Valentine Democrat. (Valentine, Neb.) 1900-1930, 1909-12-09
Yes" added David with a sigh. and

YES" added David with a sigh, land
seemed to brush ava and obliterate
all traces of his sorrow and his sins"
They did not speak during their
homeward journey, and when they
reached their rooms David paced I'M
easily backward and forward until the
shadows of evening had fallen. When
he suddenly observed that it was dusk,
he tool his hat and went out into the
streets. There was something SO rest
less and unnatural about his move
ments as to excite the suspicion of his
friend, who waited for a single no
ment n then hurried after hin.
The night was calm and clear, the
autumn stars were shining in a cloud
less sky, and the tide of life which had
surged through the busy streets all day
vas ebbing like the waters from the
bays and ~estuaries along the shore of
the ocean
A few moments walking brought
David to a weird spectacle. A torch
had been erected above a low plat
form on which stood a man of most
unique and striking personality. He
looked like a giant in the wavering
AiS4- VI thC lOLCII' i was oICSSCo IL
the simple garb of a Quaker; his head
was bare; great locks of reddish hair
curled round his temples and fell down
upon his shoulders. His massive coun-
tenanc bespoke an extraordinary
mind, and beamed with rest and peace.
AS he sang an old familiar hymn, he
looked around upon his audience with
an expression such as glowed, no
doubt, from the countenance Of the
Christ when He spoke to the multi
tudes on the shores of Lake Genessa-
ret.
Close to the small platform was a
circle of street Arabs, awed into 81
lence and respect by the charm of this
remarkable personality. Next to them
came a ring of women-some of them
old and gray, with haggard and wrin-
kled countenances upon which Time,
with his antique pen, had traced many
illegible hieroglyphs; some of them
young and bedizened with tinsel jew
elry and fiashy clothing; not a few of
them middle-aged, wan dispirited and
bearing upon their hips bundles wrap
ped in faded shawls, from which came
occasionally that most distressing of
sounds, the wall of an ill-fed and I'M
loved infant, crying in the night.
Outside of this zone of female mis-
cry n degradation, there was a belt
of masculine stupidity and crime; men
with corpulent bodies, bull necks, dou-
BILE chins, pile-driving heads; men of
Shrunken frames, ~cadaVerouS cheeks,
deep-set and beady eyes-vermin-cov-
cred, disease-devoured, Unprecedented.
They chung around him, these concen-
trio circles of humanity, like rings
around a luminous planet, held by they
knew not what resistless attraction.
The simple melody, borne upon the
pinions of that ~resonate and cello-like
voice, attained an almost supernatural
influence over their perverted natures. |
When it ceased, an audible sigh arose, |
an involuntary tribute of alteration and
of awe. AS soon as ne had fnishoT his
hymn, this consecrated apostle to the
lost sheep of the great city opened a
well-worn volume.
The influence which he exerted over
the mind of David was as irresistible
it was inscrutable. His language |
had the charm of perfect familiarity. |
Every word and phrase had fallen
from his own lips a hundred times in
similar eXhortations. In fact, they
seemed to him strangely like the echo
of his own voice coming back upon
him from the dim and half-forgotten
{T1 h.. oonfsr,,oI |