Wauwatosa news. [volume] (Wauwatosa, Wis.) 1900-1948, 1908-02-07
COURAGE.


penny lodging houses Westminster way.
Three, five, seven beds in room; if you
pay regularly, you keep your own bed;
if not, they nut someone else there who
viii certainly leave you memento of
himself It's not the foreigners quar-
ter: they are nearly all English, and
drunkards. Three quarters of them do
not eat-can't; they have no capacity
for solid food. They drink and drink.
They're not worth wasting your money
on-cab runners, newspaper boys, sellers
of laces, and what you call sandwich
men, three fourths of them brutalized
beyond the power of recovery. What
can you expect? They just live to scrape
enough together to keep their souls in
their bodies; they have no time or
strength to think of anything but that.
They come back at night and fall asleep
and how dead that sleep is! No, they
never eat--just bit of bread; the rest is
drink
There used to come to that house Il
little Frenchman, with a yellow, crows
footed face; not old either, about 80.
But his life had been hard-no one comes
to these houses if life is soft; especially
no Frenchman; a Frenehman hates to
leave his country. He came to shave us
charged a penny; most of us forgot to
pay him, so that in all he shaved about
three for penny. He went to Others of
these houses-this gave him his income
-he kept the little shop next door, too,
but he never sold anything How he
worked! He also went to one of your
public institutions; this was not so prof
table, for there he was paid penny for
ten shaves. He used to keep me till the
last, and shave me slowly.
This rests me-" he would say. 1t was
amusement for me, too, for had got into
the habit of going for days without open
ing my lips.
'Yes,'' the little man would say,
when i came hege first, | thought |
should soon go back, but now I'm not
so sure. I'm losing my illusions. Money
has wings, but it's not to me it flies.
Believe me, my friend, am shaving my
soul into these specimens. And how UNI
happy they are, poor creatures; how
they must suffer- Drink you say. Yes,
that saves them-they get little hap
piness from that. Unfortunately, |
haven't the constitution for there"
And he would show me where he had no
constitution. "You, too, comrade, you
don't seem to be in luck; but then, you
are young.
When went away, which was as soon
as / had nothing left to pawn, he gave
me money-th there's no question of lend
ing in those houses; if a man parts with
money, he gives it; and lucky if he's not
robbed into the bargain. There are fell
lows there who watch for new pair of
shoes, or good oyercoat, profit by their
wakefulness as soon as the other is
asleep, and promptly disappear. There is
no morality in the face of destitution-
it needs man of iron, and these are
men of straw.
Well, | got job as fireman on a
steamer, made tour tramping, and six
months later | was back again. The
first morning | saw the Frenchman. 1t
was shaving day; he was more like an
ant than ever, working away with all
his legs and arms; a little yellower, and
perhaps more wrinkled.
All" he called out to me in French,
"there you are-back again. / knew
you'd come. Wait till I've finished with
this specimen-I've lot to talk about
We went into the kitchen, a big and
stone iloored room. with tables for eat
ng-and sat down by the fire. 1t was
January, but, summer or winter, there
was always fire burning in that kitch-
en-.
49," he said, "you have come back
No luck? Eth! Patience! A few more
days won't kill you at your age. What
fogs, though! YoYu see, I'm still here,
but my comrade, Pigon, is dead. You
remember him-the big man with black
hair who had the shop down the street.
Amiable fellow, good friend to me; and
married Fine woman his wife-a little
ripe, seeing she has had children, but of
good family. He died suddenly, of heart
disease, Wait a bit; I'll tell you about
that
1T was not long after you went away,
one fine day in October, when / had Just
finished with these specimens mere, and
was taking my coffee in the shop, and
thinking of that poor Pigon-dead then
just three days-when, poml comes a
knock, and there is Mime. Pigon! Very
calm--a woman of good family, we'll
brought up. well madeline woman. But
the cheeks pale, and the eyes so red, poor
SOUL
"'Well madame, l asked her, what
can do for your
ut seems this poor Pigon died bank
rrpt; there was not a cent in the shop.
He was two days in his grave, and the
bailitfs in already
All, monsieur! she says to me, what
am | to do?'
Wait bit, madamei' ] got my hat
and went back TO the shop with her.
What a scene! Two bailiffs, who
would hfu., been the better for a shave,
sitting in cne shop before the basins; and
everywhere, ma fol, everywhere, chill
dren TX Tx! A little girl of 10, very
like her mother; two little boys with lit
tie trousers, and one with nothing but
chemise; and others-two, quite small,
all rolling on the floor; and what horri-
Bile noise!- crying, all but the little
girl, fit to break themselves in two. The
bailifTS seemed Dprplpxpd II was apouoh