The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1900-11-11

Inc q VIII young dniildi. 6dPPiiSs hC =
once took to Mr.. Lewis, who is blessed
with abundance Of tact and patience; but
to this day the little lad will have nothing
TO do with women and resents their small
est attention with all the power Of lungs
and fists. All day long he trots about after
Mr.. Lewis calling him papa in four
languages, striving with all his tiny might
to help in every work his benefactor is
engaged in and regarding him with looks
of love and confidence beautiful TO behold.
From nobody else will he accept the small
est service, and If another undertakes 10
feed or put him to bed. he makes Rome
howl to the full limit Of a powerful set
OF vocal organs. In two days he became
the bully of the orphanage. easily able to
take care of himself in any squabble with
his elders. Now, after several weeks OF
gradual civilizing, he is considerably i'm
proved In the habits OF human beings: but
the spiritual side OF him is yet untouched
and that will he the longest road to travel.
But Mr.. Lewis said that the bright, force
full. affectionate child mas in him the be-
ginnin is of a great man. If he gets proper
training from one who understands his
temperament.
QUEEN OF THE ORPHANAGE.
Our smallest child ~rejoices under a title
which, up to date, is considerably longer
than herself-no less than Mabel Maud
Elaine Spradin Clara Barton, Queen of the
O~rphanage. She was born late last June.
OF unwedded parents about whom the least
said the better, and was brought to US by
a baby farmer" who lived near the out
skirts of Galveston. until the flood washed
her lair away. The puny, pitiful-looking
little creature, half nourished and never
cared for, was one mass of distressing
sores, from the crown of it's head to the
soles of its skeleton feet-a dreadful ex-
ample of the Scriptural warning concerning
the sins of the parents. She had literally
been through the food, floating in the gulf
and rescued as by a miracle-let US hope
for some good purpose in heavens plan.
Never was seen more rapid Improvement
than this unpromising infant has made.
Now the sores are nearly healed and the
tiny skeleton begins to take on flesh. From
its clean white cot a pair of beautiful blue
eyes, set in a wizened face that might be
ages old. look out contentedly upon the
world that hitherto used it so hardly.
Then there is a little Mabel Martin,
whose start in life was almost as discour-
aging. Born a few months after her
fathers death at the home of her grand
parents, on Bernardino prairie, somewhere
up in this big State of Texas, her mother
came to Galveston as soon as able in search
OF work, bringing the baby along and leav-
ing ii by day in care of an old woman. The
storm came; the mother persisted in trying
to get TO her child, and her poor body may
yet be rotting under some of these heaps
of wreckage. The faithful old woman
saved the baby, though in water up to the
shoulders, protecting the little face by hid
ing it under her chin and at last carrying
the child on her head. The marvel is that
it did not die of cold and exposure. for the
woman had not a dry rag nor anything to
feed it, and nowhere to go but the open
camp on the beach. There the Red Cross
people found 1t two days later, still wet and
almost dead from cold and hunger.
TOMMY AND THE MOCCASIN.
Time will not permit me to tell you OF
the twenty-seven other cases equally in
teresting, but we must not quite omit
Tommy Cobb, the Oldest boy in the orphan
age. He is nearing his fifteenth birthday
a handsome lad, with bright, brown eyes
that exactly match his curling hair. A
few short weeks ago he was an important
factor in a happy home near the western
end of the city, where his father owned a
dairy and small truck farm. Being intelli-
gent and well-to-do, the family, including
Tommy's two sisters. were at least midway
on the social ladder. In the midst of the
storm they were all clinging to a door
10 NH and when tho house fell the woman
were probably pinned under 1t and swept
into the gulf, their bodies having never
been found. Tommy and his father swan
out alone and at once became separated in
the general confusion. The frantic father
searched the place that a few minutes be-
fore had been home, but all were gone.
Drifting with the current, he finally caught
hold of a floating oak tree, and there was
Tommy, scared half to death by a huge
moccasin snake that had pre-empted the
other end of the log. The snake was equally
scared and easily dispatched, and so Tom
my came to US until his father can get
Strengthened out and go into business
again.
Speaking CT snakes, one of the horrors
of the storm was the numbers Of them
that were swept into the water, along with
human beings, all fighting for their lives.
There were many moccasins and rattlers
in unoccupied parts of this island. and es-
pecialIy on the mainland. Among a hun
dred grewsome stories told of encounters
with them in the flood / have space 10 re-
peat but one, which / know TO be true. In
Hitchcock, fifteen miles from Galveston.
a wealthy old lady from the North was
stopping at the hotel awaiting her sons
return from some business trip. During
the flood she managed to climb a tree, but
hardly had she reached a place of safety
before a rattlesnake, which had climbed
before her, attacked her. In frenzy she
seized the reptile Just below its head and
crushed it's life out. When rescued, hours
later, they thought she was crazy when
babbIing of the snake until they found its
limp body dangling from a lower branch
and examined its mangied neck and her
blood-stained hand
Pathetic scenes are continually occurring
in our orphanage, when parents. knowing
that it is a temporary home for waits OF
the food, come searching for their lost
children. Though assured beforehand thai
we know something Of the antecedsnts Of
every one of these, and that theirs ,annor
nossihIv he among them. "hoDa snrfno,