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Show IfcSIAH ALLEN'S WIFE Grindem-Downe & Co. 5 il-lhfJosLih Allen J' t ' is Exposition. KT , , HolP 'l a Starving Girl Ett-r fn.m U '11 '' Mjfcctionato letter, saying Ejv terror, nw bugh to sec ' nl "n'' ,lr''1" Khe baby Hd n writ me Ky Chll'l tiniaK" n'' " i C,e d( run ut"n: to ' Jnjnand"1H;-l' n wur. h''"' R.Trs ago that wni - Htaon n'A I Krh t h 'i ' 1,1 h us II'- lr"1 :i sl' ' K V ilif.-f. BiPr anvthlng; sunn-others. sunn-others. H"t thK ami I :Kelf. i :jjBpleadit young man. He'd, v&octor. ii "i i " ad i ited i jKudl-! lKnd ).' Ullir, a :..l 1 1 ' ' 1 ' im" qKil. X, wni) 1 1 i that ' 'iii' i in' - Mini' r Brit 1 1 Ei iid JfBj ;,t ' I illl" S US If jliB right tl : i and Bb n 1 lyBdr SOUld look la'.lghlii" and .. JmUt an H' ,"Bvr tin: 3H5id in i In front mi JMo set- .i ' '!i I 11 fWtyd b:i R would liold th v orld bot-tjBr bot-tjBr houi - htmsi II B It. iwSk agn: jK'd l:i OH j.'!-'t i t sKlllidri i . '. ittjew h- v. .i Strjted t I- fefVfor far i.i. i - I i ' I. 'I tin' BJTUZ ti ll t '. ,i nl II.. v. tbrfler J.i- ow i Ji i u uz kinder pj ' need- 'i ,t ) New Y.. K :( -I I did t"". $ ' ' and . . n . jjj tht-r.' .. 'nl "i .1 .i .1 fcD kxJ ta i ii ii'il w . ..i i "i.in i w ghts i i .. ki .i i & calli . . ., , .1.1 fr. 11. i "! i-j.' id we ijv hi (.'. t ... ..I ' i.i i -i Jjd t! ' t ood tWn I h' incident I....'.; i . v.'-,ft v.'-,ft i some ill Ivln' views ;irni g ivln' il: JSl kt enl rl'. .: il ..I v !.. i td e looV-iii' i. . '. ;;,!. i. .ii , j I bin. ...:. . I M oni.' I.. . I . H.' Im.k. il ;.ltiV il a I-:. I g-3 wuz II It- La. In i I . 'ii .-.' -V Ken .ii ,i W a paper." and I look .1 OOk for I ' in,'" mm 1,.,'Im i tat I oslflii t .. i,i to oiii room with vi- ami Ml ft" I l'.i.l '-on. .' k ! fl -e ora:,i 1 , , , ,,, i for I l.k.-.l l:t .,"k . & -d in- i.j. i. ... i i ...in i,,,i ip iper and . m,.ii. :,u n my p-.i im..- . n in -H ty hand ; I P and til" 1 I., n, ,.) ,,,, (t. " whin J ea1 :f wen . .,i,i ;-sJJP1-m "p jc fcggi ami laid him 'n the I'liiiigo, and sr-z. "He's nothln' but kin and bone." We sprinkled some water In his face and held caniflro under hi? nn-,- and pretty soon he r-ome to and his flnst words wuz. "When; Is Helen?" Hel-en?" And as he looked round and see he v.uz In a Btnwige place he cried out: "Helen is starving, dying'; let me go to her. You gave roe some money, let me hi t some l)ijHd with ii Helen Is dying'" He tried to up, imt fell Sack again, wi.it" a-, a corpse, l lifted his head and gave ldni a glass of milk, and when u little color had come back into his face i -. s ho is Helen?" "My sister," SeZ he. And he cried out again "Oh, lei me k to her! She win die' She will die!" Hut he couldn't walk acrost the room. Kz I, "I'll git :i cah and Co with oil this minut- loslati demurred, but there -.ih a look of truth In the hoy's fao and despair, ton. and duty hunched rue harder than she had for some time, and I wenl We Inquired where they lived and found It wiizn t fur. Joslah helped Dick that's whii he said his name nrus-Mitto le cab and I fullered, and thp drlvi-r ii..k ns "nl nf the hioad. handsome sir. . is down Into ah, Whal B Kiimy. evll-mellln', evll-mellln', dlrtv street. There, before a tali, dark-lookln tenement-house, the car- rl -ii;.- stiipped Hick wuz a 111114 strong-r. and we Climbed the hrok'-n filthy stairway, up ell iir to the top I could hardly Kit a breath When I got there. And what I J., . lnlde the door s. i in. d t" tak- away what lime breath I had lett lt wu h-r- eniotv-lookln' room, lighted h one small window with. Utile cracked paus .,, ,!.- nd there, on a pile of straw with nothln" over her but a ragged old sheet that bitter cold day. lay the form ,,r a beautiful young woman ,-Deatn couldn't make her any whiter, and lick rushed forward and thr-w himself down by 1 r. cryln' -mi: "Helen. Helen' Look ,i m. ' I am Hick' I have brought you hi lp! Don't leave me alone! lok at , Seemln" .a-s If the vice of love had p. i etrated down Into the dark valley and hrought back llf Into her holf-frozen form, she opened her .ye- and tried to p, ;,k 1 poured out a little hot broth I had hrung from the tavern Into a broken cup and lifted her head und made Heidi-Ink It 1 ih. n took off my warm shawl and wrapped It round her. and asked the bov that wuz lookln' In at the door If th.