Year: 1876

"YE PAY TITHE OF MINT"


please, sir, if it is only a cent"


# was a plaintive, childish voice that
uttered these words. The person address
sed, hurley yet luxuriously dressed man,
checked his rapid pace, and turning to
look for the speaker, beheld little girl,
poorly clad, who stood under the street
lamp, with thin wan face, and unnatur-
ally large eyes, telling one Of those tales of
orphand and beggared childhood, and a
prey Of starvation and fever, such as make
modern cities GomOrrahs


The night was shutting in, with driZ-
zling rain, that froze as it fell. The long
street usually so crowded at this hour, was
now almost deserted. Most Of the retail
stores were already closed, as if to keep
open were useless on such an evening, and
the clerks here and there, were putting up
the shutters Of the others.


Something in the tone of the suppliant' .
voice struck him as strangely familiar, and
checked the footsteps of the man. The
child Immediately sprang forward, with
one hand drawing a summer shawl around
her thinly clad figure, while she eagerly
extended the other and looked imploringly
up.


''Oh! sir, she said, ''I've had nothing
70 eat since morning. II 20 horne with
out anything, I'll be whipped and not
get any supper either Please sir, please "


But the momentary curiosity, or pity,
or other motive, whatever it was, that had
induced the man to stop, had now left
him he rudely pushed back the child, as
If her rags made her an outcast to society,
saying angerily -


Get away with your lies, you whining
little hypocrlte. Go to the guardians of
the poor they'll take care Of you; they're
paid for it. ]"


But with strange pertinacity, the child
followed him. She had literally eaten
nothing as she had said, that day, and was
desperate with hunger and cold.


please, sir, don't know where TO find
the people you tell Inc of but give me
something this once only this once"


Her teeth chartered and her voice shook
with cold any man with ordinary feeling
would have had pity; but Mr. Morrison
held certain principles, on which he prided
himself, respecting poverty. Nobody, he
said, starved in a free country like this
unless by their own fault. He had began
life poor boy himself and knew all about
it. g Besides he didn't believe, he would
continue, " in this modern cant about the
poor having right to be supported Who
ever couldn't work ought to want. The
case of children vas no exception, for even
if they starved, it was only the SIN of the
father being visited on the defendants,
since people to support offspring committed
q crime in marrying, At the worst
beggars had no claim on him, for the state
undertook to support the poor, and taxed
him aid other property holders for the
purpose; and if he gave aims in the street,
he only paid twice over, besides encouI az.
ing vagrancy All ! he paid ''tithe oi
mint, anise and commin but omitted the
wesghtier matters Of the law, judgment
mercy and faith" He tore himself rudely
from the child's grssp, saying, with cruel
inhexibllity


"Let go, let go, don't stop me know
all about your tricks" And as he hurried
away, he muttered to himself, 'the police
oughtn't to let man be annoyed in this
manner besides what a life they are al
lowing that child to grow up to-"


The girl retreated to her old position,
letting her hands fall listlessly BY her zide,
so that the wind blew apart her shawl and
revealed how scantily she was dressed. A
thin torn frock, clInging close to her figure
showed that her underclothes were alto
gether too few and her feet were stuck
into shoes, that after being often patched,
still capped to the cold and wet,


For not always had this patient suffering
child been such as she was now. She re-
membered when, far back, she had a com
Portable home, and q mother who fondled
her when lullabies sang her to sloep, and
soothing words reassured her if she woke
frightened from a dream. Not that life
had ever been as joyous TO her as other
children. That loved mother was always
sad, and often in tears, and so a shadow
had fallen on the daughter in her very in
fancy, Her young mind could not under
stand it even yet, but, as she never knew a
father, Ike other children did, she thought
now vaguely that her mother must have
been q widow. While that dear parent
lived she had neversknown a want. They
had not enjoyed splendor but they had
possessed comfort, and their mutual af-
fection filed up even deficiencies But at
last the mother died.


Then she recollected q sad, sad day, .
day abe shOsild never forget if she lived to
be as old a the Withered crone that some
times whipped her 4; when she ssw her
mother I'D and stiff In q coffin; and when
strange man carried the ugly thing away,
with her mother in it and the crone shook
her, and beat her at last, because she went
into sach passion Of tears at the sight


After this al was blank comparatively.
Shersmemneredn nothing after this but cold,
and hunger, and ill-usage. Nothing but
being driven out to beg, and punished If
she was uusuccessful. Nothing but sleep
ing in one corner Of damp Cellar, where
she was woke often with rata running over
her, but where a. oftsn she could mot sleep
ut all for cold. How long shs had lived
this life, or what lie united her with the
outcasts who kept her, shs was ignorant.