The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1911-10-23

If 1908, by Beaj. B. Hampton.
 They went at q time, that it vas hasdl5 noticed until they were gone. And anyway, As-- Blu1nenstaub. the bald-headed old mar-un dH sss years ago. when his mother died, had alwa5s bsss her "baby." He was her oldest sen: somehoxs that is the that mothers love tho noat, yss see. The -1Daby" had stayed En tAs sad Asuss with the eighty-year-old woman
 'sYou don't know vot M is," hs saAA to mA emphasizing it seriously with hs pips stmA ~>s try to move your mmddsr ven she's bssn - le time in von place. You cannot do 1t. 8As Sua't go live init dc bruddersy or sisters. .6As s1ap always de old home DO you 6lamS hSr1 \ s6k you do you blame her? Not Xun xsiksEsa1eyse git old yourself, my boy"
 So Blumenstaub stayed on dn ths old AnmA waiting for his mother to die and as As maalsA AD grew older himself, set in his ways isss amenable to the little things od 3fe mA1ch Wsru waiting for him outside: Little 1tsma lzks -Bse< cooking engrossed his attention T ooulAn't bay dot supper of hers &nyvsre in cssw Yessk sue-1s two dollars!" he was wont to say aftexwaSaa 0as became feeble, in time, that she soa31nr = out He used to sit and read to her in tAs ss1nr inga Sue dasned his clothes and kspt buttons sa where they belonged. When she wa aEvs. . suit used to last him i've years.
 Do all these things seem htie and eut1le and silly and unworthy of comment? Perhaps tAsy gre; only, ann afraid you have never bssn . loas- y German aged 1ftynve, with only bedroom D three flights of stairs in cheap boarding housA
 'well, at last-you know how 1t is: vs aH get to die-ny Duudder she died. Do bruddsrs an sisters all como to de funeral yes. Ont den dsy clear out again. wait and wait dn Ae or house. tsrt don't know vot to do vit myself 1t is empty an lonesome, like you know it must be efter she's gone had to get my meals outside after a vile. because even de oP girl vot ve had vent sway I home at night an de place vas all still. Den day all at realize vot's de matter. my boy. am lonesomei Bei Gott, am alone. all alone! Wy I alone? m t'ink of de or daya an de girl vot vas waiting for me, and den know --it is too late. too late! Everything is played out for me- am old. Everything has gone an left I didn know 1t till now, but it is true. almost cry. It is true about me. I am a back number, an nobody cares; nobody cares about me, about vot happens to mel a back number" He held roughly by the shouI der and his eyes glistened moistly.
 'T make up my mind to leave de OF place Won of my brudders takes it, but can't live in it. I her baby in dot op place. you Den do foolish ting I go to live at hotel. an-an ; gamble in Wall Street. vot do I know about Wall Street? Noting. Only gamble an lose Wy do gamble? I don't know. am an op fool But did it. An after vile don't got any mors money.
 Den I go back to my brudder, my younger brudder in de or house. An he gives place to sleep I pay him board. He gives me a chob in de wine shop, selin' gin to nggers, for fifteen tollar week.. Do like niggers? Mo-. Do I like to sell stuff to vot makes em drunk?e No. If had my money back wouldn't do it-you know dot; but gotta york.
 At last my brudder and his family moves away out into Brooklyn: an come here wit some people know. Den dey raise de rent me. an move here among desc gnnies. It is nice. heh? It s nice to live an grow or an have to do t'ings you don't want to, esk you, heh? a,It is nice to be alone among peoples you don't know, ain't ft?"
 You seem to be popular. though" commented soothingly.
 Popular? Hah! Hah! lie popular you say How? By lettin' em poke fun at me- isna? Dsy have deir choke ou an laugh Is dot popu larity? Voss?" ,t a,e se ~9t
 In this manner, brokenly, he retold me his story here. there, in patches. One night in the thick hot summer took the ferrytboat Staten Island in order to get the breeze and it recalled to him his early youth, when he had sailed up the bay, an immigrant from Bavaria
 One night as a wedding went by, he told again of the girl who had waited. But mostly. is tho later days, he talked of money, of hoy succese fui his younger brother was, of how necessary money to old in this world
 I wonder if grim. sardonic Deity takes notice of these idle human things? wonder If t is not with an actual pleasure that the fs turreu ittie tghls1 those souie ~ssrs rss really needs a humane 1oosenins- r7 getting to the end of my story, my i-writteh, hap hazard sketch of lonely old man on his way down the road of the world and, w:tb all my books and my reading only hide my face in my hands
 For here is the bitter thing that haunted me as left Blumenstaub by the news stand tonight: s was upon the very Saturday evening that bis brother had closed the wire shop and had turned the old man adr1ft that the careless remarh hse been made behind Blumenstaubs back
 "He certainly is the comic relief!
 As I feel it, that s the way the world speaks always-full of guile. calously, never seeES to the pitifu truth beAsAkA