-re wusn't sum- neighborln woman that could come in for a few minutes He darted off, sayih' he would git his mother, and come ba. k follered by a woman wipln' her parhlled hands on her apron She wuz a washerwoman Who had been too hard at work tryln' to drive ih" WOlves from her own door with pounder and washboard to pay much attention at-tention to the pack of wolves thai wuz dead sure of their prey up here. Sin looked dumb foundered when she Bee how deathly Helen looked, and ses I didn't know she wuz so -! k; I'm out to wrk davs; I oim Upjiikiu noine a washln' today on account of the foikses sickness where l went; I'll do anything 1 can to help." Sez I. ' You'll go right back Into oiir room, for ymi II cit. h your .1. ,ih cold comln' from hot suds into this Icy . old. Uut let your boy go for me to l,i: oni" coal -ind klndlln w ood, and whan I gii a Ore you come back agin " So vh- did. The boy got back In a few minutes min-utes and bellied build the rire In the broken old stove, loo poor to sell or that wouldn't been here Everything salable had gone and their clothing and bed-Clothes bed-Clothes to git bread to keep 'em from starvin'. An old sewin' machine stood in the cornel, with an onflnlshed shirt on K. where Helen had fell at her post tryln' to keep h rself and Dick alive, for he'd been loo Mick to --ell papers i sent back a note to Joslah that I wuz goln' to stay there u spell, and when the neighborln' woman, who said her name wuz Mi.-s Murphy, come hack Helen WUS'lOyln' 111 a kind of stupor and looked a iitfle less deathly And the storj that woman told men wuz enough i" m. Il a slab of granite, to say nothln' of a soap stun, and we both cried and wep' before She "t through Helen and Dick wuz children of a poor music teacher, who had struggled with poverty alio Sickness and de,l two years before," and Helen took In sewln' and tried I., cli :i llvln . She wuz a beautiful girl .in, I some one mine t. , with i he tli in she sewed for fell Into what he called love with her. and Helen did love him truly (she said her girl worked to the sun.- place and Knew all about It). Hut when Helen refused his shameful bver- toors, he p.-r-.-' llt'ed her. She did her work well, he d take off sunlbln' for what he called damage, and In every way tried to starve her Into consentln' to his wishes. And eight cents hain't any too much for makln' a shirt, anyway. "Eight cents for mnkin' a -hlrt:" sez 1. "why 1 paid W'ldd.r Brown T.j cents apiece for Jpsiah's shirts and thpught it Chi ai ;M that." ' Eight cents wuz all she Kt from Orlndem-Downe ft Co "For the land s sake'" s z I. "Is that all they're able to pay? It in :l he fchej 're poor as rats or they wouldn't scrimp her down ho." "No," sez the woman "they're worth millions, they're rollln' In wealth." "But," I said. "I'd ruther see the rollln' than hi ai about It' !.! I km W It sl be tin couldn t afford to pay decent juices And she acted kinder huffy about it but got over It and went down stairs, prom-king prom-king to come and set up, I savin' 1 would pay her well for it. For I wuz dretful look wllh Helen Strang'' l:w BDme folks most strangers to you will walk right Into the middle of youi heart, while some others oth-ers seemln' Jest as good has to hang round on the outside and can't git In, ii. "i can. I loved that poor lrl - t . abused creeter, and wuz bound t do by hi i a I'd want our Tlrzah Ann done by if dn w uz in her place And i thought, now thejse folks Helen worked for, probable Industrious poor folks will be thankful to know about her. Miss Murphy said thev didn't live over a quarter, of s mile away, and 'I'll go and see 'em this very nlgM and if they hain't sufferln' for things themselves, which I'm afraid they be, scrjmpin' her down so on the price, i know they'll feel it a priyi- lega to help her, probable they'll come right here tonight and do for her. The I doctor 1 d sent for had come and gone; he said It wuz hard work, cold and hunger hun-ger that ailed her, but with good care