The Tacoma times. [volume] (Tacoma, Wash.) 1903-1949, 1912-02-14


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Two little boys are playing in
the mud. One is Ave years old,
the other three. Master Three
year-old is driving sticks into the
soft earth with a rag-doil which
he holds by the legs, using 1t as
hammer. The other boy is dig
ging Panama canal with a rusty
kitchen knife. Both are rosy with
health.
Nearby man, clad in rough,
mud -bespattere clothes, Is turn
| ing over the soil of his garden
with fork spade and clearing out
the stones.
Comes the Woman.
From the cottage comes a slip
of a woman, tripping and laugh
ing, in her arms baby 10 months
old in whose cherubic face Is an
expression of plactTncontentment
though cheeks are wet with recent
tears Baby hands clutch bot
tie of milk, and baby lips are
glued to the nipple with the evil
dent intention of never. never let
ting go so long, as drop OF milk
remains. IA ~
"Oh, john" calls the slip Of a
woman, big Boy Just woke up.
And, my, how he roared!" z
The man Strengthened his back,
barred his heaN and smiled. Thus
was revealed a face strong and
stern and bitter; n rudy face
criss-crOssed with heavy lines
which might have been writ there
by trouble. He resumed his work
without a word.
A peaceful scene. Life flows
evenly for such as these.
The peaceful scene is all sham.
You have but to look into the
eyes of the toiling man to see the
very home of tragedy.
John Early's Story.
The whole world knows by now
the story of John Early the leper.
John Early, who served his flag
in the Philippines and there con-
tracted leprosy; who, returning,
rough, raw soldier, wooed and
won the Salvation Army lassie in
Plattsburg, N. Y, who has been
his loyal partner in few joys and
many sorrows.
It's an old story-how learned
doctors said he had it, didn't have
it, they were sure he had it, they
weren't sure he had il. It's an
old story-how he was bounded
from place 10 place the cry ringing
always in his ears: Beware! Be-
ware! Unclean! Unclean!"
Game? To the core, these two.
The firing line calls for no such
courage as they have shown.
His plan? An acre set apart
for John Early, the leper. On IL
two-room house. Around it a
barricade of two wire fences, each
six feet high, which he may never
pass nor may any one enter to
him. There to remain until death.
That Is the plan of John Early's
own choosing.
Stand at Distance.
When you interview John Early
yOu .btduu dI d uiStdnCc' IlS uOCo
not seem to resent the aloofness.
Near you is a guard who sees to
It that the leper-if he really Is
leper-does not touch you with
his lands.
"They blame me for coming
here under a false name," he said.
''If l had come here as John
Early, what then? Would they
have let me stay? Must / be like
the Flying Dutchman? And why
should my wife be punished-and
the babies?"
AS he talked he worked with
feverish haste. He works always.
''It is better to work than
think" he explained.
His attitude towards the world
| Is one of defiance. 1t says as
plainly as words: ''I only a>k to
be left alone" He does not whim-
Iper. He stands on his rights. He
is fighting man.
In his dealing with the authori-
ties, whom his presence embar-
rasses, and his neighbors, he has
been scrupulously fair, as the
commissioner admit. He touches
nothing that is handled by any
other person. Mrs. Early is
lequally careful.
i He has not kissed his wife