The Monticellonian., 1906-04-05
THE HEROISM OF EATERS By WALTER l.. HAWLEY
lcopyrtght, leo6. by Joseph 3. nowIesl

tcopy right 1906, by Joseph B BowlesD
 To the grown-up dwellers in the Or chard street tenement he was known only as the newsboy on the corner, or the paper boy. but to the children of the To- cality he was "Tatters." The name was applied in ridicule because his clothing was well worn and his reefer thing of rags and patches, but it stuck to him long after the neighborhood came to know him as boy of family who worked early and late to support mother and some younger brothers and sisters.
 The lad had stand" on the street acorner, not table or shelf with can vas or board shelter as most local news dealers, but stand in the literal sense and there he could be found with the earliest editions of the morning papers and again through the afternoons when extras followed each other at short intervals. When business fell off be tween the morning sales and the coming of the wagon with the nine o'clock edi- tions of the afternoon papers. Tatters would run errands or deliver parcels for the butcher. He was not good boy. He had never been to church or Sunday school in his life. and could swear like pirate whenever circumstances seemed 10 justify strong language; but he was honest and manly. Tatters had incurred the enmity of the less indus trious newsboys of the neighborhood by minding his own business and refusing to shoot craps with them. He did not regard gambling as a vice. but it would interfere with his business. so he thrashed few of the urchns who called him names and held his stand" on the corner by standing on it during business hours His one diversion was going 10 fires. If there was fire in the neigh borbood Tatters was always one of the first spectators on hand, and he main tained speaking acquaintance with the members of the engine company situated in the block. and to them con- fided his secret ambition to become hockey when he growed up; a hockey in the dialect of the East side meaning member of a hook and ladder company of the fire department.
 There came a time one day. when Tat
 
 CT and running to a tenement house fire at the first alarm, got chance to show that he had in him the stuff of which heroes of the hook and ladder are made. When the reporters from police headquarters arrived at the scene of this particular fire they found a tenement in ruins. a block filled with crying and chattering women and children. the fire men dragging out their nose. a squad of police struggling with the pushing throng at the fire lines. and all the other incidents of commonplace confusion pe- culiar to the locality. The reporters made their way to the police roundsman and the battalion chief. who were com pairing notes for their respective reports Anyone burned or hurt?" they asked of the roundsman
 Nav, the whole bunch got out . the roundsman replied.
 Any rescues. chief?" they asked the commander of the firemen.
 None that you want guess. I be- lieve they dropped some kids out of window before the truck got here. but that didn't amount to anything" said the chief of the battalion as he signaled his men to return to quarters.
 The reporters had passe out of the fire lines and were forcing their way through the dense crowd when a bare headed girl of ten pulled the sleeve of the man in front and said:
 Say is youse goin' to put somethir in de papes about Tatters and what he done?"
 Who is Tatters. and what did he do9" the reporter asked, seenting material for a descriptive or special story.
 Why, he saved Mrs. Franks two kids outen de fort floor back fore de hookies got here.
 Where is he?"
 Back at his stan sell'n' papes jest like he ain't done nothin."
 By this time the reporters had cleared the worst of the crowd, and they were quickly surrounded by eye witnesses of the herosm of Tatters, all eager to tell the story in the hope of getting their own names in the newspapers. The story they told. stripped of unnecessary details was that Mrs Frank. who lived in the burned tenement. fourth floor back, had gone out, leaving her two small children locked in a room. She returned to find flames bursting from the third-floor windows, and the stair way black with smoke Between five piercing screams and a struggle to rush into the burning building she managed to make known the fact that her children
 
 faint just as Tatters broke from the crowd and dashed up the smoke-envsi-