driven Wlth his heavy load from the sidewalks lhto 1 the street among buggies coaches ana street cars. looking every moment lnto the eyes of death he was silent
 "He never calculated how heavy load he had to carry for a kopek, how many times he stumbled on every three kopek's errand. how many times he all most exhausted his patience collecting his money; but he did not beseech or curse--he was silent!'' "He did not even insist on being palo his hard earned money. Like men dicant he stood at his employers door, forlorn. Come later!' he was told and. like shadow he disappeared qul- etly. in order to beg later more quietly his earnings He was silent even when ! they deducted something from his earnings. or paid him with counter 1 felt coin"
 "It seems they really mean me" Bontsie ccnsols himself. l "Once,' continued the advocate, af- ter taking drink of water, there came change in his life: coach on rubber tired wheels with frightened horses. rushed towards him; the driver lay on the pavement with his head split open, foam spurted from the mouths of the frightened animals, and sparks flew from under their feet as from under a fire engine, their eyes glared like glittering coals In the darK-'' | and in the coach there was sitting, more dead than alive, man" | Bontsie stopped the runaway
 'rhe person thus saved was Jew, and he did not forget Bontsie's kind ness.
 "He made him his coachn1an instead of the man who had been killed Bont- sic became driver. More than that he found a wife for him; still more, he provided him with a child, and Bontsie kept silent all the time"
 They mean me; yes, they do''' Bont- sic is convinced but he has not the courage to raise his eyes to the Supreme Judge.
 He listens again to the advocate.
 He was silent when his benefactor became bankrupt and failed to pay nm his wages He was silent even when his wife ran away and left him with nursing babe"
 He was silent even fifteen years later when the child grew up and was strong enough to throw him out of doors"
 "They mean me; they do!' Bontsie says courageously.
 He was silent" the advocate begins again with a softer and sadder voice when his benefactor resumed business, but did not pay him cent, and even then when he ran over him, riding again at full speed in carriage with rubber tires, and horses like lions
 He kept silent all the time He did not even tell the police who had maimed him SO
 He was silent even in the hospital. where one may cry.
 He was silent when the house doc tor would not come to him unless he was tipped, and the nurse would not change his bed clothes for similar req son.
 He was silent during the last mo- ments of his life, he was silent in his death agony
 Not a word against God, not word against men!
 Bontsie begins to tremble from head to foot. He knows that the prosecuting attorney follows the advocate. Who knows what he will say? Bontsie him. self never remembered anything in his' whole life, he forgot at once what was said or done in the previous moment. The advocate reminded him of every thing Who knows what the prosecu- ting attorney will remember?"
 Judges" the prosecuting attorney begins with a sharp stinging voice, but stops short "Judges." he begins once more but more softly, and there he halts again.
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