Wausau pilot. [volume] (Wausau, Wis.) 1896-1940, 1905-01-17
A CHRISTMAS TRAGEDY,
BY 1. X. MORTENSON

A boundary exists between Baker
street and Salter avenue, SO adaman-
tine that no one yet has broken through,
though the only visible separation is
Hammond avenue.
On Salter avenue the crested man.
sions of the rich rear their proud heads
among fine old trees that meet and nod
above the wide street.
During the long. sunny afternoons
nurses may be seen wheeling their lace
CARRIED charges about in dainty peram-
bulators up and down the wide walks,
and in the clean, broad street open car
riages whirl back and forth
In Baker street great tenements look
out from network of wires and clothes
lines. Instead of nurses and baby car
riages are peddlers wheeling their hand
carts. and droning out very weary
song; and the only carriages are troll
leys and trucks rafting noisily over the
cobblestones. But for all this there is
as much true nobility in Baker street as
in lordly Salter avenue.
Marie! Stupid That other gown
will you never learn to do as say ?'
1.-The madam said her pink, f" mildly
suggested Marie.
Dare You answer back % and the
madam looked angrily at her maid.
Then her voice took on a softer tone,
land when am in such trouble, too p
she whined.
Trouble Forgive mer' begged the
maid humbly.
Ibid you not know that the laun-
dress has gone to her sick mother,
and / must look for another woman?
And tomorrow Christmas, too? Why
do poor folks have to be sick9 and at
such inconvenient times, too!'
Marie bit her pretty lips, as she deft-
ly piled Mrs. Finley's long hair in a
shapely' cell, and her slender fingers
switched in a way that brought a
startled "ohw from that lady Then
she said:
II have a friend, madam, whose
mother would be willing to do this.
She lives on Baker street, it is true,
but"
ooh mel Oh me! | don't care if she
lives in China if she will work. l will
take Baby Rita, too. She has always
wanted to see what those Baker street
children looked like. And it is the
governess' day out"
That afternoon a carriage fit for
Cinderelia's fairy godmother drove up
before the meanest of Baker street
tenements, and out of it stepped a LADY,
Oh such lady, The little Baker street
children watched her with awe and
reverence as she swept up the dirty
steps. They had never even dreamed
of such onel The police kept them
off of Salter avenue.
Then suddenly, they saw another
face, chilos face, rogueishly excited.
The white thing put gloyed finger on
her lips, nodding to the coachman, and
sprang out into their midst. Then she
turned toward the street, slippery from
snow that had melted and frozen again.
Suddenly they heard cry, and there
there, all in a pool of blood lay-oh,
happy, happy mother, the little thing
in white was safe on the other side OF
the street, but under the wheels of the
trolley, cruelty mangled and torn, lay a
little lad. And twas Baker street
boy.
They were proud, even in their grief,
that it was Baker street boy, but, oh,
the pity of it | All day long he babbled
about how he had saved little SalteI
avenue baby.
Christmas morning dawned bright
and clear 1t was shiveringly cold. On
Baker street you would not hare known
it was Christmas. The truck-drivers
clattered back and forth just as usual
putting forth great clouds of vapor, and
beating their hands against their chests
And through a narrow window the
Christmas sun shone into garnet, and
lighted up a little dead body where il
lay. And the sun, plying the bare chill
that hung over the pinched form, crepi
nearer, and made halo OF gold about
the childish head, and kissed the pale
cheeks, and then-crept out, until, in
the red glow of sunset, peering in at the
other window, it flooded one last glor
ious crimson river over the cold, miser
able little heap. and then-left it in tbs
darkness on Christmas night.