The West Virginian. [volume] (Fairmont, W. Va.) 1914-1974, 1922-04-15
elo1l A6NNurcAlNeoN

"....sabre said the letter was
the most frightfully pathetic docu-
ment he could ever have imagined.
smudged, he said. and stained and
badly expressed as II the writer
this Efhe Btight-was crying and
incoherent with distress when she
wrote it. And said she'd got into
terrible. trouble. She's got a little
baby. Sabre said IL was awful to
him the way she kept on in every
sentence calling It "a little baby
never a child, or Just a baby, but
always "a little baby my little
baby He said 1t was awful. She
said 1t was born in December
you remember old man. 1t was the
previous March she's got the sack
from them-and that she's been
living in lodgings with 1t, and that
now she was well enough to move,
and had come TO the absolute end
OF her money, she was being
turned out and was at her wits
end with despair and nearly out OF
her mind to know what TO do and
all that kind OF thing. She said
her father wouldn't have anything
10 do with her, and no one would
have anything TO do with her-so
long as she kept her little baby.
That was her plight: nc one would
have anything to do with her
while she had the baby. Her
father was willing TO take her
home. and some kind people had
offered to take her into service,
but only, all Of them, II she would
give up the baby and put 1t out 10
nurse somewhere: and she said,
she underlined 1t about fourteen
times, Sabre said, and cried over
II SO you could hardly read 1t, she
said: And, oh, Mr.. Sabre, 1 can't,
] can't, I simply cannot give up my
little babyS.,.He's mine she
said. He looks at me. and knows
me, and stretches out his tiny
little hands to me. and l can't
give him up. l can't let my little
baby go! Whatever I've done, I'm
his mother and he's my little baby
and l can't let him co.
Sabre said it was awful. lean
believe 1t was. I'd seen the girl,
and I'd seen her STOPPING over her
baby and l can we'll believe awful
was the word for 1t. Poor soul.
And then she sald-I can re-
member this bit-then she said,
And SO. in my terrible distress,
dear Mrs. Sabre, l am throwing
myself on your mercy, and beg
cling you, imploring you, for the
love OF God to take in me and my
little baby and let me work for
you and do anything for you and
bless you and ask Gods blessing
forever upon you and teach my
little baby to pray for you as
something or other, l forget. And
then she said a lot Of hysterlcal
things about working her fingers
TO tho bone for Mrs. Sabre, and
knowing she was a wicked girl
and not ft TO be spoken to by
anyone, and was willing to sleep
in q shed IN the garden and never
to open her mouth, and all that
sort OF thing: and all the way
through my little baby my little
baby Also she said and Sabre
told me this bit deliberately, also
she said that she didn't want to
pretend she was more sInned
against than SHINING, but that II
Mrs. Sabre knew the truth she
might judge less harshly and be
! more willing to help her. Yes,
Sabre told me that.....
"All right. Well, there was the
appeal, there was this piteous ap.
peal, as Sabre said, and there was
Sabre profoundly touched by It,
and there was his wife bridling
over tone up against her hus-
band who'd always stuck ulI for
the girl, d'you see, and about two
million up in Justification OF her
own opinion Of her. There they
were; and then Sabre said, well,
what are you going to do about
it?"
you can imagine his wife's
tone. DO about It! Do about
1t! What on earth do you think
I'm going to do about it?'
She was furious. Absolutely
white and ~speechtess with fury;
but not speechless long, Sabre
said. and ! dare bet she wasn't.
Sabre said she worked herself up
In the most awful way and used
language about the girl that cut
him like a knife-language like
speaking Of the baby as that
brat 1t made him vince. II
would-the sort Of chap he is. And
he said that the more she rallied,
the more frightfully he realized
the girls position. up against that
sort Of thing everywhere she
turned.
HE described all that to me
and then, SO to speak, he stated
his case. Wei, what l say to you,
Hapgood, Is just precisely what
SAID 10 my wife. l felt that the
girl had a claim on us. In the
first place, she's turned to us in
her abject misery for help and
that alone established a claim,
even II 1t had como from an utter
stranger. It established a claim
because here was a human crea.
ture absolutely down and out
come to US, picking US Iout from
everybody, for succor. Damn It,
you've got to respond, You're
picked out. You! One human
creature by another human crea-
ture. Breathing the same air.
Sharing the same mortality. Res.
ponsible to the same God. You've
got to! You can't, help yourself,
"' Well. Hapgood,' he went on,
that's one claim the girl had on
us. but she had anothar a nor