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T: r - - ■ - . . _ _ EDITED AND PUBLISHED WEEKLY BY THE OF THE MINNESOTA, STATE PRISON IT IS NEVER TOO |LaTE TO MEND. " ~ Vol. XXV.—No. 17. kriißtlJl HERE was an impor tant conclave of lead ing spirits of the Newsies going on in I the alley back of " Newspaper Row, and while the great Press es with their clicking * machinery were run ning out the evening ! ****^ m " edition of the Big Dailies; and the boys waited to get them red-hot f r6m the press, with their big head lines, their sensational news, mur ders suicides and politics. The conclave were discussing a very serious question of ways and means, and Jimmy was the spokes man at this moment. , “You spe,” said Jimmy, “datyou guys has got to git it through your tops jist as it is. Old Joel was nab bed by de Gop and he’s down in de jug now and de chief screw down dere said as how if I could git twen ty-five plunks, I could git de ole man out on bail* dat is if I could sse de Jedge and tell him how it is. You see de Jedge has gone home -cause dere aint no court until Friday, cause tomorrow’s Thanksgiving. But you’se all know I’m not got no twenty-five plunks, and most of you’se aint any better off ’en I be. But I tought if you’se could go in wid m 3, we’d form a sindicate and do it, and me to handle de stock and be security to you’se for de swag. Of course if you’se don’t want to go in you don’t haf to, and de ole man will have to stay, dats all.” Then he added, “De screw said if I put up de slugs to git Joel out, and de old man was in court Friday mornin when de case was on, and let de Jedge send him to de works or fire him, why den I git back de stuff what we put up and I’d give it back to you’se, each his sham, and I’ll do it” said Jim my. You’se all know dat.” And they did all know it except one -doubting Thomas, called by the, boys “Cheaser,” who said: “Maybe you wouldn’t give it back.” “Well,” said Jimmy, “if you’se feel afeard you won’t git it back, keep it den. I don’t want no guy to trust me ’less he wants to’” ik Aw’e! say now,” said Cub. “If you’se is afeard of your dough jist stay out of de sindicate, cause we’re goin to form it right now. I don’t tink you got more’n two bits any way. I guess we can raise dat much without ye. Now I’m got two dollars and eighty cents” said Cub, “and here it is, and all dat wants join to dis ting come on,” as he handed his money to Jimmy.” “And here’s mine,” said another, ■and another, until Jimmy found himself in possession of over thir ty-eight dollars, donated by that little band ragged merchants who had empted their pockets into the general fund. And in a few min utes from that time the town rang with their cries: ’* ’Eres yourevnin paper; Her ald! Times! World! and Tribune! All about the suicide and murder, jetc.,” crying their wares without fear or favor and selling to all who had the price. Wall street is not the only place where big thiugs are done, there was but one skeptic in that lot of little capitalists and he was not al lowed to put anything into the '‘sindicate.” While in Wall Street the great captains of finance, I’m told, have so little faith or confi dence in each other,that they will not oven take a certified check from a business associate without first hav ing gone to the bank to have it personally verified. And yet this street istrusted with the policy, if not the entire honor of our government’s financial affairs while’ they wont trust each, other. Jimmy could not sell papers that' night. He was going to get old Joel out of jail, for tomorrow was Thanksgiving and the old man and he had planned such' a nice time for themselves. ? From The Undercurrent Of Life A Tale of Thanksgiving By J. A. 0. Jimmy was a little waif. His antecedents were as meagre as his purse sometimes was. His earliest recollections were of a foundling home where he had been left by his parents and where he had staid until he was turned over to a market gardner near the pity who worked and starved and beat Jimmy until Jimmy had finally run away and hid in the big city, working out his own destiny as best he might. Two years before our story opens he had found Old Joel in an alley, pretty drunk and afraid to show up on the street for fear lest he be ar rested for drunkeness. Arid Jinamy paid an expressman a dollar to haul the old man home and this invest ment brought a place of refuge or home to Jimmy, for the old man in sisted that the boy live with him. Jimmy’s gratitude knew no bounds. It was a palace to what he had had since he ran away from the gardner, nor have I space to tell you what a heroic struggle Jimmy had made before this to keep life in his body and a few rags to cover his nakedness. And this too in a city of churches and wealthy Christian people. But Joel had given Jimmy a home and been good and kind to him in every way that lay in the old man’s power. For Joel Semals’ home was not a palace. It consisted of a little front room about ten by t welve which he used as a shop to mend shoes and a room about the same size back, fcnd a small lean-to or shed at