Grand Forks herald. [volume] (Grand Forks, N.D.) 1916-1955, 1920-10-21
I.

It was an alert voice that called
from a huddled group Of urchins IN
the forefront of the crowd, but the
child flashed past without needing,
straight up the stone steps where
stood a beautiful baby smiling on the
crowd. With his bundle of papers held
high. n the late morning sunlight
Milky flung himself toward the little
one. The sharp crack of a revolver
from the opposite curbstone was sim
ultaneous with their fall. Then all
was confusion.
1t was a great stone house on Madi-
20 avenue where the crowd had
gathered. An automobile stood be-
fore the door, having but just come
quietly up, and. the baby girl three
years old, in white velvet, and
ermines, with her dark curis framed
by an erndne-trimmed hood, and a
bunch of silk rosebuds poised coquet-
ttshly over the brow vying with the
soft roses of her cheeks came out the
door with her nurse for her afternoon
ride. Just an instant the nurse
stepped back to the hall for the wrap
she had dropped, leaving the baby
under the straight dark brows, as she
looked gleefully out on the world. It
was just at that instant, as if by
magic, that the crowd assembled.
Perhaps it would be better to say
that it vas just at that minute that
the crowd focused itself upon the par
ttcular house where the baby daugh-
ter of the president Of a great de-
faulting bank lived. More or less all
the morning, men had, been gather
ing. passing the house, looking up
with troubled or threatening faces to-
ward the richly laced windows. shak-
ing menacing heads, muttering i'm
precautions. but there had been no dis
turbance, and no concerted crowda un-
til the instant the baby appeared.
The police had been more or less
vigilant all the morning but had seen
nothing to disturb them. The newt.
able small boy had also beer in evil
dence, with his natural instinct for
excitement. Milky with his papers
often found himself in that quarter
of a bright morning, and the starry
eyes and dark curls of the little child
were a vision for which he often
searched the great windows as he
passed this particular house; but the
man with the evil face on the other
side Of the street, resting a shaking
hand against the lamp post, and
sighting the baby with a vindictive
eye, had never been seen there be-
fore. It was Milky who noticed him
first; Milky, who circling around him
~innocently had heard his impreca-
tions against the rich, who caught the
peared, and saw the ugly look on the
mans face. With instant alarm he
had gone to the other side of the
street, his eye upon the offender, and
had been the first to see the covert
motion, the flash Of the hidden
weapon and to fear the worst.
But a second behind him his street
companions saw his danger and cried
out, too late. Milky had flung him
self in front of the beautiful baby,
covering her with his great bundle Of
papers, and his own ragged. neglected
little body; and receiving the bullet
intended for her, went down with her
as she fell.
Instantly all was confusion.
A child's cry-a won,an's scream
roar of the crowd who were like a
pack of wild animals that had tasted
blood. Stone few, flung by men
whose wrongs had smothered in their
breasts and bred a fury of hate and
murder. Women were trampled up
Two of the great plate glass win
dows crashed as the flying missiles
entered the magnificent home, re-
CARELESS of costly lace and velvet
hangings.
The chauffeur attempted to run his
car. around the corner but was held
up at once, and discreetly took him
self out of the way, leaving the car
in the hands Of the mob who swarm
ed into it and ver it. ruthlessly dis
figuring it in their wrath. There was
the loud report of exploding tires, the
ripping of costly leather cushions, the
grooming of fine machinery put to
torture as the fury of the mob took
vengeance on the car to show what
they would like to do to it's owner.
Gone into bankruptcy! He! With a
great electric a like that, and serv-
ants to serve him! With his baby at
tired in the trappings of a queen and
his house swathed in lace that had
taken the eyesight from many a poor
lace-maker! He! Gone into bank