River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1915-10-21

been angelically beautiful if he had
been washed and his native blood
pumped from him, threw mud at Rev.
Smith Boyd, out of mere artistic de-
sire to reduce him to harmony with
his surroundings. A mounting old
woman, with hands clawed like a par
rot's, begged him for aims, and he was
ashamed of himself that he gave it
to her with such shrinking. The Mas
ter could not have been like this. A
burly "panhandler" stopped him with
an artificial whine. A cripple, display
ing his ugly deformity for the benefit
and example Of the unborn, took from
him a dole and a vince of repulsion.
1.-THE poor We have always with vel"
For ages that had been the excuse
for such offenses as Vedder court.
They were here, they must be cared
for within their means, and no amount
of pauperizing charity could remove
them from the scheme of things. In
so far, Market Square church felt JUS
tilted in it's landlordship, that it
nursed squalor and bred more Yet
somehow, the rector of that solidly
respectable institution was not quite
satisfied, and he had added a new ex-
pense to the profit and loss account
in the ledger of this particular house
Of God. He had hired a crew of forty
muscular men, with horses and carts,
and had caused them to be deputized
as sanitary police. and had given them
authority to enter and clean; which
may have accounted for the especially
germ-laden feel of the atmosphere this
morning. Down in the next block,
where the squad was Systematically at
work, there were the sounds of count
less individual battles, and loud
mOuthings Of the fundamental prin-
ciples of anarchy. A government which
would force soap and deodoriZers and
germicides on presumably free and in
dependent citizens, was a government
Of tyranny; and it had been particu-
lar wisdom, on the part of the rough
hewn faced man who had hired this
crew, to select none but accomplished
brick dodgers. In the ten carts which
lined the curb on both sides there
were piled such conglomerate mass
of nondescript fragments of everything
undesirable that the rector felt a trace
better, as If he had erased one mark
at least of the long black score against
himself. Somehow, recently, he had
acquired an urgent impulse to clean
Vedder court!
He turned in at one of the largest
and most uninviting of the rickety
stairways. He skipped, with a prac-
ticed tread, the broken third step, and
made a mental note to once more take
up, with the property committee, the
battle of minor repairs. He stopped
at the third landing, and knocked at a
dark door, whereupOn petulant voice
told him to come in. The petulant
voice came from a woman who sat in
a broken rockered chair, with one leg
held stif1y in front of her. She was
heavy with the fat which rolls and
bulges, and an empty beer pail, on
which the froth had dried, sat by her
side. On the rickety bed lay a man
propped on one elbow, who had been
unshaven for days, SO that his sandy
beard made sort of layer on his
square face. The man sat up at once.
He was trifle understood, but broad
shouldered and short-necked, and had
enormous red hands.
How are you today, Mrs. Rogers?"
asked the rector, sitting on backless
and bottomless chair, with his hat on
his knees, and holding himself small,
with an unconscious instinct to not let
anything touch him.
"No better" replied the woman,
making her voice weak. "I'll never
know well day again. The good Lord
has seen fit to af1ict me. amt say
ing anything, but it amt fair
Rev. Smith Boyd could not resist a
slight contraction OF his brows. Mrs.
Rogers invariably introduced the Lord
into every conversation with the rec
tor, and it was his duty to Wrestle
with her soul, if she insisted. He was
not averse to imparting religious in
struction, but, being a practical man,
he could not enjoy wasting his breath.
There are many things we cannot
understand" he granted. What does
the doctor say about your condition"
Gle don't offer no hope" returned
the woman, with qualification. This
knee joint will be stiff till the end OF
my days. If had anything to blame
myself with it would be different, but
I amt. / say my prayers every night,
but if I'm too sick, I do it in the
morning"
Can that stuff" growled the man
On the bed. "You been prayin' once
q day ever since I got you, and moth
ms ever happened"
1--WE brought you a job" returned
Rev. Smith Boyd promptly. Il have
still ten places to fill on the sanitary
squad which is cleaning up Vedder
court
The man on the bed sat perfectly
still.
81 can't do It," he regretted. 81