Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1912-12-22

particular about your company. amt you,
Bill says to him after while.
No says he. I'm just lookin' for q
man with some shoes SO worn out that
they. won't hardly stay on on his feet
Nov Bills shoes was pretty good ones
SO 1 just naturally thought he was kid
DIM
g Coin to play Sanity Claus. are you?
Nope says Bill. 'goin' to fix it sc
the folks in this mans town Will play
Santa Claus to me. Don't talk to me nc
more, I'm thinkin'.'
II saw he was framin' up some hare
we found the kind of shoes we wanted
they wasn't nothin' much but uppers. and
mighty little of that. Bills toes stuck
clean out of 'em when he put EN- on
Course Bill had to play drunk when ne
was maxim the trade or the other fell
low wouldn't have known what to make
of any such foolishness and maybe back.
ed out AS it was he probably figured
Bill was crazy drunk and that he might
as we'll get his while the gettfn was good
milk Of human kindness much ebtween
one 'bo' an another. 'ceptin', OF course
his buddy. Boes ii help you trim some.
body else, but when you get through, II
they can, they'll turn around and trim
you.
* x
Anyhow, Bill gets his ragged shoes
says come on and starts off up the
northwest When We gets to a pretty
good-looking street. not what you might
call rich street, but a pretty good one
Bill tells me to wait on the corner. He
goes in a house, stays in about twenty
minutes, an comes out with a regular
only
an coat an suit Of clothes
Don't speak an don't follow me toe
quick he whispers as he passes I let
him get block off, then / starts after
him. He turns and ducks up an alley.
''Tryin to shake me- en- 1 says to
myself. No you don't So 1 follows
right up after him.
But he wasn't tryin' to do no shakin'
He just wanted to get where he'd be sure
nobody would see us. Then he tells me
that outside Of what see, they give him
four bits.
''Go git me a newspaper, he says,
slipping me the four bits. An see that
you come back. or you'll be sorry.
done it. Then Bill wrapped UP the clothes
where we sold the outfit for deuce
spot. Course we got robbed, but We
didn't want the buds.
while we was wallxin' to the second
hand man Bill told me how he'd worked
it. 'Simpleet thing you ever see,' says he.
L rings that bell. an l don't ask for no
lady of the house. l asks for the gent.
" men he comes l gives him this:
'''''Sir, 1 want to know If you've got
some wood / can chop, or anything In
Gods world kin do that you'll give me
a pair of shoes for doin'." Then l sticks
out one foot an shows him how bad /
needs 'em.
Before he has a chance to say any
thing l follows up my lead. Il amt no
beggar." 1 says. I'm poor. but I'm a
workin' man. I been workin' up In
Maryland an the contractor skipped out
without payin' US our wages. l walked
all the way here-been walkin' five days
that's what wore out my shoes. think
I can get work here. but it's snowin, and
I'm afraid with my feet like this I'll get
sick. / don't want to get sick. I want
to work. And 1 don't want you to give
me no shoes. I amt a beggar. I want
to work for EN-"
80 Come in and I'll see," says the
man. So 1 goes in and Celebrates on my
story. His wife come in to hear me.
While I'm talkin', she interrupts me:
Those all the clothes you got?" "Yes'm,
l says II had a Sunday suit, but I had
to sell it to git money to buy little food.
l didn't git enough for to buy q ticket"
"'With that she looks at her husband