The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, September 13, 1903, Page 7

*. _THR SUNDAY CALL. Indeed, on one of these occasions, she %old a certain sympathetic lady among the oustomers that she had a cousin—this seemed more delicate—who was a fireman, she was worried to death whenever there was a fire, This customer was an influential lady, & serene, kind, rich persop, regarded as almost indispensable many women and girls. persuade them to elvilization She was able to to do almost anything, more, it must be acknowledged, dignity of her presence than by the power of her thought, which was of the most soothing and casual no pretense of being convincing She used to come with” her daughter's children to buy candy for them; and on these occasions Annie would talk to her about her nieces and nephews: how her eldest niece had hair reaching helow her how they were all how on April Fool's day they such perfect made some chocolates with cotton bat- ting inside, and gave them to a friend of hers—it had been Mr. Murphy: how they were just in mischief all the time, and how her youngest nephew took the prize at a baby show. Mrs. La Grange on her side made ap- preclative monosyllabic replies. She was so pleased with Annle tuat she invited her to come to see her and to bring her nephews and nieces to play with her daughter’s children. Th. day was so oppressively warm that the streets were empty and almost still; the grass of the empty lots was gray and parched, and the dust was thick on the roads and on the burning asphalt pavements; the few people they met had handkerchiefs tucked in their necks, and a man passing on a bicycle stopped and sat on the curbing to fan himself with a newspaper. The children’s arrangements of their turns under their aunt’s new + hite satin parasol had just been fairly decided, and they were approaching the corner where the eldest child must give up her place, when there sounded on th heavy air the startling, hurrying clang of & fire bell People put their heads out of the win- dows; they rushed from all sides; v looked north and south and east and west; they peered up and down the cross streets, and then they saw and heard, far down the street, a rattling, glittering mass, the swept manes and headlong gait of galloping horses, and amidst smoke clouds and clanging, in & furious whirl of brass and scarlet, a leviathan fire engine rolled past, reverberating. Two more en- gines rumbled flercely behind, llke char- fots in a terrific chariot race, with enor- mous plunging horses, and heimeted fire- men straining forward on the front seats. Little boys chased behind through the stifiing clouds of dust, stumbling and whistling and yelling in an ecstasy of ex- citement, and a hurrying crowd walked and ran in their wake, In this crowd Annie and the children were swept, just as they were always swept when there was & fire in their neighborhood, but this time with an espe- clal enthusiasm, for high up on the front of the jarring hook and lafider wagon that closed the procession they. saw Mr. Murphy. What was more remarkable, In all the crowd and In his rushing passage he had seen them and touched his helmet and smiled magnificently at them. And it sesmed qply fitting when they reached the object of so rapid a chase, led by engines so glorious, that this should be a raging fire in a bullding so given up to it that its square lines and flat front were seen wavering and almost hidden in clouds of black smoke, with sheets of flame rising from its roof and brilllant tongues darting from its lower windows. But that impulse of excitement which had drawn them to it as to an exhilarat- ived a cold and dizzying hen they saw standing on the ep of a house opposite a stocky, faced old Irish woman, her face e and her lips working, straining her rbed gaze at one of the windows of ken building, where a little group girls was occasionally and dim- through the mists of the smoke. The people In the crowd were making frantic and helpless gestures; they stretched out their arms to the girls; they called to them not to jump—to wait. The girls were quiet and ciinging together, ap- parently In a panic of dumb and hopeless horror. The engines were already playing. and the steam from the jets of water drew a thicker and thicker veil of white mist, oo~ casionally blown aside by a light and ris- ing wind, between the clamering e below and the isolated girls abowe. 