Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1908-09-15

coppery sky, had long since ceased to
shine down upon the narrow street and
hung lazily upon the line of the west
ern sky as though reluctant to leave
battlefield where he had been a mighty
victor. The pavements and even the
buildings gave out their scorching heat
like bake oven from which the fires
have been newly drawn.
Here and there some one watered the
street with hose or turned the stream
upon the tiny grass plots in front of
the houses, but the heat quickly dried
up the flood, and the humidity served
only to add to the general discomfort.
1t was long street of old fashioned
high stoop houses, once the home of
fashion. Latterly society had been
driven out by'et resistless march of
the city's progress, and the district
was given over to the boarding house
mistresses until such tiR1e-as the needs
of the growing city should require the
space for factories
Still retaining somewhat of its old
fashioned dignity, the street was be-.
coming shabby genteel. Here and
there brownstone front had been re-
placed by a brick tenement masquerad-
ing as a flathouse, and here and there
the squalor of the poor became appar-
ent. Already the street marked the ex-
treme edge of the residential district"
as the boarding house mistress loved
to term it, and its chief recommends
ton was the fact that the boarders
could reach their places of employment
by walking and so save the tedious
cars and the 60 cents car fare that rep
resented an important item in their
weekly expenditure
The boarders thronged the high
Stoops. gasping in the hot air, not dar-
ing to seek their rooms until the heat
should abate little At Mrs. Marcy's
Dudley Thearle shared the top step
with Maude Ryerson. Ever since he
had come to Marcy's, two weeks be-
fore, he had sought a place beside
Maude until the other boarders had
come to regard the top step as the
joint property of the two,
Presently they would make jests on
| the oddly assorted pair and Thearle' S
love affair would share. with the
weakness of the coffee and the
, attention of the other boarders. The
coffee was not weak and the butter
F., rather better than the average, but
| tradition Is mighty and has decrced
f, that these jokes shall endure while
boarding houses exist Generally. too
there is some mismated pair, lost in
+, their own happiness, to offer a third
f. butt of ridicule.
! And surely never was there such
an oddly assorted pair. Thearle still
wore the sunburn and ruddy coorine
which proclaimed him product OF
field and farm. The fortnight which
had passed since he had taken a posi-
ton offered him by one of last sum
| mer's boarders at the farm had no
faded the flush of health, nor had the
city's burdens bent the strong shoul
ders.
Miss Ryerson was a commercial
nun. welded to the work which tool
her youth and beauty and gave naugh
| In return save the pittance which per
mitted a mere existence with none o
the pleasures that are the heritage o
youth. She was only twenty-one, bu
she looked thirty. for since her six
teenth birthday she had been working
Part of that time she had been th
support OF younger sister. and tn
story Of privations endured for he
sisters sake was written large O
the colcrless skin and in the wear
eyes and bent carriage.
/, Yet to Thearle she seemed beaut
full. for she represented knowledge
knowledge of ways and manners tina
were strange and new to him-and b
worshiped dumbly If not from afar.
ii Her greatest charm he found in tn
T fact that she did not laugh at hi
, plumbers. as the others did. She seen
! ed to him some Lady Gracious, a W,
+ man vastly different from all others,
woman most greatly to he desired
AS they sat there in silence, unwil
ing to make even the exertion tn;
: conversation demanded, there cam
: the shouts of children, the complainin
grind of heavy motor cars, and pre-
{, emily there rolled past line of deli
cry trucks loaded with children i;
cargo.
ITS the city fresh air fund" e
planned the girl In answer to Thearle
inquiring glance. ''The real fund sen,
the children to the country. This is 8
idea of the Evening Spark. The parl
are too far for the little feet to wal
and car fare is not for the children
the tenements. The merchants LEI
their trucks in the evenings. and Il
children are taken out to the park
run on the grass and get breath
fresh air. 1t is won&erful charity"
II II wish some one would start fire.
air fund for people like me-" mus
Thearle. 81 don't mean just that so
Of course. but / sit here on the ste
because there seems to be nothing ell
to do"
II You could go to the park" sugge
ed the girl. THAT car on the corn
goes straight out past the park in
the country. It's lovely ride. but
costs another nickel once you are ps
L the park"