The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1912-11-10

YER since he could remember,
Hobbler had been an orphan,
selling newspapers for living.
~ And 1t was very poor living
that little Hobbler ten years old, got
out of it. Even before he was thrown
upon his own resources, in the cold
hearted city of New York, he had
known only poverty, for his mother
had been a factory-hand, and had
struggled hard TO keep herself and
only child from starving. At last
cold on the lungs had taken Hobbler's
mother away from the world, and that
was only a dim memory to Hobbler
few months after 1t was all over. for
he was only about six years old at the
time.
Hobbler's mother never called him
Hobbler. She called him joey. And
she wept over his little lame leg and
crooked foot. IF only we could have
the money to have the dear little leg
and foot Strengthened by good doc
tors" she would say. But that had
never happened. So joey became
Hobbier on the street, where children
have cruel ways of calling ones at
tention to a deformity or physical ug-
Illness of any kind. And so it came
about after a little while that Joey
forgot his real name and owned to
the name of Hobbler.
One November day when the wind
blew In from the sea, cutting to the
very marrow the poor who were thinly
clad, Hobbler sat in a doorway be-
meath the roaring Elevated" and
thought over the problems confront
Ing him. Winter was upon the city
the only place he had ever known.
And he had no clothes and no money
to buy clothes with. He was wearing
an old coat and trousers which had
belonged to Teddy the Rat Teddy
the Rat lived in the basement of the
old tenement where Hobbler stayed
with old Granny Daniels, the aged
rag picker. Hobbler gave old Granny
half of his daily earnings for a place
to sleep and old clothes she might rig
up for him out of rags. BUT a few
days before this story opens, Teddy
the Rat, who was known to be bur-
glars apt pupil, had beckoned to
Hobbler as he came home one night
after selling all his evening papers.
Here, Hob" Teddy the Rat had said
to him, leading him into the shadow
of the basement stairs, I've made a
haul today. Got a new suit, so I'm
THROWN these rags away. Want 'em.
kiddo?"
Now little Hobbler hated dishonesty,
and he hated poverty as WELL But
Crime and Want went hand in hand
in the slums where he had spent his
life. SO he had often to wink, as
grcwn-hps say, at things he did not
approve of. So, while he almost knew
that Teddy the Rat had come by his
new clothes dishonesty he did not
think 1t wicked for him to take the
cast-off rags of Teddy. So he nodded
his head. Yep" he said, "I'l take
'em. I'm half-freezin,' and Granny
hasn't found any old coats or pants
lately. She says the rich are getting
too stingy to throw away anything
that the poor might make use
Of So I'll take the things, Teddy, and
be thankful for EN-. But-Teddy,
please-please-sto what you're do
ing. It's wicked, and it'll put you in
the pen yet. Be a good boy. Teddy,
and let go of the old pals. I'd go to
the country-if | were you"
when feller's got to live, and no
honest job comes up and says, Here
I am, nab me quickr he's got to hang
onto what he can get. But you're all
right, Hob, my kid, and l hopes you'll
strike better stall than I'm standin'
in. So long, kiddo." And Teddy the
Rat disappeared into the dark base
ment. and Hobbler caught up the
cast-off dirty, ragged clothes the fell
low had thrown to him.
And so 1t was that the next day
Hobbler sat in the shadow of the
great roaring Elevated" and thought
over the problems confronting him.
And as he thought an idea came to
him. He rose and went homewards-
or that is. he went to the dreary