She might git well. The warmth and food which I had cent made Hick comfortable, but drowsy, and he fell asleep on ihe Root by the stove and Helen lay white and still, only oponin1 her big eyes now and then but hnvln' lur senses. I see, though she wuz too weak to talk. di. i r girl pr.or Rlrl' I kep sayln" to myself, lor her story banted me and my tears seemed fallln' In a bitter rain on my heart as i thought on't I looked round the low poor frecsuv room, so poor and COld that lOSlah wouldn't let his CO we Slav In It or even his two-year-olds, and thought she might had a rii h home full of every luxury if she would sell herself, but she COUld starve and freeze, but could not be bought; you could n :uH I Ii i I Iii her noble fn .-. And what made II ten times harder WU9S her love for the young ehap. She loved him and COUldn'l help It wlrnmcn are so curious Kn6 with her heart achln' Insldi for the Jove thai mean! only degradation, degra-dation, and her tender body achln' outside out-side with bitter cold and hunger and overwork she was In a tough place Bui she stooi l firm lb i steadfast soul looked 9 out "i" her pinched pale face dauntlcssly, and yet with a look that brought tears to every eye as i looked into 'em. It wuz the look of a dyln hero on a t battlefield: the look of s grieved baby I wantln' lis mother An them big eyea Fj told ih" hull storj of a woman's warm, N pa Blonate nni. r held in check by the Q strong mind of the queenly Her I . i wus so deep a blue ihey looked B black when the long lashes fell acrost I in and you could see she could be 1 1 1 1 S i ;,s o young queen if she had half a 9 , him. f Pro id and poor she'd gone dow n I to Death's very doorstep without inak- 1 AND HE SAID. KIND KK SHORT THEY DID. In' a sign and would have pone In I "pose, if it hadn t been for Dick hap- penln to meet us ut the tavern door Happen! it hain't so; things don't happen, hap-pen, she wuz watched over by a pltyin' Qod. Miss Bfurph: didn't git ready to come up till s o'clock, and then i wus belated tryln to stop the cracks round the winder, win-der, when the snow i-ome slftln' In Her boy got a cub for me. I promlsln' to rome back In the morn In". Helen couldn't speak loud, but h. r big eyes follered nn- as i left with gratitude and blessln' Thinks I. a is shameful lato to go and see folks, and like ns not I'll find ein all abed, but seeln" the) lived so nigh, 1 fell I must tell 'em how Helen wuz Em I well remembered when Huldy Bumpus. my old hired girl, wuz took sick with nnmony. Deacon Ii..1Imii come to our house Inte as a quarter to nine, and JOSUUl and I got up and dressed and went over there and stayed mosi all night, and with the blessh,' ,,f ;, and hot witter bags and splgnui and s-assA-prllla sirup, we bt ought her through And how we thanked Deacon l:..bb. tt for tell-In' tell-In' US I thought I'd teii 'em lest how bad off Helen wuz. and if thev wuz in a suffer-In' suffer-In' Stall themselves: I'd hire 'ern to make a shirt for Joslah and one for Thomas .b ff.'iHon. .ind pay a good honorable prh in aihatic" so th. , mild pay their help fair wages Well. It must move been 9 o'clock when 1 stood on I In toll stun stoop at Mr Grindem-Downe The house wuz as high as a meettn' house, and the front on't one blase "f light I thought it strange poor folks should live In such a palace as this, but thought mebbv thev wuz hired out hen- themselves, ami mebbv meb-bv charitable folks wuz bavin' a pound pails for cm Hut h this time a colored gentleman, as slick as a minister, opened the door, and I sez- "Duz Mr Urlndem-DoWIH Urlndem-DoWIH s folks live here1" And he said, kinder short, thev did. Sez I: "I want to sec Ms r.rlndem-Downe." r.rlndem-Downe." It Is Impossible." ftz he Sez T: "Why?" I spose I looked dret-ful dret-ful good-natured and r..4i noble, and he Sex, In bland r axents. "She a not dressed ' Well." sez T. "I wuz afraid of thai, comln' this time of night but I onlv want lo see her a minute. Tell her not to mind If her dress Is Unhooked. Idl her to Jest throw a shawl round her and come lo the foot of the stairs, for ' sez , firmly, "It Is a matter of life and d, ath " r'I'o he concluded, i |
