The times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1897-1901, 1900-09-09
ThePityOf John WyeS

John Wyes earned his bread and an oc-
casional bite of cheese by working on a
| farm near his native village in Suffolk He
| was fair-haired, moon-faced man. about
thirty-three years old. and some sixty
| eight inches high. His back was slightly
bent. and his legs were slightly bowed.
And because his life bad been mostly
passed in driving plow- blades through
stubbord earth, and in shoui5ering wagon
| wheels from out road ruts. he was pos
sessed of great strength.
| That strength. however, John Wyes
rarely intruded. He was silent. stolid. I'M
| assuming; not much given to noticing
things; being. indeed. somewhat fat-witted.
But the cry of child in distress hurt him.
and to see an animal wantonly beaten
made him dangerous. Having once de-
tected jolly wagner playfully tickling
| the ribs of horse with the prongs of a
pitchfork. he had engaged that Jolly was-
| oner in fair tight and broken his lower
| jaw.
| Johns parents had died while he was a
/ child, since when his way OF life had been
lonesome. In the days OF his youth he had
| loved a woman; but. being an inarticula e
| IldH, ne Was uHdDie 10 tell lHT so. sue,
| not knowing the concealed passion of this
! masculine Viola, married somebody else.
Whereupon the man of all deeds and no
words became still more silent, and con-
| tinued to indulge In his peculiar habit OF
protecting the helpless
Now, though Johns desires were few
he had one that greatly troubled him. He
wanted to see London. This, through lis
tening to marvellous tales told by the lard
lord of the village inn, who. having once
lived in the little hamlet mentioned for
| two whole days. was, OF course. thoroughly
acquainted with 1t, and was
moreover. fully prepared to make others
tie same. Upon heeTing these tales John
began to save. When, after much of the
heartsickness that comes OF hope deferred.
he had scraped together about seven
pounds. he communed w the know
a.d-know- nothing landkrd, who. with
damnable iteration, gave him many direc-
tons. And John used some OF the one and
followed some of the other with such
cunning that it came to pass upon a day
that he stood outside thu gates OF Liver
pool Street Station. holding a corpulent
carpetDag. and gazing open mouthed at
the shops and the people.
After much hesitation he waded eau
tiously into the flowing tide Of humanity,
and was carried up Broad Street, past the
n,
Size, half round st. Pa2l's Churchyard,
and out on to Ludgate Hill.
He did not get thus far Without trouble.
Becoming fiurTied among the swirling wa
tiers of Mansion House srossing, he sank
in front of an on-cc--ir- gondola, and
but that a phlegmatic pei Suan. who took
such things as being all N the days work,
plunged in and drew him to the curbstone.
he would have persisted. Later. he was
met by young gentleman-smooth Of face
and of tongue-who. having humorousiy
misinformed him about the names of the
adjacent buildings. rewarded himself with
a shilling and sovereign. And this, not
withstanding that Johns friend the land
lord had cautioned him as to every third
person in London being a pickpocket.
But it was a wonderful place-a mar
velous tumble OF heaven and hell! Noise.
shops. horses, people, People. horses.
shops, noisei Then. more noise; more
shops: more horses: more people, Then
more people; more horses; more shops;
more noise, Great God, Did the place
never grow quiet; did it never grow still?
Strange to say, nobody but the one
policeman and the one piekpocket took
even a passing interest In John Wyes; that
is, excepting those who had something to
sell: and their pleasure at seeing him was
without alloy. One man had just found a
nothing and a hve-shilling piece Another
had a meerschaum pipe-"Well not real
meerschaum, only meersehaum dust, new
patent"-that was why he could land did
sell it so cheaply. Yet another sold him
leather purse made of beautiful stamped
paper, and containing three nice silv-
forms, the which, when examined later by
their new owner, had cleverly transformed
themselves into three nice copper pennies.
- = coll
were excessively attentive. One-gafly
dressed and prettily complexioned- Offered
to take him home and give him cup OF
tea Another, standing at the foot OF
PeeIs statue kindly pinned a penny flower
to his coat and charged him only shil-
ling.
He saw thousands OF men and women,
OF course, but no children-no Gods
lambs" as he called them. Certainly he
saw some queer-looking beings about the
size of boys, only they sold matches and
newspapers, and possessed the faces OF
men. Suddenly one of them darted for
ward. and snatehing up a muddied orange
that had been discarded by street fruit
seller. greedily devoured it. For moment
John almost thought that perhaps the
man-boy was hungry-famishingly hungry.
But he broadly smiled as he remembered
how impossible was such a thing in great
and wealthy LONDON
While going down Ludgate Hill (firmly
clutching his carpetbag, and rounding the
corners of his frame by frequent eolli-
sions), he decided 10 pause and look at
things In doing so. he noticed what until
then had escaped him-thst a slight driz-
Zle was falling. Also he noticed that the
slope Of the hill was greasy with mud,
and that the horses drawing the passing
vehicles struggled and slid and spread
until they drippfngly sweated from fear
and exhaustion This set him thinking
of how useful 4 barrowload of sand would
be; and so full CT the thought did he be-
come that portion Of IT overilowed into
the ear Of man standing by. Whereupon
the man told him that fifty thousand
pounds were spent in London every year
for road sand but that the contractors
and worlmen took it home to put in their
bird cages. Then did John greatly marvel.
and prepare hims5Is for anything but what
he actually saw next
As he watched there came from round
the left-hand corner, and passed Under
the bridge. q large covered van. 1t was
filled with household furniture and paint
ed on the tarDaulin were the words,
Goods removed in town or country.
Now. the horse that drew the van was
overworked and lderfed and showed it.
But. II thin of body. it vas stout OF heart;
and while trying to drag its weighty load
I'D the greasy uusanded slope. struggled
bravely.
Though it struggled eyer SO h-ovoIv.
struggled until its bones appeared starting
through its skin--it failed.
Whefeupon the driver came to its assist
ance His methods though peculiar, were