the rear to store fuel and such stuff as the old man needed and did not have room for in the living room or shop. 1 It was an old building full of cracks, seams and dec&y, but it was a heme, the word dear to so many, and here lived the two waifs, for Joel wss as much a waif as Jimmy. That there was a past in the life of Old Joel no one doubted of those who knew him best and longest. For did he not have a fine educa tion, and could talk on' any subject with his neighbors? His language was fluent, proper and refined when he did talk, and there was some thing in the depth of his sad > eyes that bore the emblem of a finer mould of mind and soul than his person or surroundings indicated. But no word of that past came from Joel, not even when under the in fluence of liquor. In an old tin box with a lock and And Jimmy who had planned with key. in a secret hole underthe floor the old man to have such a good of the back room, were stored all time on the morrow with a nice the secrets and history of old Joel’s dinner and music and songs with past, the existence of the box was the old guitar, and later on such known to him alone, until he took wonderful stories he would tell. Jimmy into the secret under prom- And now to have it all spoiled, and ise to keep it all within his own the old man have to go to the work thoughts, and even Jimmy did not house for a term when there was know it all. • so much depending on them both, Joel’s drinking was periodical, nearly set Jimmy wild, but its spells were sure to over- There was lots of work in the take him, and as Jimmy explained shop waiting, and it was a question to the boys in, the alley: ‘T kin whether Jimmy would be able to alius tell when he’s goin to have a meet the rent alone, when due. jagtime, cause he looks over some But it was not Jimmy’s nature to old letters and a picture dats in de remain idle in crisis. Something old tin box, and then he goes and must be done and after he had STILLWATER, MINNESOTA, gits jagged right away.” And this was true, and he was always sure to drink himself maudlin, and almost as sure to land in the Police court, where, timeafter time he answered guilty to the charge of “plain drunk,” and as usual he did not pay his fine —got his ten, twen ty, thirty or even ninety days at the workhouse dealt out to him by the Judge, whose feelings had something to do with the length of the sentence imposed. . The old man was never noisy or loud talking or quarrelsome when drinking, but was quiet and peace able, and so could never be charged with anything but drunk. For at least one*’* a year if not oftener Old Joel was up for his portion of his penalty. Sometimes for months he woild stay in his little shop, work hard, and save his money. Often Jimmy had been able to rescue and save hijn before the Po- Bay. By F . J. I. On ThanKsgiving Day, the old folks Gather 'round, slowly; Thanksgiving' eve, the young folks Kneel to pray; Thanksgiving night, both young and .old, together, Give voice to thanks, for Blessings of the day. And yet—l seem to see, In yon dim vista, An humble home, where stalks Grim tragedy; And hearts that bleed, And souls, asunder riven' * And this, Oh God, on Thy Thanksgiving Day. lice discovered him, and once or twice a policeman had taken him away from Jimmy when he had the old man on his road home. He (the policeman) might even go so far as to help some aristocratic inebriate into his car or cab at two or four o’clock a. m., from the back or side door of saloons, “known to be closed,” because you had to know how to rap on the door to have it opened, but no such help was ever given the old man. he always went to the lockup-if found on the street drunk, and if was said that he had been takep when he was not drinking at all. *| But.be this as it may here it was five o’clock in the afternoon of the day before Thanksgiving and Joel was locked up, and laying on the hard board at the central station. Y, NOVEMBER 30, 1911. thought of every other plan, his last hope was to ask the “boys” in Newspaper Row, to help him with a loan. And we have already seen how their generous little hearts had responded to his plea. They knew Jimmy would repay it if it lay in his power, and if it aid not — well it was all a part of the free masonry of the brotherhood of lit tle waifs, whose human, touch of sympathy was about their only title to nobility. Now that Jimmy had the money, victory was in sight, and taking the first car he was soon on his way to see the Judge aAd get his order to have the old man released on bail. The jailer had instructed him how to proceed. It was a long way out to the Judge's house. They most always do reside a long way out, for it is bad enough to have to work near the current of human misery, pas sion and strife, without having to sleep near it£ and It was after sev en o’clock when he arrived at th e Judge’s residence. Then he, found it was another thing to get to see the Judgtv for Judges as a rule do not carry the court bus iness home with them; they leave it where it should be left at the court house. Then too, the Judge is not