The Republican journal., 1911-08-10
THE CAT LADY.


A little crowd had gathered round the
cat; and truly it was forlorn sight.
NANCY, half-frozen, seemingly blind, it
lay on the pavement as if, in crossing it,
it had suddenly given up all nine lives,
and laid down to die in the open. The
fur was eaten off its head in great
. patches; its ears were cracked and bleed
ing. Even the most careless passer-by
could not ignore so piteous creature,
and yet no one wanted to touch it. The
Spectator is fond of cats, and yet he
shrank from picking up the leprous-look-
ing animal. Just as he was making up
his mind to do so child pushed through
the crowd-a thin, energetic, small girl
in her teens, with large basket with a
lid on her arm.
ooh, let me have it to take to the cat
lady!" she cried, and the group made
way for her willingly, each one glad to
have the cat succored by somebody else.
She knelt down, and with her stability
gloved hands lifted the half-dead crea-
ture. The cat, which had been large
fine animal, was too weak and wasted to
resist or to care. 1t turned its sightless
head little, but lay limp in her hands
as she slowed it away in the basket. II
saw it lying here" she said to the Spec
tator, land I've been and telephoned to
the dog-catcher, but he says he doesn't
take cats. So went and got the basket,
and I'm going to carry it to the cat lady
myself"
The Spectator, though he was a
stranger in the small town, asked if he
could carry the basket, for surely that
was trifling thing to do and yet an
assuagement to his conscience for not
having examined or helped the cat before
this short-skrted deliverer arrived. The
girl, after shrewd look at him, handed
him the basket, and guided him down an
Old-fashioned red-brick street, which be-
gan as openly residential, and descended,
through drug stores and garages, to
frankly commercial uses of the smaller
kind. ''The cat lady's house useter be
nice house," said she, confdentially.
"She had everything she wanted, but
now she's poor Nd she always loved
cats; so the neighbors, they brought her
all the sick ones, and she took care of
them. The Society, it gives her the stuff
to put them to sleep with, md she does it
without hurting them. They just go to
sleep, you know. My! the way some
folks treats cats! You like 'em, don't
your"
The Spectator confessed a weakness
for cats. "You don't love 'em like the
cat lady does, though" the child went
on. "She'd have picked this one right
up in her arms. Mother won't let me do
that. She won't let me touch a strange
cat less | have gloves on, for fear |
might get bit or something. But it
hasn't never hurt the cat lady to touch
'em. Here's where she lives" The
street had by this time given up all pre-
lenses and come to the Chinese laundry
stage. Between laundry and cobbler' S
shop wooden door, shut fast, led into
an alley. The child tapped on the door
81 guess her hours is over for the day"
she explained, ''visitin' hours you know.
But we can get in through the laundry,
any time She darted into the Chinese
laundry, and the Spectator, basket on
arm, followed the adventure. A lean,
yellow Chinaman with coiled pigtail
demonstrated in pigeon English, but the
child marched on into an inner room,
pushed past another inhospitable Celes-
tial jabbering harshly from behind an
ironing-board, and stepped out of side
door into the alley again, the other side
of the closed door, and so into the back
yard.
1t was yard of quite spacious dimen-
sions, with green grass in it. Its prin-
cipal crop, however, was cats. On boxes
and barrels that seemed arranged in
pedestal style sat or curled cats of yellow,
cats of gray, white cats, Maltese cats,
and more cats. They were all world
, worn specimens-not a kitten among
them; but they reclined in dignity and
had no fear in this serene spot. II
they're going to get we'll. she keeps them
! out here" said the child, land finds
homes for them. She gave my Uncle
Henry, out in the country, an awful nice
! gray one for his barn, that can kill rats.
| 1t only has one eye, but Uncle Henry
! says he wouldn't take five dollars for it.
! The cat lady'll come and drown kittens
for you, too. She does it in warm water
SOS it doesn't hurt them"
i AS she spoke she raped on the back
| door, and the ''cat LADY, herself opened
it. The Spectator had expected some
thing out of the ordinary, and was not
disappointed A very small, very erect
old woman, with abundant curly gray
! hair, stood revealed in the frame of the
door. Over a shabby, old fashioned black
dress she wore shabbier gray knit
shawl, and poverty spoke in every line
but poverty accepted and ignored, the
/ poverty of an unworldly recluse. "Come
in, come in, my DEAR" she said to the
child, including the Spectator, the basket,
and the cat in one sweeping gesture OF
welcome. ''Got poor pussy in there!
Well, we'll, let's see it. Poor kittyv
and with that she lifted the lid and peer
Children Cry