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The day book. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1911-1917, April 29, 1912, Image 29

Image and text provided by University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Library, Urbana, IL

Persistent link: https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83045487/1912-04-29/ed-1/seq-29/

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STORY ABOUT AN OLD MAN
Jim Beaty was quite alone in years nobody knew tow old, and
it doesn't master but he soraetimesAgpt,jobs about the Santa Fe
wharves-at San Diego. ' He V&flpqr clothes,! wasn't always washed,
and Hve'd alone in a. little fiift?'m 'tb,e suburbs. Nobody inquires
much about a man like that, yoU'knqw, and so, whence he came or
what the life trials that had wrinkled Jijs face and bent his body we
P cannot tell you. "
Ahwell! he was-just a 'derelict, just apiecef society flotsam
with which the Pacific coast is strewn. He lived by himself with his
secrets and the World was willing to let him.
One day last week, Jim was passing near some children who
were playing with a, box of matches upon the sidewalk. Little
Renee Clement s clothes took fjreC Jim sprang to her, clasped her
in his arms, mothered the flames with his own body. Then, hor
ribly burned himself, he "worked his way jthfough the crowd and
went to his hut to bed "
Alone, blistered, burning with thirst, without foodlj( company,
or help of any sortJu'ri tossed and groaned upon thopoor couch
rior iwo aays ana nignis. nen, in some way, mayDe inrougn rum
who notes even the sparrow fall, the parents of the Clemeht child
got word of Jim and visited him with hehxin their hands. He smiled
at them through his blisters. "I wanted to save that little girl,"
said Jim, "and nevetTlhbught of my own danger." You see, the
idea that he" had saved ,the child haa been keeping Jim up all the
time he laid there hungry thirsty, lonely, in the agony o dreadful
burns. . o
But Mr, Clement bowed his head. "Our Jittle Itenedied the
morning after," he mUrmuYed. Theft,old'Jim Beaty's eyes filled and,
with a greaj: sigh, he turned "his face to 'the wall.
AndjJow it seenis as if the whole worl4 wanted tb know old
Jim Beaty,the recluse, the dock-walloper, the hero in. the old faded
blue overalls. They nurse him. They gire'him good things to eat.
They talk about 'a Carnegie medal for him. They say ne is grand.
They love him. . ' x
Honestly, many of them love all humanity better because of
M him, far they have cprne to beljeve that, often, With the patched
overalls, tne caiiousfcu nanas, me jaoor-sixunea iace anuiue rougn
exterior of the common toiler goes the soul of.the greatest of heroes
the soul "of him who is willing to-4ay down his life for another.
One NV Y. railroad Is to- have I fices by
$ miles of l$ad pencils -tnU of- ,sjbiarpenerr
abolishingj&the
metal
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