The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1904-09-04
INCIDENTS
AzROBsERyATIoNs
BY IL. l.. GRAY.


featuring lasting remorse. he VIII ull-
derstand the feeling of "a man VINO,
firing a wanton shaft of ridicule with
no thought of striking the mark. sees
the weak and useless game come
writhing to his feet.
AS a small boy, ] remember gay
little chit of a yellow breasted pro
that perched day by day on the top
of a limb that rose straight into the
air like the spire of a church, the
while he sang and sang of hope and
love and patience to the wee mother
who. somewhere among the neighbor-
ing trees, was warming the eggs that
were to make her brood. Day after
day the bird came back to his chosen
perch and sang; and day after day l
fired at him with a sling-Shot. In the
beginning, the first pebble, however
wide of the mark, would send him
scuttling through the leaves to hidden
safety; but, as the days went by. he
grew contemptuous, so that hnaly IL
was only by a perilouSly close shot
| that he could be forced. even for
moment, to desert his faVorite seat
AS the pebble came from the sling, he
would watch its fight with cool and
calculating eye, dodge or sit still as
| the circumstances ordered and con-
tinue his song, almost without a
| break. We became, | and that bird,
a species of well-intentioned enemies,
playing at war as a kind of inbred
duty.
But one day the bird didn't dodge
| in time and the young savage within
| the breast of the boy jumped with de-
| light at the soft. dull plump" of the
stone against it's yellow mark and set
UP a shout as. the wind knocked from
| its tiny lungs, the lusty singer of the
tree-top fell weakly tlutterinS to the
ground
| They say that time holds in store
one thing at least for all-the forget
| fulness of grief, of sorrow and of
shame. But, although the circum-
stance may fade, am persuaded that
| the years will afford to the boy with
/ the slin9-who has since killed many
| things-no real relief from the MEM
DRY of the last faint beating of that
| heart of summer behind that yellow
| breast, the fleck of blood that red
dened the black and gasping beak,
| the dropping head and the filmy eye
of the bird that died in his hand!
Far call as it is between the bird
| in the tree and one of the creatures
| of the sub-soiI of society turned up
occasionally into public notice by the
processes of police regulations the
| bird came back TO haunt again the
| other day by reason of Il random shot
| that, strangely enough, dug through
| the corroded surface Of the life of one
| Of these unfortunates SO that it touch
| ed the quick.
Some will remember the story OF
Little Eva" the stranded barn
| stormer who came to Raleigh from
| the unknown and tarred in vice.
| When she came to figure one day as
| q piece of the flotsam that drifts by
| each week on the stream Of Mayors
| Court trials, she and her history SO
| far as known were set forth at some
| length merely as picture Of phase
| of the life of the under current. Of
| those who read the lines in the paper
probably the majority laughed, a few
| sighed at the old and battling
story. But nowhere, not even in the
conceit of the writer. was it supposed
for an instant that Little Eva herself
would care: everybody knows of
course, that her type has no soul no
senstiveness of feeling! Always have
such women been the fair mark Of
| all men-for the frankly brutal to beat,
for the preachers of sermons to de-
nounce, for those of more refined ca
pacity to torture to hold dangling and
Iouivering on the spit of biting ridicule
and scathing satire. Little Eva was
used to all this. you would say--ncVer
|
| Yet a few days later when | waited
j at the depot for a train, there was
| Little Eva pacing nerVOuSly up and
down the platform, ready to depart.
Her every movement showed her impa-
tience to be gone. Her anxiety for the
| train to come was painfully evident.
| Dressed in duck from head to foot
| the paint on her cheeks glOwed the
more fiercely by contrast with the
dead Wilderness of her gown, with the
chalky pallor of the skin that had
| escaped the brush, the. golden glitter
| of her wig shone brightly from afar.
| AS ever, as in any company, Little
| Eva was blatantly evident, glaringly
conspicuous. There was. however, a
difference: her ratentness was the re-
suit of habit of dress and bearing,
rather than of design. Little Eva was
| trying to get away-she was no longer
on parade-the ground of Raleigh was
| burning the soles of her white cloth
shoes AS she hurried up and down
] the platform, the mark of the knowing
gaze of men, the averted heads of WO-
men, her one-time brazen eyes shifted
Uncertainty as she met the glance of
| the people; knowing Little Eva was
ratified, was timid. seemed even half
Iafraid One could imagine from her
| air of diffidence from the look of
| something almost like terror that
showed in her pinched face and lips
| that curled in a smile that had be-
come set by the years, almost that she
seemed to see the pointing fingers of
men and women as she passed and
heard them, like the cruel gamins of
the street, jerrins after her: Yah,
Yah, Little Eva! Little Eva! YAH
And this timid pitiful woman l had
seen in the Mayors Court among ne
groes, charged with cursing negro
neighbor, blithely admit the charge
pay her fine and go away with look
of defiant pride upon her painted
| face!
| On the train / saw Little Eva again,
when she pushed her way by mistake
1 into the smoking car and fled from
| the crowd of shirt-sleeved smokers
and their STRENGTHENING, impudent
| glances. like a squirrel that, slipping
! down the wrong side of a tree, comes
unexpectedly face to face with men.
And later still l went into the rear
coach to mark her progress.
She sat sharing a seat with an old
woman of the country, one of those
dear gentle old women. with wrinkled
brows and bent back and faded wild
ow's weeds, sitting there talking with
1 -; tn a In