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About The Eugene City guard. (Eugene City, Or.) 1870-1899 | View Entire Issue (Dec. 21, 1889)
CHRISTMAS MORNING. V OWN the stairs the msld le, Dow the polikhed, oakea (talra, Lwtm the chamber where abe sleeia, Undisturbed by Christina MM Down the lUIn the maidea fen Wot a doubt baclouda her brow, Joj'Huly her jrounif voice risf. "What, baa Santa brotucht me nowP Down the tulm the maiden c roe pa, Down the cold and barren atalra, im the room bj wbtcb abe ele-pa, nil or chlldlab, Chriatmaa can, On the stair the maiden stands, fearing further down to go. Trembling are her lip ami band, "Ha Old Santa been below r" E. 11. tiro. FOUND AT FIVE POINTS. CIIRWTMAS STORY OK REAL LIFE, BT DAVID A. i 1 I111S. I&awright. 1 WW, by American Pit Association. T OTIIE younger gener ation who know New York only it it ha ktM for twenty year past, growing U-tter all the time despite the sneers of iMKtiimiMtH, it it impossible to realize that only a few years farther lutrk thero was uch a place in the center of the city aa the Five j 1'oinU. Nowaday it doc not take un- 1 courage fur u uioderately athletic 1 to walk alone in broad daylight: through any public street in the city. Then it wo not safe to do so, and even policemen rarely ventured alone after dark into the regiou known by t ho old name. Now the horse cars run through the center of it. Broad street have been eat through, and old buildings replaced with new. FaOtOf iai and stores stand where were formerly tumble dow 11 rook eriee, that had stood sinoo the lust cen tury, and that were swarming with the nxwt degraded poor and the most desper ate criminals. When the ttov. W. C. Van Meter, with a few friends as earnest and determined as himself, tint started Mission school within the border of thil valley of the shadow of crime, he waa repeati liv warned by tho police of the danger he incurred, and it was some time utter the Murk was started before he dared to take, even under escort, in the middle of the day, the ladies who were anxious to aid by teaching in the school. It seems now like a storr of a foreign land and another age, but I saw ia 1854 or 1853 a party of a dozen ladies and gentlemen mobbed a they started homeward f join tin- .school one Sundae noon, ninfliea Into the street and assailed with volley of obscene oaths and rotten vegetable, and so beset by a horde of half drunken men and women that they were glad to escape with whole tune and ruined garment. And the police teemed powerle to prevent or punish such outrages, for this was no unusual occurrence. The region about what is now Paradise square, for the distance of a couple of bracks in every direction, was hooey- witli ulmd alley and secret pos- or them running under- 1 I iom uo 1 1.,., to sooUstr, U was a city of refuge for criminals, and, i though they warred and preyed upon one another with entire lawlessness, they combined as a unit to protect any one among them from the processes of the law. Aside from the criminals the pop ulation consisted almost entirely, if not quite so. of the poverty stricken, for dire poverty and desperate crime then, as very often in history, went hand in band. The children, who were coaxed one by one into the mission schoolroom, were a crowd of little savages Their ignor ance was something amazing. It was not very uncommon to find among tbem boys and girl of 6 or 7 years old who did not know their full names, but who stoutly declared that "Sally" or "Bill" wa the only name they had, and once or twice children were found who actu ally did not know whether they had ever had father and mothers. Some had no homes. God only knows how they kept j alive, for they slept in holes and corners, and fed like vagrant caU and dogs on j whatever they could beg, find or steal. Impossible? Certainly it is, but it is true, nevertheless. Among the wildest and shyest of all who came in was a boy w ho was the originator of at least one famous joke, though without intention. The teacher asked him his name and he said it wa George. Being asked what his last namo was lie said that was his last name, "But you must have another name." I urged the teacher. "Is it George Smith. or Oeorge Johnson, or George WMtfT "Nope," he said, shortly. "Taint George What, nor George Nothin', it's George. 