Woodruff County news., 1901-10-19

tan. Here IS physician passing along in great haste. Nearly all the lights have gone out in the dwellings. for if is the third watch of the night. That light in the window is the light of the watcher, for the medicines must be administered, and the fever must be watched, and the restless tossing off of the coverlid must be resisted, and the ice must be kept on the hot tenn pies, and the perpetual prayer must go up from hearts soon to be broken.
 Oh, the third watch of the night! What stupendous thought-a whole city at rest! Weary arm preparing for to-morrow's toll. Hot brain being cooled off. Rigid muscles relaxed. Ex- cited nerves soothed. The white hair of the octogenarian in thin drifts across the pillow, fresh fall of flakes on snow already fallen. Childhood, with it's dimpled hands thrown out on the pillow, and with every breath talk ing in a new store of fun and frolic. Third watch of the night! Gods slum- berless eye will look. Let one great wave of refreshing slumber roll over the heart of the great town, submerg ing care and anxiety and worriment and pain. Let the city sleep.
 But, my friends, be not deceived. There will be tonight thousands who will not sleep at all. Go up that dark alley, and be cautious where you tread lest you fall over the pros trate form of drunkard lying on his own doorstep. Look about you, lest you feel the garroter's hug. Look through the broken window pane, and see what you can see. You say: Nothing" Then listen. What is it? "God help us!" No footlights, but tragedy ghastlier and mightier than Ristori or Edwin Booth ever en- acted, No light, no fire, no bread, no hope. Shivering in the cold, they have had no food for "A hours. You say: "Why don't they beg?" They do, but they get nothing. You say: "Why don't they deliver themselves over to the almshouse?" An, you would not ask that if you ever heard the bitter cry of man or child when told he must go to the almshouse! "Oh,'' you say, they are vicious poor, and therefore they do not deserve our sympathy" Are they vicious? So much more they need your pity. The Christian poor, God helps them. Through their night there wrinkles the round, merry star of hope and through the broken window they see the crystals of Heaven, but the xyini fa 1a pitied. Their last light has gone out. You excuse yourself from helping them by saying they are so bad they brought this trouble on themselves. I reply: Where I give ten prayers for the innocent who are suffering 1 will give 20 for the guilty who are suffering.
 Pass on through the alley. Open the door. "Oh," you say, Git is locked" No, it is not locked It has never been locked. No burglar would be tempted to go in there to steal anything. The door is never locked. Only a broken chair stands against the door. Shove it back. Go in. Strike match. Now, look. Beastli- ness and rags. See those glaring eyeballs. Be careful now what you say. Do not utter any insult, do not utter any suspicion, if you value your life. What is that red mark on the wall? It is the mark of a murderer's $ hand! Look at those two eyes rising up out of the darkness and out from the straw in the corner, coming to- ward you, and as they come near you your lights go out. Strike another match An, this is a babe, not like those beautiful children presented in baptism. This little one never smiled; it never will smile. A flower flung on an awfully barren beach. o Heavenly Shepherd, fold that little one in thy arms!
 Strike another match. An, is it possible that the scared and bruis sed face of that young woman was ever looked into by maternal tenderness Utter no scorn. Utter no harsh word. No ray of hope has dawned on that brow for many year. No ray of hope ever will dawn on that brow. But the light has gone out. Do not strike another light. It would be a mockery to llindle another light in such place as that. Pass out and pass down the street. Our cities are full of such homes, and the worst time the third watch of the night.
 My friends, you see all around about you the need that something radical be done. You do not see the worst. In the midnight meetings in London a great multitude has been saved. We want few hundred Christian men and women to come down from the highest circles of society to toll amid these wandering and destitute ones and kin dle I'D lipht in the dark alley even