The Washington times., 1913-01-05
NEWSbOYS RALLY
TO BUY FOOTWEAR
FOR BLIND WOMAN
Chip In" Cent Apiece to
Help Out Rose" Who Is
In Need of Shoes.
Rose needs some shoes.

Rose needs some shoes.
The soles of Roses feet are on the
ground, which is pretty uncomfortable
on days when the pavements are wet
and cold. Roses shoes-what there is
left of them, are soaked through and
through on such days, and the damp
ness and cold gets into her poor old
bones and make her ache all over.
why don't she get some new shoes,
or stay at home in bad weather. is
the question that some might ask.
There's a reason.
It isn't that Rose hasn't home, for
she has. Out in q dreary section OF
the city Rose lives in two tiny rooms,
for which she pays the munificient sum
of g a month.
Rose sells papers for a living. You can
see her almost any day up in H street,
not far from Fourteenth. She sells
The Times, and on Thursdays she sells
the Saturday Evening Post, and when
she is lucky. she makes sometimes as
much as s1.5o a week. though 1t Is more
often a solitary dollar.
In all kinds of weather you can see
old Rose, who says she is fifty-nine
years old. She reckons her age from
the time the war broke out.
Vow Rose is too big TO believe In
Santa Claus, and there are other rea-
sons, too, why she doubts the exist
ence of that kind old saint. But there
are other people who do, and one OF
them Is Mary. who also sells papers.
Mary Ha san Idea.
This other woman is poor, extremely
poor. She lost everything she pos
sessed in the San Francisco earthquake,
and since then has been making her
living by selling papers in the various
cities between California and Wash
ington.
Though she is still poor; though she
Is compelled to keep her business 60
ing in all sorts of weather; though the
returns from her investment are small,
Mary Bailey still has that happy,
buoyant, gladdening smile that cheers
everybody who passes her place of busi-
mesa, Fifteenth and @ streets.
Mary Bailey wanted to do something
for Rose, but she hadn't enough money
to buy the shoes that Mary needs SO
badly. She had an idea, though, an
idea that was prompted by her own
sympathy for the poor old blind news
paper woman who had no shoes. She
had heard of the St Nicholas Girl of
The Washington Times, who is only a
st. Nicholas Girl about three weeks in
the year. and at other times only an
ordinary newspaper person. So between
editions, when she wasn't so busy,
Mary Bailey brought this other news
paper seller the blind one, down to the
Munsey building and asked to see the
St Nicholas Girl. But that she thought
that 1t would be so much sweeter and
would mean so much more to Rose and
the boys (meaning the little news mer-
chants of the downtown streets) II the
pennies with which to buy the shoes
came from them
Newsboys to Rescue.
Mary had already collected cents
from the newsboys near Roses place of
business, and these cents meant as
much to the five little ragged chaps who
gave them, as 500 might from the men
and women who could afford to give
them. When the source and purpose of
these five pennies had been explained. it
was not long before 1i3 more had been
added to the cents that Mary had col
lected. and every one of these 143 PEN
mics had been cheerfully given by the
little newsboys who collect In The Times
alleyway, back of E street, each day.
to obtain their bundle of merchandise.
It's only a little study in optimism;
only a little straw blown across the
pathway of a busy writer, which goes
TO show that there is no movement or
kindness or philanthropy which does not
places. The spirit of giving found its
way up a back aIleyway of busy city,
and into the hearts and minds of these
little newsies, some of whom, perhaps,
had been unable to make any gift for
the Christmas season other than this.