1 hain't got no oder name," But the joke came when the teacher, wishing to know whether he had learned anything at all, asked him, "Do you know who made you?" At the same Instant a boy behind him stuck a pin into George. Such trick were very common among the little sav age, but it did not hurt any the less be cause it was not unusual. George jumped from his seat and shouted at the top of his voice "Goddemitey." "Well, that's right," said the teacher, who had not noticed the trick. "But don't shout so." The story was told afterwards, with enlargements, until it became a "chestnut" many years ago. It was a long time some months be- 1 fore the teachers could learn much about I the boy, for he was distrustful to the , last degree. He kicked the He. Mr. Van .Meter on tho shins very violently, and twisted himself away like an eel 1 when that gentleman, according to his ' habit, laid his hand affectionately on the boy's shoulder. George thought he was iruine to be beaten, and took his usual . precaution of eluding the preliminary hold. He had, it seemed, never known what it was to liave anybody take hold of him in kindness, and was no more to bo handled than a young bird or a snuir- ' rel. There was hardly anything, in fact, that he did know, as tho good mission people reckoned knowledge. He knew how to swear fluently, as his acci- dentally correct answer as to his Maker indicated, but he did not , know, and it was a long time be- 1 fore he could be made to understand, that swearing was wrong. In fact, he did not know what wrong was. So far as his experience of life went, every body did precisely what seemed at the moment desirable to do, unless pre- , vented by superior physical force, or by ' bodily fear. Stealing was to him a per fectly legitimate mode of acquiring any-! thing that he might happen to want, and the only reason why it should be done secretly was that too much osten- 1 tation about the act was apt to provoke interference on the part of the owner, who might and probably would want the article himself. Lying was simply j the easiest way of concealing anything I that he did not care to reveal, and the j only inkling he bad of the objectionable character of the act was that anybody to whom lie told a lie would beat him savagely if be did not lie cleverly enough to escape detection. As to the Sabbath, the first knowledge he had of the difference between one day and an other came from his noticing that once in a while these tieople who had whole clothes on anil who spoke gently came in'.o the neighborhood and opened the little mission room and tried to get the children to go into it. George wa among those who were coaxed in with much difficulty, but after going once he went regularly. The room was clean and pleasant, and as the au tumn days came on thero was a stove put in and a lire made it warm. That was a novelty to him being allowed to sit undisturU-d in a warm room. The story the good teacher obtained from him after winning hi confidence was appalling by its very alwence of detail: but it was only one of many like stories, and she could do very little to alleviate the misery that was all around her. George lived with a woman whom he had MM taught to call Aunt Sally. Whether she was his aunt, who hi aVJasW -tauT-VJi- 1 hristma5 bells are riixcjmg 1&ravttefavior"5 bori- Way all lfouqfie 07 saoiJ. reaKourii jqj, of qlaiR. . m H&DDV, Happv nwrv II' J -V iiir-"""""'""' "" 11 ifti x ' -, 1 t u 1 7 m v j however, much of the time. She let him sleep in her room, and when she had food she gave him some. When she wa drinking heavily she did not bother about eating, and George had learned, as young as he was. to keep away from her, and get his food for himself. How or when he got it, only God's ravens could have told. Such cases are not as common in New York as they were twenty-five or thirty years ago, but they are found now and again, even in these days. Who Aunt Sally was, or why she took any interest whatever in him, he knew nothing about She was a fact, and her interest, faint though it was, was a fact, and he had not come to the age of reasoning about facts. He only recognized them. One day and it chanced to be Christ mas eve a lady and gentleman appeared m the little room as visitors. They had read of the mission work, the gentleman explained, and had come from their borne in a nearby city to see it and to give what little help aj in their power. There was a story lac'; of it, hut this tory was not told till ifterward. Their nauie was not Harrison, so I may call tlieiu tii.it. VS9 km lsTasM". -I a. r- mmm i oroRnr ji-mted nto ms seat. mother or father was, whether they were alive, or whether, indeed, he had ever had a mother or a father, were matters concerning which he absolutely knew nothing, even by hearsay. Aunt Sally was negatively good to him, it ap peared. She did not brat him. except in; when ah was druuk, which wa GEORGE UVED WITH AUNT PALLY. "My wife." said Mr. Harrison, "is painfully, almost morbidly, anxious to do everything she can for ioor children, especially for orphans. And about Christmas time she seems esiecially nervous alsmt it. There is a story about it, of course, but it is too long and too painful to tell now." This to Mr. Van Meter, whose earnestness in his chosen work made him rejoice in every new found friend, and whose enthusiasm was contagious. Before long tho story was known. Mrs. Harrison's father was a wealthy manufacturer, whose two daughters were tho children of different mothers, and develojied as they grew