The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1913-12-24
Married Life
the Third Year
BY MABEL HERBERT URNER.

The old night Waterman had been
discharged discharged because of
complaint made by Helen.
Some letters that had been given to
him to mail had been found on the
desk in the office several days after
ward. Evidently he had laid them
there and then forgotten to mail them.
AS one of the letters was to Warren,
Helen had been most indignant.
There was no mail chute in their ap-
artment, and since she often wrote to
Warren late at night, she was denend-
ent upon the Waterman, who after II
ran the elevator, to take them out 20
che letterb0x on the corner.
Fearing q repetition of the same
oare.esaness, Helen had complained
to the superintendent She had only
wanted the Waterman reproved and
cautioned against laying down letters
given him To- he mailed. But to her
distress she found he had been dis
charged.
He was a bent, wizened little man
Of over sixty. Helen had always felt
sorry for him. There was something
hauntinaly pathetic in the faded blue
eyes, the pinched face and the patient
droop of the rounded shoulders. She
had heard that his wife was in the
hospital ard had given him, magazines
now and then to take to her.
When she learned of his discharge
Helen at once went to the superintend-
ent, sayine, she would never have made
the complaint had she known it would
have caused his dismissal, and asking
that he be taken back.
HE is EvASiVE.
The superintendent was polite but
evasive Plainly he did not want the
man back. and finally gave as an ex-
cuse that he didn't know his address
Helen promptly called up the Char
ity Hospital, where the wife was Ill,
and secured the address. And the SUI
perintendent promised rather reluc-
family to send for him next day
But several days passed and still
the old Waterman was not on duty.
Again Helen went to the superintend-
emit He said he had sent for the man
and that it wasn't his fault if he didn't
"show up"
Intuitively Helen felt that he had
not been sent for, that the superinten-
dent was only smoothing things over
in this way, thinking in day or so
she would forget about it and let the
matter drop. But the pathetic figure Of
the old man haunted her so that she
could not forget.
The next afternoon, leaving Winifred
in Delia's care, she started out for the
address the hospital had given her.
She would find out if the old man was
there and if he had been sent for, or
if he now had work somewhere else.
The address was in a crowded tene-
ment district on the East Side. After
Helen left the car there were three
long blocks to walk. 1t was piercing
cti
banked up in solid masses on each side
Of the street, and trodden into hard
black coating on the sidewalks.
In spite of the cold, thinly clad. I'M
kempt children played on the streets
and around the dOOrways. Women
with shawls over their heads, and
men with their hands in their pockets
shuffled by.
Helen had never been in this dis
trict before. and she shrank shudder-
ingly from the squalor, the filth, the
Uttered stoops and overflowing gar
ta2e cans.
WHERE POVERTY REIGNs.
DingY little grocery stores and
crowded, unclean delicatessens were
everywhere Helen hurried on, avert
ING her eyes from the dangling chick
ems and purplish tainted looking meat
in the windows of the basement butch
er shops How could they eat the food
from such places?
At last she reached the number, and
paused hesitatingly at the dark, mar
row hallway. Some children ran out
gazing at her curiously. An old man
shuffled downstairs. For a moment
Helen thought it was the one she was
looking for-but it was not
As she rassed she caught the odor
of stale beer and he carried an empty
bucket. But her revulsion was mixed
with pity. After all. they could hardly
be blamed for seeking solace in the
corner grog shop.
Helen knocked hesitatingly on the
first door. 1t was opened by an amaZ-
ingly dirty child, who promptly put
his finger in his mouth and kept It
there, while he stared up with eyes
big with wonder. Then a woman ap-
peared. stout. gOod-natured looking
woman in a soiled blue cotton gown.
Can you tell me if John Mcclure
lives in this house," asked Helen.
John Mcclure? Oh, yes, ma am
the fourth floor, back" Then lowering
her voice, rs you'se the lady from the
hospital-is his wife dead?"
'Oh. no, no. stammered Helen-"Is
she so i'll as that"
Il don't know, ma'am-they said
she's dyin'."
Dying! Helen hurried up the steep
narrow stairs. And she was the cause
of this old mans dismissal! And his
wife dying in a charity hospital
On the fourth floor she paused
breathless, then knocked at the door
in the back. 1t was opened by John
Mcclure himself, little more bent