Worcester Democrat and the ledger-enterprise. (Pocomoke City, Md.) 1921-1953, 1935-01-04
CHAPTER 2

If only her father would come! She
could give. him the dollar the police
man had given her. The family could
get a meal with that dollar. And
they would stop worrying if they
knew she hadn't been run over or any
thing.
After that, nobody paid any atten-
ton to her for long, long time, and
then, things began to happen all at
once.
First her father came, and caught
her hands between the bars and cried
over her. Behind him strolled the
man who had promised to do some
thing about it. And behind him lot
of men with funny looking lamps
that made a terribly bright light that
hurt her eyes. And half dozen men
with cameras.
ooh, please don't put my picture
in the paper!" she begged, when she
understood what they were about.
"I'd lose my job! Oh, pleased"
"No, you won't lose your job, Sis
ter" said the reporter with the cigaret
still dangling from the corner of his
mouth and his hat pushed back far
Their than ever. "Thisll be the best
thing that ever happened to you"
ooh, please" she walled, covering
her face with her trembling hands.
"Look here, sister," said the report
er, who hadn't found such human in
terest story in many long day.
what you want is to have those two
Fifth Avenue swells come down here
and tell the police that they did buy
that coat for you, don't you? That's
the only way you can prove your story.
WE'LL. if they read the papers, they'll
be here, won't they? Any man who
would buy a fur coat for a girl be-
cause she was staring into fur store
window and crying, wouldn't let her
go to Jail on a mistaken accusation
of stealing it, would he."
"But I'd lose my job because I'd been
arrested" she protested. ooh, please
dontw.
eff you lose your job, I'll get you
another one," he promised. "Put
your funny little face there between
the bars, and hold unto the bars with
both hands. There. Like that. All
right fellows. Shoot"
A boom of flashlights, the stencil
of flashlight powder. Over and over.
They posed her father with her, too,
outside the bars. And the newspaper
man added another dollar to the one
she handed her father to buy the
family's Christmas dinner. And then
they all went away and left her to a
horrible nightmare filled night.
She couldn't sleep. How could she !?
Her father had told her that the land
lord had been there, and that their
pitifully small possessions would be
set out on the sidewalk at o'clock
in the morning if the long overdue
rent was not Forthcoming.
Christmas Day or no Christmas
Day, out they went, if they didn't pay
up.
And they hadn't any place on earth
to go.
All that long night new worries pill
ed up on the worries she had been
accustomed to. That newspaper re-
porter had told her she wouldn't lose
her job, but how could he know? And
even if she didn't lose it, how long
would they keep her here in jail Ev-
cry day that they held her here meant
that days pay unearned. And when
she worked every day, she couldn't
earn enough money to feed the fam
lily, much less pay anything on the
rent. And the family would be evict-
ed tomorrow!
Helpless, she lay there on the hard
bunk and beat her hands together in
a frenzy of hopeless despair. Oh
where was God that he let so many
awful things happen to decent peo-
pie who only asked to be permit
ted to earn a skinny living.
Why didn't some of the good peo-
pie in the world, like that grand man
who had given her the fur coat and