The Virginia enterprise., 1906-04-20
TEHEROlSM
OF TATTERS
By WALTER L. HAwLEY
Copyright, 1905, BY Joseph p. Bowles.)

II ~ "AAXEN As 34A WILL HI
Copyright, 1906 by Joseph r Dowles.)
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 we'll 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 a mother and
some younger brothers and sisters.
The lad had "staAd" on the street
corner, not table or shelf with a 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 a good boy.
He had never been to church or Sunday
school in his life, and could swear like
a. 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 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 urchins who called
him names and held his stand" on the
corner by standing on it during business
hours. His one diversion was going to
fires. II there was fire in the neigh
horhood 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-
fided his secret ambition to become a
hockey when he growed up" hockey
in the dialect of the East side meaning
a member of hook and ladder company
of the fire department.
There came time one day, when Tat
ters, leaving his papers with the butch
er and running to tenement house
dre 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 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 pe
culiar to the locality The reporters
made their way to the police roundsmau
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, l guess. T he.
>lieve they dropped some kids out of \
window before the truck got here. hut
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 wav
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 somethin'
IN de papes about Tatters and what he
vdone?"
''Who is Tatters, and what did he do ?"
the reporter asked, scenting materaal
FOR descriptive or special story. -.
why, he saved Mrs. Frank two kids
outen de fort floor back fore de hookies
got here =
where is he?" 3 *
Back at his stan selrn' papes lest
like he amt done nethin'.''
BY this time the reporters had cleared
the worst of the crowd. and they were
quickly surrounded by eye witnesses of
the herois m of Tatteys, Ill eager o-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-foor windows, and the stair
way black with smoke. Between five
piercing screams and struggle to rush
Into the burning building che MANAGED
ITO make known the fact that her children
were locked in. and then she fell in 4
faint just as Tatters broke from tbs
crowd and dashed up the smoker
f.r f~.' ts-@