Hopkinsville Kentuckian. [volume] (Hopkinsville, Ky.) 1889-1918, 1906-05-22
THE HEROISM
OF EATERS
BY WALTER L. IIAwLEx
icopyrIsht, 1906, by Joseph n. aowles.l

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 REFER 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
corner. not table or shelf with can
vas or board shelter as most local news
dealers, but a 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 of 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 mad never been to church or Sunday
! school in his life, and could swear like
pirate whenever circumstances
seemed to justify strong language; but
he was honest and manly. Tatters had
incurred the enmity of the less indus
trious newsboys of the neighborhood oy
minding his own business and refusing
to shoot craps with them. He did not
regard gambling as a vice. but II would
interfere with his business, so he
thrashed few of the urchins 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
borhood Tatters was always one of the
first spectators on hand, and he main
tanned a speaking acquaintance with
the members of the engine company
situated in the block, and to them con-
ided his secret ambition to become a
hockey when he growed up" hockey
in the dialect of the East side meaning
member of a hook and ladder company
Of the fire department
There came time one day, when Tat
ters, leaving his papers with the butch
err and running to a tenement house
Ore at the first alarm, got chance to
show that he had in him the stun 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 tenement in
ruins, block filed with crying and
chattering women and children, the fire.
/ men dragging out their hose, a squad
of police struggling with the pushing
throng at the fire lines, and all the other
/ incidents of commonplace confusion pc
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, chlef?" they asked the
commander of the firemen.
None that you want, guess. be-
lieve they dropped some kids out of a
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 passed 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 sonethin'
in de papes about Tatters and what he
done?"
who is Tatters, and what did he dc? ?"
the reporter asked, seeming 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 her"
Back at his stan sell'n papes lest
like he amt done nothin'."
BY this time the reporters had cleared
the worst of the crowd. and they were
quickly surrounded by eye witnesses OF
the heroism Of Tattegs, all eager to tell
the story in the hope of getting theiI
own names in the newspapers. The
story they told. stripped Of unnecessary
details, was that Mrs. Frank, who lived
in the burned tenement, fourth fool
back, had gone out, leaving her two
small children locked In a room. Sh,
returned to fnd flames bursting from
the third-hoor windows, and the stair
way black with smoke Between fv'
piercing screams and struggle to rusl
into the burning building she managed
to make known the fact that her childrsI
were locked In. and then she fell In
faint iHst % TAtters broke from tn
crowd AaA dARhad uD The smoke -onVal