The daily Alaskan., 1913-11-26
A Little Story Of a Big Town By M. QUAD Copyright, 1918, by American Lit
 erary Press,

chased a bit here and there to stock the family cupboard for Sunday. On. Canal, on Grand, along the Bowery, in Chatham square, men and women are laughing in good nature as they elbow each other and throng the stores to purchase ornaments and luXuries. Here men and women are sullen and silent, many of them wondering where the barest necessaries are to come from.
 If you won't help me we shall have to go hungry tomorrow"
 It was a little old woman who had approached so softly that I did not hear her.
 ''Where do you Ilve?" I asked. -
 She pointed to a four story tenement almost opposite,
 Any family?"
 "A sick husband and four children sir"
 "yery well; lead on, and will fol- low"
 She kept looking back, and there was a puzzled expression on her face.
 This way-thats a child-keep to the rall-don't fear the dOg-we're al- most up"
 And as we reached the upper hall we turned to the right, passed down a blind hall running the other way, and l presently she pushed open a door, and we entered room lighted by a smol- ing lamp.
 John. children, it's a stranger come to see us" said the woman as I stood and looked about
 Here were two small rooms, three chairs. a cupboard. an old table; a wretched bedstead and more wretched bedding. on which lay a man. Across the room was a mattress, on which the children were lying as I entered. in the other room I saw a stove, wash | tub and a bucket of coal.
 "Sit down. sir" said the woman as she placed a chair.
 The husband looked to be fifty years old He had the bright eyes and the hollow cheeks of q cOnsumptive.
 Are you a doctor" he asked as sat down.
 "No."
 "The rent is overdue, but we haven't even bread to eat" he said. s-'
 "I am not your landlord nor his agent simply came up to see. you to see If you were sick, to see what you needed"
 "John, you know how 1t is with us. I asked him on the street for money, and he's come up tO-tO"-
 "To see if you were really in need of help" said as she paused. Have you had any supper|
 Just a crust for him, sir, but nOth- ing for the rest, and but for you the children would be crying with hun ger."-
 "yery we'll TIL mind the house while you go out Get bread, butter, tea, milk, sugar, potatoes and meat"
 'You-you don't mean it?' she gasped.
 The man rose up on his eIbOW to get better look at me, and I saw some thing like alarm in his face. To quiet him l said:
 "The case is clear enough. You used to get along all right. but sickness came; you could no longer work you have reached your last penny. Why shouldn't l help you .bit?" .- .F
 Its sadly enough we need it. God knows, but-hut'- h .. .z ss But you can't make. out why l came up here?" .s ~-s No, sir" --~
 Well, don't worry about 1t. Queer things are always happening t. all Of us. How long have you been iIl?" "Over a year, sir" And how have you lived?" By using the few dollars had put by and by selling whatever we cOuld spare until we are as you see us. l once earned nay $S a day, sir, and no poor mans family was better cared for"
 And today you are penniless and hungry" ,- Aye. sir, and as I laid here I'd have cut my throat If I. had T knife. - By and by, as we talked, the mother and children returned. heard the latter shouting, even on the lower stairs. Each had load, and the wife returned after lamp, a bottle of. wine and some other things. Poor soul! She was laughing and crying by turns, and to have seen those forlorn chil- dren sit down on the floor and eat the dry bread as famishing wolves devour their prey was. something to pain your heart.
 Its real meat, John, G.sa3d the wo- man as she came to hIg:- bedside "reaI meat and req. potatoes, and real sugar and tea, and fRere Is a God after allr' @''''+''''. "Yes, there Is a God, Mdry!" he . whispered as he wept, " ~.. And while I sat there the wife cook : ed supper, and the hunger of all was satisfied, and the two smaller children afterward kneIt at the bedside and . repeated the Lords Prayer and were .