The sun., 1919-04-06
IT WAS NOTHING, i.
YET AGREATDEALI
A Little Ragged Girl and q
Little Ragged Doll Provide
o Story. ~
BUT JUDGE FOR YOURSELF
Sunshine and Sorrow OF Life
Epitomised in This Five
Minute Incident.

AZ a matter or TACT there isn't any
real reason why this story should be
written at all. Any of those stern, spec
tacled professors OF Journalism would
say scornfuliy that II was a waste OF
good paper to print II. because there
isn't the slightest bit of news In it
there isn't anything in II, in fact, except
little girl and bundle Of rags that
she called a doll. motor truck and
big policeman 1t never even occurred
to the reporter who saw 1t to get the
name of the little girl, or the name OF
the policeman. or to do anything at all
about 1t that he should have done.
Tho little girl was about four years
old. or I'VE. or may be six, and she was
a terribly dirty piece Of humanity. Her
face was ,soiled and dusty, with big
spiotchesof dirt On her checks. and right
on the tip Of her ugly little nose was all
the CRIME that area could hold. She
came out OF the, doorway Of one Of the
tenements In Second avenue. near
Twelfth. street carrying IN her arms .
rag doll that wore 4 dress OF the bright
est red ifnafipabl -.-and clean. too, with
the buttons that passed for the dolfs
eyes scrubbsd Until they shons. The
little girl stood for . minute IN the door
way, with her dirty little nee spread
in q grin Of Joy az the sunshine and at
inc Woriu IN 5kppetNA, az" 'e''0NN S
stepped onto the sidewalk.
It was very apparent that this wasn't
any ordinary walk tho girl was going
to take. What she was going to do was
take the doll window shopping, and u
she had been a pretty little girl, all
dressed up in q spotlessly white starched
dress, she probably would have attracted
a lot Of attention. but she was 80 ugly
and SO dirty. thai nobody even looked
at her But she didn't mind that In the
least.
She started slowly up Second avenue
looking eagerly into every shop window,
and every time she saw something more
than usually interesting she stopped and
gravely asked the doll that lay in the
crook of her elbow what she thought OF
II. And the doll would reply Just as
gravely that she thought whatever II
was was pretty nice, and then maybe
the doll would see something that she
liked very much and Of course she would
tell the little girl about 1t, and then
grin would spread on the girls face
and they'd move on to the next window.
And any little girl In the world will tell
you that the doll understood everything
the girl said and that the dolls opinions
were perfectly understa ndable to the
little girl.
The pair of them kept up their COM
msnt and inspection of things In the
show windows until they reached Four
teenth street So she stood on the cor
ner and grinned at the big cop who resu-
lated traffic, and the big cop grinned
back and motioned for her to hurry
across the street. She started to run
and half way across the street the doll
slipped from her arms and dropped to
the pavement. The little girl started to
pick It up, but at that moment big
motor truck came bearing down upon
her and she had to dodge back, and
quickly, to keep from getting hurt.
But she didn't get the doll and the
motor truck ran over it
She just stood there looking at the
doll and the policeman picked Il up and
handed X to her There wasn't very
much left of It. One OF tho arms was
gone and a leg was missing and the
button eyes had been torn out Of the
head and the head itself was pretty
we'll mashed. She looked at II for a
long time after the cop had put It into
her arms.
And then she suddenly sat down on
the curbing and began to cry, which
made her face dirtier than ever
Tho policeman felt embarrassed and
was angry at himself because OF Il. He
thought Of calling an ambulance. but OF
course that wouldn't do any good. He
wanted to arrest somebody. but nobody
had done anything TO be arrested for.
He didn't know what to do so he just
stood there and watched the little girl
cry and run her hands soothingly over
what was left OF the doll, and
That's all there is to the story.