The weekly examiner., 1901-05-11
HE'S ONLY A CARTER
A TYPICAL CASE OF POVERTY IN THE
 COUNTRIES METROPOLIS.


 Skinned by the Doctors, Skinned by
 Landlords and Skinned by Twen-
 tieth Century Civi1fzation-A Conn
 mon Thing I'm Division Street.
 The following appeared In the news columns of recent Issue Of one of New York's leading dailies:
 1t will be curious sight to the tene- ment dwellers about lower Division street when the Malkins are evicted on Saturday.
 Neighbors will gather to see the mis- erable household goods of the unhappy family put upon the street. Six little Malkfns will stand about the dingy bedding and the cracked stove, as sol diers rally about their tattered colors, wondering why they are not allowed to live in houses like other people
 And pallid man and woman, with the furrows of sorrow on their faces, will look across the bundles comprising all they own in the world, across the six tousled heads of their children and into each others eyes, seeking there the trust and pity which their fellows have denied them.
 There is another little Malkin, the seventh, but he Is comparatively well off. He is in Beth Israel hospital with 66 square inches of skin burned from his back. But he has bread and but ter and cake and pie, and he has at least the pity of the doctors and kind words from the nurses.
 n4 a, Af~So 4fA Malkin, and he was the innocent cause of the undoing of his father, Louis H. MallSin, who lives with the rest of his family In three miserable rooms at 123 Division street. Louis Malkin was a hardworking carter up to the last of February. He was sober, respectable, industrious and energetic. His wife and family of seven stair stepping children were well cared for.
 On the evening of Feb. II the third child, boy of 8, went down into the dark tenement cellar to get bucket of coal. He took candle, and in some manner his coat was ignited. He ran shrieking up stairs, where he fell un- conscious on the floor. His back was terribly burned from his shoulders to his hips.
 He was taken to Beth Israel hospi. tai, where for time it was thought he would die. His father was called upon to supply cuticle for the boys back. Twenty-two inches of skin from MT. Malkin's right leg disabled him for work.
 He lost his position, lost his credit, lost all but hope. He pawned every thing he could pawn. The heroic fa- ther, still lame from the awful skin stripping he had endured. was called similar graft from his left leg.
 He leaned wearily against table in bis home-a pale apparition of hard luck and talked about it. Six chil. dren, gaunt starvelings of the street, gazed at him with querulous eyes.
 The mother, with the lines of despair in her face, heaved and toiled despair ingly over a washtub. A neighbor through charity had sent in some washing which must be finished by nightfall
 And so she went, scrub, scrub, scrub, while her husband made ready for the hospital, while her children walled or slept. lame from the other operation. But if I don't go to the hospital and submit to another grating this afternoon the boy will die. I cannot bear that suppose that God will take care of us" Then, lowering his voice: We will be put out Saturday, I guess, but they l can't do any more than starve us to death. The poor mother can't take care of them all alone"
 V Scrub, scrub, scrub! The woman's | ears had been open. She was crying now, and she bent her back to her | burden with the energy of despair.
 "After I have recovered from the operation of today" MT. Malkin con tinued, ''they are going to take another grating of % inches from my back. God knows what will become of us."
 Scrub, scrub, scrub, went the arms Then suddenly, with l white averted face, the woman walked | suddenly past and cast herself face on the bed in the next room. | ''Poor woman," said the stricken man wearily. Excuse me, now. She is broken hearted, and I must go and comfort her."
 And so it has fallen ont that the | tenement dwellers of Division street | will be treated to a curious but not | sight on Saturday.
 Marriage Is the Thing.
 c. B. Myers, a Chicago delegate to -ho MotaI POJisbars and RraSS Work