The Birmingham age-herald., 1909-01-12
From the Kansas City Times. ~
 @HE priest of downtown parish sat tU chatting in his room the other

| From the Kansas City Times. @4HE priest of downtown parish sat (Op chatting in his room the other day. The talk was on heroism. "I see it every day" he said. Right l here in Kansas City see it. The poor don't need to wait for drowning man to rouse their human courage. The stories | of noble deeds I've heard in this very room? Of course, there are varieties, but you can always single out the real heroes; they never know anything about their heroism Just like the man who instinc- lively risks his life to save another" | At this point in the talk a boy came in with a message for the priest. He was not an official messenger boy, but he couldn't have been more business-like. He | looked at the clock and noted the hour | for himself. He didn't look anxious, either, but just bright and eager, and I easy.
 "Waiting an answer and please write down the hour" he said.
 Then the following conversation took 1 place between them. The boy turned out | to be as truthful as he looked. The priest | - his story was a fact"
 Not in a hurry. are you?' | Sure. I'm in hurry. I'm working for myself"
 | There was something in the way he said 1 it that gave a bigger meaning than usual l to the last word.
 1 Brothers and sistersT"
 Seven
 "Father and mother?" 1 Mother. Father died in hospital three years ago."
 "All working?"
 1 Me and mother"
 1 When he was told there would be no
 answer, but he could work on time pay
 he described quite simply the daily he-
 roism of North End family.
 "Father had been sick for long time. !"
 he said, .and I'd been earning 90 cents
 A day carrying water for the gangers. There were seven besides me. and Mary.
 the eldest, was IS, and had to stay in bed l most days But she looked after the kids 1 when mother went to work in a packing
 house. When father died mother just
 said Gods will be done,' and went to look
 for a job She didn't get as much as I did, A a week at first and then s5, but
 when I said it wasn't right. she'd just
 say I was man.
 'Mary's mostly in bed still and she's 16
 now and thinks she ought to be earning,
 but I reckon she works harder'n mother and me- She keeps the house nice-we've
 three rooms and a corridor-and gets the | kids ready for school. Then the two girls
 were married last year"
 But you said Mary was tiie eldest" was objected.
 "That's right Helen and Rose were IS and IA when they married" he ex-
 plained. "We don't see so much of them
 now and it makes mother bit sad at times.'
 "Wasn't she glad to have them ma
 homes of their own?" was asked.
 q guess she was really, but 1t sort or
 broke up the family, you see. Mother was
 never worried about any of us and never
 seemed to think we were too many. or
 course. people used to help us, the neiTh- bors and the people who looked after | father when he got sick. But r m not like l that. can't go and play with the kids evenings when times are bad with me and rnother's out of work. She does. though. She don't ever seem to worry about any thina except when the kids don't want to go to school. When the packing house don't want her she does odd jobs for the neighbors. It's in between seasons things