Wauwatosa news. [volume] (Wauwatosa, Wis.) 1900-1948, 1901-01-26
CHAPTER ".

Bywater court lies down Chelsea way.
Not being in the east end. it is not be-
written. beslummed. district visited: also
few murders of any note have been pro
feSsionally carried through there 1t is
onlv a pure wedge of heathenism. driven
into district which is now regaining
some of its old suburban tome and prid-
inc itself upon the fact. Its ideal Palace
Of Delights is not such as Mr. Besant
would approve. Many of the houses are
undeScribed in the directory, unvisitcd
and largely unvlsitable by the city mis-
Sionary, alien from the latest plan of
salvation by Social Science. The Charl-
~ organization passed it by; there are
supposed to be no deserving poor i'll BY
water court. Mysterious shop-fronts with
nothing marketable in the windows scowl
blotchily at the pasSerby: dried herbs
swing uninyitingly, speckled with fly
blow and bleached with sun and dust.
Frowsy women, mostly young, stink into
the DOORS or peer out of dark interiors
through the space from which a single
shutter has been removed, like the gap
left by missing tooth, sinister and
prominent.
Only two visitors erect in self-respect
the district knows, the slim curate, with
his soft hat turned up aft and fore, and
the policeman who shoulders his way in
at these half-open doors without cere-
m0ny or by your leave All other fire.
quenters of Bywater Court, dwelers or
visitors, seem to glide, slither, or SLOUGH
sideways, STOPPING forward, in all sorts
If sinking attitudes-shoulder drawn
up, so that the head seems to be driven
into the body as the cork of 81 bottle is
driven by the too vigorous mallet. or else
sl0ping away from the neck in q rounded
curve like the contour of a ginger-bee-
bottle.
A row is of so common occurrence in
Bywater Court that hardly a head is
turned at the shrill intrusion of women7s
>hrieks or the dull sound of blows. At
such times some kind-hearted person usu-
ally stands at the mouth of the court 10
give the modulated whistle which warns
If the coming of the cops" for Bywater
Court loves to conduct its own business,
without interference from her majesty's
officers. There is one door between the
fried-fish shop of Judah Krause and the
shady window with the gap-toothed shut
lei in the doorway of which swung the
dusty wisps of hay, door which, by rea-
son Of its comparative cleanliness, has
ook almost arrogant among its neighborS.
The owner of the passkey to that door is
a young woman, about whose comingS
and gOings the easy virtue of ByWater
Court concerns itself not at all. In the
dialect of the neighborhoOd, ''she keeps
herself to herself" 1t is known that her
man died since she came, and she had
hurled him with the grandest funeral
hat was ever seen in Bywater Court.
Inc memory of this even yet shares the
place of honor in the gin-soaked recollec-
TONS Of the gossips of the court with the
burning OF the Carriers Lane Mission
hall, which Bully Dan and his mates had
set on fire because the athletic curate
mad expelled them neck and crop from
me Sunday school for INSTRUMENTATION.
Three months with hard! They got OFF
easy.' said Bywater Court shes got
hid she'd a been better Without was
the courts comment on the other case.
But tonight there was bitter quarrel
raging above the herbalists shop. Sod
den women pause for moment. lift
bleached and haggard faces towards the
window, and stagger on, muttering of the
kn0wledge born of bitter experience,
He's a-givin' it err The sullen FIRE
quenters of the herbalist's evil rendezvous
are .Silenced by the sound of a quarrel
deadlier than their own snarling misun-
derstandings. Through the jangle of
tongues there comes titfully the feeble
wailing of a child
Saints in hivvunr' said Bridget
Leary, they're foightin' for the kid
Bridget Leary was right. In the low
rooted, cheaply wallpapered room over
mead. with the screened bedstead IN the
corner. poor place made pathetic with
touches Of a woman's taste man and
Sirl We're standing on opposite sides Of
the deal table. The man stood erect
arms folded as only actors do on the
stage. The woman. with her knuckles on
the table, looked at her opponent
under her heavy brows with sullen eyes
Of hate. A woman seldom looks long at
! man whom she hates. When she does.
II ne IS a wise man, he will go away
from there.
To think that ] once cared for you.
tn
man death-ay, than his death. Now |
nate you-hate YOU, do you hear" The
man addressed affected TO turn away as
though wearied by play he had seen
Played out many times.
=. I've heard all that before. Nell; heard
II a hundred times" he said. You'll
nave your say out. and then you'll hear
reason. I'm doing it for your good YOU
Nh"W. Its no use making a fuss. It's
got to he done. So give me the child at
GhGt-itll be out of your way-well
looked after, | mean. It's all arranged.
with me-
The woman addressed as "Ncll' stood
'aHihg forward. meeting his easy sneer
Win level brows under which her dark,
ettated pupils shone with a slumberous
IRE She ooened her mouth to speak,
"ut was silent as though no words would
''lhe from her white dry lips venomous
'a9rugh TO give her hate expression.
he man watched her, his once hand
some face puffed unwholesomely under
ne eyes and his complexion notified like
me best India rubber. The experienced
wye set him down for what he was-the
la.sar impressario of a popular variety
ntertainment. He thought that hc.
2Hr" what women were-it was lis
s@7s' as be cliDkei glasses ut many a
-1sulHAahle baE with knowing young
ariStorrats wLc came into his world. in
5aer to atu iCs vices To their own in the
~ amalgam which they called
IL. But now he was far from easy
a ms mind-so. like the brute he was.
s ' {ued the game Of bluff" He had
''t better have gone away.
-. Now. listen" he said. 'If You don't
IlII me the brat quietly. Nell. / tell Won
~ lake him and put him away where
''u ID never see him any more. And.