to woman hood strikingly different characteristics. The elder one, Sarah, was the daughter of hi first wife, who had deserted him and her infant child to run away with one of his clerk. He knew little of her story after her flight, but in the course of a year and a half he learned that she had been forsaken by her lover and had plunged into such a terrible course of dissipation that death had been merci fully speedy in overtaking her. A year later he married the second time. Again a daughter was born to him, and as tho two children grew up they were treated, as nearly as possible, ex actly alike. Everything that money could buy, or affection dictate, was at their command, and every influence of refinement and education was exerted to fit them for a high place in society, but whether it was some taint in the blood, or a morbid brooding over a mother's in and shame, something led the elder daughter to turn away from good and seek evil from her early youth. The father sought in every way possible to avert the misery which he foresaw for himself and for her, but it was of no avail. A wayward youth was followed by utter recklessness; as the unhappy irl became a woman. She still mad ber father's house her home, and would ipend a large portion of her lime there; but there wen- prolonged absences which the family strove in every way to con Mai. and into which they dared not inquire d'- ly for fear of shameful dis closures. The climax came in a pecu liarly painful wav. Among the gentle men who visited at the house wa Mr. Harrison, and it happened that, while the younger daughter w as the one he sought in marriage, both the girls fell in love with him. Sarah's passion was none the less violent because of its lawless character and its utter hopelessness, and when she learned that her sister was to marry the man she herself loved, she left home finally, after a terrible scene in which she wore vengeance, defied all authority, and spurned the love of her father, mother and sister. For. three veari. nothing was heard of her. Her father, old before his time with sorrow, mourned for her truly, and would at any time have received hei back with open arms, but no word came, and he knew too well the futility ol trying to track her or to lure her home again. At last one evening she present herself and demanded an interview, which was readily granted. It was belli:. 1 closed doors, and no one but the father ever knew just what passed lietween tlieut. He told his wife and daughter, however, the substance of it, Sarah had demanded a portion of hit fortune, and had offered for it to hide herself from him forever, to Dike anothei name and lead her own life in her own way. "I told her," said the sorrowing man, "that she should always have a home with me, no matter when she came to claim it. and that I would never see hei want for anything if she would come back to me. but that, if she persisted in the life she plainly said she pnqiosed to live, 1 would do nothing for her before or after my death. And then she left me, saying it was forever, and cursing me cursing me, her father, who even now would die for her if need be." For a time after this nothing Mas heard of the prodigal. Then one Christmas eve she wreaked her hate, or vengeance, as she chose to call it, in an awful crime. Mrs. Harrison's only child, a boy not quite three years old, was in one of the public parks of the cily, in charge of a nurse. when Sarah approached, and, by pretending a violent fancy for the child, threw the careless servant off her guard. Whether she bribed the girl, or really succeeded in tricking her, was nevet known, but it was two hours later when that frightened individual reported tc Mrs. Harrison that her boy had been stolen. It would lie impossible to describe the agony of the parents, and useless to de tail all the circumstances of tho search that was made. The servant gave a suf ficiently accurate description of the strange woman, whom she had nevet seen before, for the family to know who SUCH A CHRISTMAS, the kidnapper was, but Sarah had had a sufficient start to get on a train for New York, and all effort to trace her were ineffectual. Had the newspaper, even at that lime learned the particular! of the story it would have become aa fa mous a the Charlie Boas case, but tho family shrank from the exposure that would have been inevitable, and though all the detective skill that could be pro cured was employed, no publication waa made in the press. Six years had passed from the day the hoy was stolen when Mr. and Mrs. Har rison entered the little mission school in the Five Pointa It was her own Iota that bad made ber to peculiarlv anxious to benefit poor children: but, though she was forever searching for her own little one. both she and her husband had al most given up the hope of ever finding him. While Mr. Harrison talking with Mr. Van Meter, however, her eager eyes were scanning the