Evening journal., 1909-07-12
Under the Cross
sers ss1se,ss essasss' 90
lorlginal.l.

IOriginal.ls
Eli Plat was having hard time to
make a living He went from house
TO house selling any little article he
could get a dealer TO trust him with,
and his life was passed principally In
looking In at doors which were slam
med in his face. One day, receiving
no answer TO his ring at a handsome
residence, he tried the knob, opened
the door and walked in. Hearing no
sound, he reconnoitered as far as the
second story, from a back window of
which he saw a woman in the yard
hanging up clothes. The premises had
evidently been left in her care Pull
ing open a bureau drawer, he saw
box and, opening the box, a small for
tune IN Jewels.
The human mind is capable of great
deliberation In a very small space of
time Eli Platts certainly was. He
had never stolen or robbed. Indeed,
he had calculated the chances of such
methods and knew they were decided
ly against dishonesty. The goods were
usually recovered, and the thief went
to state prison. Platt concluded to
take the jewels. hide them, suffer the
consequences OF the theft and when a
free man again recover the treasure
and take good long comfortable rest.
He decided and acted deliberately, not
on the usual impulse of thief.
That night he took the jewels to a
block on which the only building was
brick junkshop. Somebody had once
taught him to find the north star by
the pointer stars, 80 he took thirty
steps from the northwest corner Of the
junkshop toward the north star, stop
ped and, with a rusty shovel he found
outside the junkshop, dug a hole and
buried his treasure.
He had been seen coming away with
the Jewels and when they were missed
was arrested, identified and sent to the
penitentlary.
Seven years later Eli Platt, just dis
charged, sauntered by the block where
he had buried the jewels. A number
Of buildings had been erected; but for
tunately for Eli, he recognized the junk
shop, though it was now used for a
feed store. He looked toward the
spot where he had buried his treasure
and saw that 1t was covered by the
rear end Of a chapel The roof of this
end was rounded up to a point, on
which was a cross.
If his mind was capable of delibera.
ton. it was also capable of calling up
pictures. As he looked at the cross
he saw an old woman kneeling al
an altar. She was his mother. Then
he saw himself toddling along by hel
side to church, later his confirmation
And now the treasure he had taken
from another and had suffered seven
long years to possess was sheltered by
a sacred temple guarded by the holy
emblem Of the cross
Life, like the world, is of two hem
ispheres. To pass from one earthly
weeks, perhaps months. A passage
from one sriritual hemisphere TO an
other may he accomplished in a frac
tion of a second. AS Eli looked up a
what as a child he had been taugh
to reverence It occurred TO him tina
it had been placed over his treasur'
that no hand should prdfane 1t. Fol
what purpose? To save his soul. b.
whom? She who had long passed t.
her heavenly home-his mother.
In a twinkling he was changed. II
a twinkllng that which In prison h
had looked forward to longingly, count
ing the days between him aud its pos
session, had become only a means b.
, which he might be rescued from evil.
Going to the front Of the chapel, h
found the doors open and entered
There was the stiffness OF a house o
worship when no services we're beinl
held Several people were l1neeling be
fore the altar. he went forward an
: dropped on his knees.
Long he stayed immovable, his hea
bowed upon his breast He was thinl
- ing Of the old woman who took him t
s church when he was a little boy-hov
! doubtless, she had waited while h
- was In prison for this moment, hoy
! she had interceded for him and how !
! the inscrutable ways Of the heavenl
! hosts all this had been brought about.
Beside the altar was a booth shielde
4 by a curtain in which a priest wa
\ hearing confession. When the col
d fessor came out Eli Platt entered an
i told the priest the story Of his thief
n his endurance for its final possesslo
s and where he had buried his treasure
The next day the priest conducte
the chief Of 7olice and a party Of worl
: men to the cellar Of the chapel Tai
: ing up the cement floor, they dug
L the earth. and a few feet under IL
r surface directly beneath the cross the
e found a box Of jewels. They were SCI