The Washington herald., 1915-07-04
IN THE BIG TOWN
The Old Printer-7he Man Who Stole.

I grave. They told me that he was little
| better than a skeleton, with sores and
| wounds and bruises to prove how he
had been kicked about, and that in his
Wife, children, friends-no one will ever
even look upon that mound which hides
! his mortal remains. Poor old print, May
all his sins have been forgiven.
| [ was standing on the corner. watching
the purchases made by tenement-house
| people from a Creen-grocer, when l no
ticed ragged and hungrylooking man
grocer had stepped inside to make
| change. this man grabbed a couple of
carrots and a head of cabbage off the
stand and walked up Cherry street. No
he had gone about a square. and when l
had come up he suddenly stopped. took
the things from under his coat and said:
Yes. l took them. and you can lock
me up if You want to-!
Where do you live?"
Right here-upstairs."
Have you got a family"
Yes. come up and see.'
Four flights up and two back rooms
under the roof You find the poverty of
New York either below the surface in
the basement or high up under the roofs.
! In either case it signifies rags, hunger
and despair. Only two small rooms. but
they We're large enough: There was
bed on the floor, an old stove. an arm
full of odds and ends. Had the second
hand man climbed up there to fix
money valuation he would not have
made it over a dollar. even though he
had felt pity for the people who called
that place home"
On the bed lay a woman-the mans
wife-doubled UP with rheumatism. She
could crawl about but her working days
were over. Her age was about forty. but
provocation and anxiety had turned her
hair and pinched and drawn her face I'M
til one would have guessed her years at
over sixty. AS We entered the room the
husband sat down on a box and mo-
woman sat up and stared in a dazed and
anxious way, and finally whispered to
her husband:
Peter. what is it,"
Il stole Them he replied, holding up
the vegetables.
And you-you will he arrested"
What of it," he dosgedly answered
BY and by 1 knew their story. 1t is
the same story hundreds of others have
told-that that hundreds of others could
tell. Sickness, out of work, despair
tn" pawnShop and finally conviction
that Christianity was a mockery and the
story-as he sat there with the vegeta-
bles he had stolen to appease their
hunger. and she held up her hands in
an appealing way, | thought of the good
men and women who sometimes come
down into these streets to distribute
tracts and eXhort hungry and penniless
husbands, wives and children to be good
and trust in Providence. Through a long
year of wretchednsss and misfortune not
a hand had been lifted to help them
not even a penny contributed. They
could hear the church bells from their
windows. but the churches We're looking
after the heathens in Africa while they
starved. One day a man climbed UP the
stairs and told them that there was a
God and he left them bundle of tracts:
but who can blame them if they doubted
him? At intervals the notes of Home, |
Sweet Home" floated up to them from
a hand-organ on the sidewalk below !
rooms and wondered If the song was
sarcasm.
And on this Saturday there was not
a penny to purchase with. The husband
hands wanted had been the reply as he |
travelled up and down and across He |
had gone out to beg, but men had re-
huffed him. Then he had turned thief |
hunger over Sunday and on Monday he |
might find work. I could read thier |
thoughts as they eyed me. His thoughts |
We're:
1T has come at last Well and good |
They will at least feed me in prison and |
! might as well die there as anywhere )
AS an honest man the world let me
st sta, as a convicted thief the world
And hers were: Who made the law
which says that a husband who has
sought work in vain shall not stretch
out his hand and take that which will
stifle hunger for few hours longer?
II there is God. He has deserted us
II there is a hereafter 1t is for the rich.
Let him take Peter to prison and leave
me to die here"
The lamp had but little oil in II. and
the flame was turned down to make il
as long as possible. The room was
IN semi-darknes. and yet could see the
wonderment and anxiety in their ewes as
lneN continued to p,, !
by We had a bit of a talk Peter and /
also went marketing. When l left them
the whole world had changed to them
II is just what you would have done
only ones duty as he goes through life
but as you felt your way down the ste.n
and poorly lighted stairs. followed by
their blessings, you would have won
1ered how the men with millions can
sciences 'oH-