faces of ail the boys in the room. Suddenly she turned pale "Oh. GeorgeP' she mid, or gasped, rather, and without another word she flew rather than ran to the other end of the room Dropping on her knees in front of the poor little waif who bad drifted in so strangely, she seized him with both hands and looked eagerly, almost wildly, into his eyes. "What is your name?" she said to the startled child "George." he said. "George what?" "I dunno," he answered, beginning to cry, for he had developed a sensitiveness about his lack of a proper compliment of names, and, moreover, he was half frightened by the now frantic woman's strange behavior. Suddenly she tore open his jacket and the poor, ragged shirt he had on, and looking on his breast found the birth mark she sought. Then, quick as a flash the whole thing happened so quickly that it was over before her husband reached her ide she gathered him into her arms. dirt, rags and all, and kissed him until it seemed as if she were trying to devour him. Then, of course, she fainted It did not take long, though, for the other ladies in tho room to bring her back to consciousness, and then such a scene as is rarely witnessed in tills world put an end to anything like the usual otder of exercises. Mr. Harrison was naturally a little slower than his wife to recognize the child, but only a little, and the bewildered boy was shortly em braced and kissed as few children in this world ever have been. Such a prayer as Mr. Van Meter utter ed, while the tears streamed down his cheeks and every person in the room dropped on his knees, has seldom been heard even from his eloquent lips, and in a few more minutes Mr. Harrison pro posed to leave. It was obvious enough 10 him that he had to take his child home, but the good missionary was too well acquainted with the neighborhood to let him go unattended. "You uould he mobbed before you had gone a block, if the people saw you car rying away the child," he said, and it was presently arranged that a policeman 6hould be summoned to escort the party up to Broad ay, and a carriage should be taken there. This M as done as quickly as possible, for there was real danger of trouble if the news had been spread through the neighborhood liefore they got a Way, As it hapened, however, ail passed off quietly, and little George had seensucha Christmas as he had never dreamed of. "Aunt Sally" was found, and every effort M as made to induce her to reform. She consented to go home, but whether she remained there or not I do not know. Sensational as anything in fiction, is it not? Yet, excepting in some few details, it is a true story. ow B. Wsl7ga son Mu ll A Moneyless Christmas. A Christmas without spending money! Midwinter holidays without dolls or pic ture books, tops, toy cannon or jumping jacks, colored candies or any "store presents" of any kind whatsoevet! Christ's nativity celebrated without a Christmas tree or a Christmas carol or a gathering of the children no evergreen shrub sparkling with glass, no Santa Clans and no pantomime. Could such a thing lie in a Christian land? Yea. verily. And it is not so very long ago that just such a Christmas was the rule in three-fourths of the United Stales nay, it is the rule now in considerable sec tions where there are no large towns. So easily do we get accustomed to what ia, and ... naturally do children believe that the system they first noticed has al ways beat) the system, that most people do not know, and even the older ones are forgetting that the Christmas of to day is comparatively a new thing. But what was the old time Christmas, and with what sights and souuds was it ushered in? Well, in the first place, it was in all the rural regions at any rate a time when no money could be "wasted." Children must have thoir fun without extra expense, save as each child had carefully saved his pennies. As to deliberately handing out a half dollar to a boy for Christmas the aver age father would as soon have thought of giving him a deed for the farm. It wo a season for rabbit hunting and sled ding if there was snow enough, and for sliding if there was ice, for a good din ner and an extra piece of pie, and then, perhaps, for some home made presents. A little later toys began to come in say about 1830 in the central west, and such toys! Blocky horses, square cor nered cows, dogs made of clay and burnt black in the fire, and so forth and so forth; a collection of them now would throw a group of children into convul sions of laughter. Be it remembered that less than tifty years ago Cincinnati. Louisville and St. Louis were the only cities really known to the great mass of people living west of Ohio and north of Tennessee, and nine-tenths of the people under 20 years of age had never seen a city of 10.000 inhabitants And in those days rural America celebrated Christmas literally without money nd without (cash) price. Plenty of people who do not like to be called old can recall the time when, in all the book store of the rural regions, only two or three kind of "story book)'' could be found, and aa to holiday books and holiday goods a such well, they could be found iu the cities, probably, but uot one child in a hundred, taking the country through, aver saw one of litem Mrs. Smitem (to hr ou ratner have for fH Robbie, a uair of .k.t. Robbie Can't I have both: Mrs. Smitem-No.Idon'tthiji Claus would consent to that. Robbie-Then give iue the tommy aumsons got a lick him. 1 BUROETTE'S PHILOSOPHY, WE CAST DAVE EVMTTSn6 " riuulnn. i l T .. 