generally the kind of a man that any one can walk up to, slap on the should er and ask for a match, and when Jimmy finally came face to face with him, h e felt a s though he was a giaduated diplo mat,little dreaming his hardest task was yet to come. First the Judge hated to be dis turbed in his own home, and second he could not be expected to feel much interest in a man who was always getting drunk, and whom his most severe sentences did not keep from getting drunk, again. He did not mean to be un kind to the boy but he was greatly annoyed and he looked it and showed it. . ‘'Well, young man, what do you want?” asked the Judge rather sternly. Jimmy was no fool, though he was uneducated, he had been kicked around in the world, had learned the most of the tricks of raw hu man nature and he had learned to battle and work for what he wanted, and this taken with his honesty, his unyielding .purpose, and his fear lessness in asking any man for what he wanted, made him almost a match for the Judge. So Jimmy looked the Judge stead ily in the eye and said: want to bail Joel Semals out’n the jail, and Fve got the money here and the jailer said as how I mus’ git an order wid your name on it fore he could cept bail and let him out.” “Well now young man, I don’t know about that” said the Judge! * In the first place where did you get the money? You do not look like a capitalist.” Jimmy told him; it‘sounded fishy, then, “why do you want him out tonight? Better let him stay till Friday morning and sober up. I don’t see what you can do with a drunken man tonight, for, no doubt, las soon as he sobers up a little he will go to the first saloon and be as drunk as ever in an hour or so. No, go home young man, let him stay where he is until Friday and then you can pay his fine and take him home.” Then Jimmy braced himself for a final and last plea, and when he was through the Judge thought he might have heard more polished, more sugar-coated sophistry and rhetoric in pleas at the bar, by counsel, but never one with the pathos, the clear logic, and the simple eloquence poured forth by this little waif in behalf of the old er waif, who had been the best and kindest friend he ever knew. “Now Jedge, I got to tell you jist how it is and you mus’nt git mad” said Jimmy. “If I had come down to you’se house in a big car with a man what drives it, and had on de best glad rags I could git, you’se ’ed never waited to ask me where I got de swag to pay de fine wid, or asked me to wait till Friday to take dat poor ole man whose bin de best frien I’m ever had, away from dat old spooky rat house dat you call a jail, and take him to his own place and git him sump’n de cent to lay on till he got sober. I spect you’se would have de order all made out by this time. “Two years ago I foun de ole man in de alley back of de Y. M. G. A. buildin and he was near froze and was afeard to come outen de alley to go home, cause de cop was. on de corner, and would pinch de ole man if he got hieeyeon him. And I felt sorry for de ole man, and I give de cop a bum steer and line near i got an expressman to take him home and I give de expressman a plunk and it was all 1 had, and I couldn’t git a place like de ole man give me if I was never so lucky. And since dat time he’s bin a good friend and I have never bin hungry since I know’d him. De place where he lives is no brown front, but it’s our home, and dats more lots boys like me has got, and lse never had to go in rags like I did when I was wid dat gardner who used to beat me and starve me, and he was too stingy and mean to buy de Old Crow. And de best dressed guy I ever seen hit me wid his cane cause I wanted him to pay for de shine I gib his shoes. “Old Joel may git drunk some times, but he don’t make noise and scrap, and swear roun’, all he does is jist git drunk, and Jedge if you’ll keep de secret, I’m goin to tell you’se why he gets jagged. “Once, long time ago he had a nice .home and a purty wife and a little baby, and anoder ballyhoe cum along wid nice rags on. and got his wife to run away wid him and left de kid for Joel to take care of and it died. He’s got dere pic tures and I tell you Jedge she was all to de good when it cum to looks. And den for twenty years he Vas all alone till I came, and he says to me, ‘Jimmy,don’t ever hit de booze, it has ruined me since she went away and I git bluer’n sin when I looked at her picture and read what she writ to me. And den Jimmy’ he says, ‘don’t ever tech booze, be honest,'and tell the truth, and nev er go in dem booze joints’ and | Jedge, he never done harm to np- j body, and jest tink Jedge, what you’se id do if a man <iome along what had better rags den you, and took you’se wife and run off wid her. But maybe you’se id do like me, I’d never hit de bocze. I’d foller dat guy till I found him and den knock his block off. “And Jedge, if you’se’lt let him go, Fit bring him to court Friday, and pay his fine, if it ’taint more’n I got. And I'll try an keep him home after dis, cause he’s all to de (Concluded on 4th page) T „ U(l .j s».ooa Year TERMB-) © Months Fifty Cts.