4 old woman pressed her hands aguinst her head. “My Kitty! My KittyP she groaned monotonously over aand over again. They heard the jarring of the hooks and ladders through the chuffing steam and the murmuring crowd, and then in the blowing smoke they saw two men set the top of the ladder against the row of win- dows marking the floor next below that where the girls were. They could not put it higher, 1 had curled up around the above, and evidently the smoke was b ming -stifiing there, for the girls put their heads farther out of the window. They could see Mr. Murphy's long body hurrying up the ladder; he stood oa the top rung and steadied himself with one hand on a projecting rain pipe. The girle began to speak and to cling together then, and the old woman stopped moan- ing. He held out his right arm. “Just drop alsy,” they could hear him call; the girl pressed closest to the win- dow casing got out and polsed giddily on the sill. “Hang by your hands!” he shouted; she clambered down, hung, and dropped safe and plumb, caught in his arm, The ladder trembled, the crowd yelled hoarsely, and the girl, dizsy and white, was helped down by the other firemen to the crowded sidewalk, where the old wo- YOOWETHING FINER, & 7 4 EMORFE HELPFOL TOWARD : A " T T S S 7 e i 4 B e Uit B s e e i o . / 3 3 e ot Sanene i s s 3 5 %flfi D 7 the ground Murphy turned around to the # ¢ hurrahing, weeping people, and dlimbed (Copyright, 1908). N the most crowded part of Btate street, Chicago, 1is a beautiful candy store. It stands, gay and glittering, in the midst of all the hurrying and nervous anxiety of shoppers and of busi- ness men, and it is just as gay and as glittering when the alr is richly yellow with dar -coal smoke, when all the are drabbled and when one is either dragging despondently € distractedly as it is when the walks look wide and clean, when the air blows free and cool from the lake, when the women have white gloves and every one seems to be taking a pleasant promenade. It e decorated with pink and white stucco silver, like a birthday cake or & paper-lace valentine, and it has a warble floor and dazzling mir- vieible from the outside the broad, high windows. But is pink and white, these beveled glasses and lustrous floors are only the shrine of what les in long rows on the showcases. This is sometimes balls of rich, smooth, black chocolate; sometimes twists of pale, creamy molasses; some- times dignified eolumne of shining, striped crimson and white peppermint sticks and ; & il | Literary Furor? Well Rather! f E.W. TOWNSEND the Famous Author of Chimmie Fadden Will Make His Debutasa Writer for GhHhe Sunday Call | Next Sunday. someumes chaste, snowy squares of op- €ra caramels, looking doubtless much as manna looked, but revealing to the taste the ethereal sweetness of the ambrosia of the ecstatic gods. Inside, of course, there are lavender, candied violet leaves and pink, candled rose leaves, whose flavor is doubtless much lfke that of the pear] dis- solved in wine and which are probably bought only by people who choose their pleasures rather from a degenerate esthetic ambition than from a healthy, natural taste, Amid the mingled fragrances of these condiments and of nuts, raisins and sug- ared almonds move lightly and gracefully numbers of extremely pretty shopgirls; and of all these shopgirls the very pret- tiest was Annie O'Grady. Annie O'Grady had the sunniest smile, the deepest dimples, the bluest eyes, the fluffiest brown hair, the most fairy-like figure, the whitest apron and the pinkest shirt walst. . Her days she spent in smilingly tying up bexes of candy, always hospitably handing out a plece to the customer be- fore she closed the box; in tripping about with & tray of ice cream soda water, In allowing children to choose their pur- chases by tasting them and in tactfully guiding men, doubting over offerings to young girls, into the judiclous path of mixed chocolates. Her evenings and her holidays she spent in the attendance of butchers’ and gro- cers’ picnies in Ogden's Grove, and of the Blks', the Foresters' and the fire- men's balle, masquerades and dancing parties, at the numerous and pressing in- vitations of the happy young milkman, floor walkers and firemen honored with her acquaintance and favor. She lived with a married sister, to whom she gave almost all her wages, and of whose crowded Irish flat she was the light and joy; and justly, for