The Daughter of a Republican.
by Bernie Babc.o.c.k.
CHAPTER I.
THE CROWLEY FAMILY.
Let me introduce the reader to the Crowley family, and when you have become acquainted with them bear well in mind that in this broad land of ours there are thousands upon thousands of families in a condition as deplorable, and some whose mercury line of debauchery has dropped to a point of miserable existence as yet unsounded by this family.
The Crowleys are all in tonight, except the father, and he is momentarily expected.
It is a bitter night in February. The ground is covered with ice and sleet causing many a fall to the unwary pedestrian.
The wind comes in cutting blasts directly from the north, rattling and twisting everything in its way not securely fastened, then dying away in a long weary moan, abandoning its effort only to seize upon the elements with a firmer grasp and come battling back with fresh vindictiveness and force.
There were those who did not mind this storm, people around whose homes all was secure and whom no rattling annoyed, people who enjoyed bright lights and warm fires, but these were not the Crowleys. The Crowley"s home consisted of two rooms in a rickety old tenement house around which everything rattled and flapped as the wind raged. Their light came from a dingy little lamp on a goods box. Every now and then a more violent gust of wind struck the house with such force that the structure trembled and the feeble light flickered dangerously.
Here and there broken windows were stopped up with rags and papers and through the insecure crevices the wind found its way with a rasping, tiresome groan.
What little fire there was, burned in a small rusty stove. Its door stood open, perhaps to keep the low fire burning longer, perhaps to let the warmth out sooner, and against the pale red glow four small hands were visible, spread to catch the feeble heat.
On a bed in one corner, gaunt, and with wasted form, a woman lay.
This was the mother.
A girl of perhaps fifteen sat close to the stove and held a tiny baby wrapped in a gingham ap.r.o.n.
A spell seemed to have fallen on the usually noisy group. Even Cora, the family merrymaker, was quiet, until aroused from her reverie by an act of her brother who replenished the fire.
She spoke rather severely.
"Johnnie, how many pieces of coal are there left in the box?"
"Five--and little ones."
"Then get to work quick! Take out one of the pieces that you have just put in. We are not rich enough to burn three pieces at once."
"I"m cold," whined the boy.
"So am I, awful cold, but you know that coal must do till pa comes."
"I"d like to know when that will be. Any other pa would be home such a freezing night as this. I hate my pa."
"Johnnie, Johnnie, you must not talk that way. He is your father, child."
The voice came from the bed and was marked by that peculiar tone noticeable when persons extremely cold try to speak without chattering.
"I can"t help it, mother. I"m cold, so cold, and I"m hungry, too. I only had half a potato, and Maggie says they"re all gone."
"Poor child!" said the mother with a sigh. "Here, Maggie, give him this," and she drew from under the pillow a small potato which she held toward the girl.
But the girl did not stir until the hungry boy made a move in the direction of the bed. This movement aroused her as his overdose of coal had roused his other watchful sister a moment previous.
"No! No! Johnnie. Do not take it. Our mother will starve. She has not eaten anything for two days."
"Let him have it, Maggie. I cannot eat it. Perhaps your father will come soon and bring some tea. I think a good cup of tea would make me better."
"And, mother," said Cora, "we will take the money we were going to spend for shoes and get a bit of flannel for you and the baby. You must have it or you will freeze. Surely father will come soon. He said he would."
"Nearly everyone has gone home now. Hardly a person pa.s.ses," Cora observed, with her nose pressed against the frosty pane.
"That is because it is so cold. It is not late yet. We will wait a little longer, and then Maggie----"
"O, mother! Do not ask me to go. It is so cold, and suppose--suppose I had to go into a saloon again. It nearly kills me to go about such places."
"You might meet him, Maggie, and keep him from going in."
"If my pa don"t come tonight, he"s a big liar, that"s all!" broke in Johnnie, hotly.
His mother did not answer him. She was watching the face bent low over the tiny baby. She noted the careworn look and the nervous pressure of the hand held over the tiny one to keep it warm.
Presently the girl lifted her eyes to her mother. Those tender pleading eyes of the mother would have melted a harder heart than hers. She went to the bed and put the baby in, close to its mother"s side. Then she threw her arms around the haggard woman"s neck and kissed her pa.s.sionately.
"Dear mother," she said, "I would do anything for you. I will go for father, and before it gets any later."
"Pray, child! Pray every breath you draw! Pray every step you take that you may find him before it is too late. If you do not--I cannot imagine what is to become of us. Pray! G.o.d is not cruel. Surely he will hear us in our misery."
Would you see the drunkard"s daughter dressed for a walk this bitter night? A frail, slender girl, who should have been warmly clad, she is dressed in thinnest, shabby cotton, through which the elements will play as through rags of gauze, while the flesh of her feet, unprotected by her almost soleless shoes, will press against the sleet. The two faded pink roses that flap forlornly on the side of her coa.r.s.e straw hat bear a silent suggestion of pathos--a faint remembrance, perhaps, of the days of departed happiness.
While she is adjusting the remnant of a shawl so as to cover as much of her shoulders as possible, the children are giving her numerous messages to be given their father when she finds him. At last she is ready. After hesitating a moment she kisses them all and with a shudder steps out into the howling, swirling blast.
She walked briskly, halting a second every time she met a man to see if he were the object of her search and pa.s.sing each time with a growing fear, as each time she was disappointed.
At last she came to the door of the saloon where her father had so often worse than wasted the money his family were perishing for at home.
She stopped.
She knew it was warm and light inside. Perhaps her father had just stepped inside to get warm. Should she look?
While she stood shivering in the wind, getting her courage up to the point of entering, a man pa.s.sed her and went in. As he went through the door a familiar voice greeted her ear, a voice she well knew and had learned to fear.
She did not hesitate longer. Opening the door she walked swiftly and noiselessly in. For a moment the air seemed to stagger her, so laden was it with the fumes of liquor and tobacco. There was a crowd around the bar and the bartender was busy mixing drinks and jingling gla.s.ses.
She saw her father. He was about two-thirds drunk and she knew, poor child, that she had found him at his worst. Her courage almost failed her, and she took an involuntary step toward the door. Her father"s voice arrested her.
"Here it goes, and it"s my last. Now, who can say Dam Crow has not done the square thing?" And with the words he flung a silver dollar on the bar. His last had joined his first. All had gone into the same coffer while an innocent wife and helpless children were starving and freezing at home.