11 i Kiupoiin , gratefully took from lb ooutrtu. ; ui on- -uuiiui isrs-e. mow iUb , mottled like Mexican envx. rout T i with heavy Incrustation, of 1t. S3 hiive Mi-ii ! . :-. t ,1 . k - . .. ?t u, Jusl a, ; . uiui-r peopi, bad an. rafll1jl r,,r ii..r r.,i.lf A . . ulentlj, and be. engulfing the pie n hnil.lv ti has ih AisL. . . i ":" ""iu an agoumnii I and paing on. wa never again a THE PATIENCE or Linns A man ought to bai t some rewnj j. "i euuigs. i si be qir proverb But be tuisn t. That. . make a householder as howling mad , u KrDnnger, wno nas twrn ten dap, uiS in siurs ui a uan unlrunu. i nis reproof by wiving that Ronw J duiii in aiiay.' It waat built bill man ... I . . T"l. .. f - . umu, Diiuri iuu iaLb ma, a everufcj proves that. HEN HAD TO WALE TBI PUNK roi iounn l-ortniasl, ho badal ship three dav before he commi-tel act of insuliordination. for whkb tin tain gave Uim ail awful doeof thin end, said the old man bight wu vonti bis barque. HARD ON THE NERVE. A dog down iu Pennsylvaniitwillo-J babys rattle the other day It uaW MM Hie iloj; MnOMty, but awful i ing on tho people of the hmse. Erenj tho dog moves it aouad at t i.ouxb a r tuake was after you, and the result u j about two-thirds of the time ererttnjifl the bouse Is either climbing upon icbvJ jumpiug Uuwu from oue. OCT ON n.T. "George, I called to see you this una and the maid said you were out' uncle, 1 nni sorrv that I was.' "Bj were not, for I saw you sitting at tbtiaM aa I eaino away. "less that's just, fcl maid did not specify, she only tun il Out. Sometime 1 am staving out time walking out and Minietimeslootajal bue was stupid uot to say which. DEPRAVITY I.N H1GB PLACES. Queen Marguerite of Italy play thevi cello. By the most desperate cipediaiia constant vmlauceon the part of the i family the matter baa been kept secret II long time, but it has leaked out at Ian I account of the respectability of the qan connections we suppress ber last nan A L'OITRANCE "I see," said tho man itu tbetwmntH "that a French journalist has ben kiUl a duel. " "At lust (" exclaimed themtiM lug the time card. "Yes, died of oUf waiting for tlieolher fellow to come." tho Fieiicli are terrible fighters stnM mako a business of itr EXPATRIATED. Particular Boarder This fish. Truthful Waiter (promptly!-WaikilWi morning. Particular flearder lappnmaj You did rieht to kill it. Truthful KH (inauiriuclvi Yes. sir. Particular i (firmlvl-Because it had been ashore am it bail forgot how to swim, and wooil I drowned if ever it went to sea again. THAT'S ALL THAT SAVES THE WEB The "elocutiouist" lias hid huligtitii bushel as lone as ho cau. He is no4 mined to let his light shine, to UftH vtiiiM, mill mire not and to for all it is worth and toot his horn ill doesn't sell n clam A Chicago ekxniu Hi-iissiiii- the elements of asUCOsstal' tiou. speaks of "other pieces like 'SlotheJ Poet,' "The Raven,' and like nrodutaM no great literary ment that produce naj ous effects when well reuuen-u. wondered what kept those mediocre f .hv. lone when some of my 011 o(T.,rt n-orihr to po rincini; ilon u ing aisles of the copv dummy, straoW MltlllY ISMCII Ol iuo If tho rendiiic" that has reneJ n i i., fr. tlw. insatiate n DJOVlllll alio ou . that relentless monster. U. R Li1! Robert J. Burdette in Brooklyn tg Lenxina of Eiperlrne Anximu MotherMy aw, tw lady you admire knows nothing W' work. Son-Well, mother, you kno either. , . . t- ..... r,,thjrl "true, my son. io" ""7. however, married a girl bo . i...a.i in nai money she saveu waa ui . n and tbey are now living in sore palace." 4 J "Oh, well, his fortune coui- coinu iroiii tuou tntf' "Maybe not, maybe not; but yw and 1 are living in a rented bouse, u our old servant girl own it o Incorrect Disss"1 , ,r of t A business man aim imam- , rank In Boston U DS1 occasionally rorgets w f "71 customary hour for this meat- i members it is J ummum ksl, quite absorbed in business, b ly on until 4 o'clock, and tnen W a quite natural ene of empty ing in his stomach. , "Dear me, na sw, Jtl the flat of hi. band WhBp der what I ate for dinner that our ujel" Boston Transcript. S-.1L Where mr, Caller lata potogrspu wg grand picture of the cenKWU1P" face perfect. a m Photographer (P' atautaneous picim march-best 1 toot CaUer-Ye. vrv idoUoo r 4 . . . I-,-.- IIWI been csugnt. u -- wB what r the, blurred spot and' , km.1