she was so good that she used to take numbers of her little nieces and nephews with hee Wwhen she went to walk in the park with Mr. Murphy or Mr. Sullivan on Sundays, This, too, Wwas not because she was apa- thetic to the charms of these gentlemen, for, indeed, Mr. Murphy, who was widely popular among his brother firemen and cven in the social circles of the police, a!;;orbed most of her réMections. T. Murphy was a large dark blue Irishman, with very square shoulders and a yery long waist, He had quick, gay blue eves, a small top for His head, an enormous face and a long upper lip, covered with a deep black cataract of mustache. He used almost always to lead the grand march at the Eiks' ball, and he often awarded the prizes for the wheelbarrow race, the three-legged race and the fat men's race at the picnics at Ogden’s Grove. It was a grand sight to see him swooping down a room in a twoe step with a high-stepping, prancing gait, holding his partner's hand lightly and proudly between his finger and thumb, or cutting a pigeon wing after elegantly banding a partner back in allemande left. Besides these material exterior advant- ages he possessed the innate spiritual charm of good nature. He used to lunge at and tickle the nieces and nephews when they appeared ready for a walk in- stead of looking slightly sullen and mo- rose, as Mr Sullivan and Mr. O'Mara sometimes aid. Annie used to think with pleasure of hig arrival whenever she had a new hat or a new collar; and she felt an especial, even a proprietary, interest when she heard the fire bells clanging. down the ladder. They shook his hand, some of them kissed it, they wept over him; they cheered for him; they carried him on their shoulders. It cannot be said that Mr. Murphy knew so well how to behave on this occa~ sion as he knew how to behave in dis- tributing the prizes of the Elks or in lead- ing the grand march. He hung his head and even growled when the old women kissed his hand, and ed they wouldn’t do it; and when observed Kitty and her parent excitedly approach- ing him he longed more than for anything else to be able to get out of their way. But when he saw on the outskirts of the people pressing around him Annie and the little McGarrigles, laughing and ery- ing, it occurred to him with thrilling con- viction that this incident would give him a considerable pull over Mr. O'Mars and Mr. Sullivan. His hope was not vain. “I'm afraid I won’t see you any more in the candy store,” Annie said to Mrs, La Grange on the next day over the counter, Mrs. La Grange made a low, dignified sound, expressive of regret and inquiry. “I ain’t golng to be here after the first of the month,” continued Annie. “T'm going to be married. I'll be real sorry not to see you so often. I started to see you Saturday, but I didn’t get the time.” “I'm glad you didn’t come.” sald Mrs. La Grange. It had, Indeed, been the fternoon of her paper at the club. I got caught In that big fire. Did you #ee about it In the newspapers?” “Yes, indeed,” sald Mrs. La Grange It was not a part of her Christian Science philosophy to acknowledge that flames might be painful, but she was sometimes startled into moments of sanity and incon- sistency. “That brave fireman who caught the girls—I thought of your cousin at the time—I hope he wasn’t in 1t.” Annte looked down at the candy box she was filling: the tears crowded to her syes. “That was him,” she said. Mrs. La Grange's heart beat with sym- pathetic pride. “Why, Annie!"” she sald It's him I'm going to marry, too,” sald ., glancing distraitly about the shop shining eyes. ® certainly deserves to be made hap- py,” sald Mrs. La Grange. “And you, Annie, you know how much I hope you will be happy, dear child.” “Oh, I'm not afrald.” sald Annie, with humble confidence. “He's lots too good for me.” Meanwhile two young sirls, admirers of Mrs. La Grange, had come up from the end of the store. “I've felt proud of being a Chicagoan ever since yesterday.” sald one. ““Yes, indeed,” sald the other. They were refer@ing to Mrs. La Grange's paper. Bat Mrs. La Grange's head was so full of fire that she honestly misunderstood them. She was absorbed in the sense of something finer, more helpful toward pro- than any paper she had ever s,” she answered, “T don’t see how anything could be more inspiring tham such a perfect and humble courage.” ADVERTISEMENTS. DR. 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