The citizen. (Frederick City, Md.) 1895-1923, 1901-04-05
do You
Speak FrenCh?''
A Tale of a New York City
Reporter.
&c oGNo oC0o oCHo o0Ho

midwinter night and bitter, bitter
cold: not so much snow. but a wind
which had an arctic anger in it; it stune
the face like yitriol and froze the blood
and almost made fellow cry out, as if
he were in pain.
Three Of us, just common newspaper
raportcrs. were scurrying through Mail
street, half running, to get to warm
place. We had been at work up town.
irving to find certain facts about a man
who had been mysteriously murdered in
the Tcndcrloin precinct-Johnny Spell
man, the jockey.
Well, the City Hall park was bleak
enough. The wind shricked across it.
and the hall, with its old white marble
steps, stood over yonder, pallid CHASTITY.
Not a human being in sight; nobody
would stay out of doors such night.
The lights in the tall buildings in Park
row and in the low entrance to Hitch
cocks ever blessed old cellar coffee house
were happy, CHEEKY beacons.
1t was late. we'll on toward midnight.
That made us hurry all the more
Even Uncle Sans tagged out old horses
and wagons which forever wait in the
Mail street alley behind that grim stone
coping where big bags of mail matter for
as parts of the world are bundled in and
out. had disappeared out of the cold
There was no sound of the mail clerks
voice calling off the bags
We reached the middle of the Mail
street block. We We're on the north side
of the street. | ran in the rear of the
procession.
Out Of the shadows of the park came a
man. In a voice which upon that night
wind was the most piteous sound | ever
heard he cried, stretching out one hand in
q sHppIiant way:
"ParIez-vous Francais, monsieur?" do
yon peak French, sir9
Ii was Il strange, courteous question to
come waling amid the bowling of
storm. | turned and stopped and then
in honest amazemcnt and pity said My
God, yes" | had learned some French
in boyhood, then had bought drinks for
Paris boulcvardier and fulfilled the du.
bious linguistic requirements of New
Jersey college. | had deep seated love
for the French people and a deal of fond
ness for the French tongue.
There in that wrctched night, when |
heard that question, | saw the honest
peasants = simple, sturdy folk - toiling
atali in far Provence. | saw the Breton
fisher singing as he patched his nets on
the shore of the dear old sea. saw gay
Paris and the sweet valley of the Loire
And here, alone, thinly clad, was son
Of that France, a stranger in a great self
iSh city; in a great, strange and selfish
,irh bn,
to have shown his nose out of doors.
lie was Just asking-I learned it in his
first lonely question just asking for
some to give him a helping hand,
syllable Of direction.
The two other reporters went peltng
along | looked at the wanderer-a man
Of 40, maybe; old to begin life anew
He was above medium height, little
stopped in the shoulders, on account Of
the cold perhaps. He was overcoatlcss.
bare handed and carried small parcel
under his arm. Over his head was drawn
tight knit cap, such as football players
wear
II was woeful story he told me. stand
Ing there in the open on that awful night
with the sparse flakes flying all about US.
lie had come that day on the Bretagne
1he passage had been very stormy. \
fellow passenger, n Picard who smellcd
terribly Of garlic, had taken all his mon
ey Ills chest, containing his worldly
Possessions. he had left at Castle Garden
that was before the barge office days.
Ills wife and two children-oh, such pret-
y chlldren-were at home in Pcardy.
lie was hungry and thirsty. No one but
an honest man begging in the streets Of
Ne" York would admit that he was
thirsty.
common reporters are not habitually
WEI. 10 do. | had 60 cents. | gave il all
10 ,!..n. An. told him about the rich posi-
uHi' 'ioS Of beef and beans. Then direct
eu hIn to 10 cent lodging house. Then,
p'Hh.leSs, | hurried on after my compan-
lou. expected to walk all the way
10 Wenty-iirst street. But, then, | had
IoWed in the eights in the fall and
Feshed lS2 and was equal to it.
God bless you" in French sounds well
upon fierce night wind.
'old the fellows when | overlook them
uaJ 1t was . relief to find an honest beg
q s@r, onc Of them, who knows McGlory
anu at Flynn and O. B. and has been
1"loNs the oyster pirates of Maryland
oHt lue ShanShaiers of Greenwich street
gha ucatan, curlcd his smooth, churchly
ITo9A'lg lips and shifted at my story that
u'a gone broke" on beggar.
Spring came. The trees in City Hall
4 patA were budding. Tramps had come
0( t under the clpotric lights in the cir