Part 24 (1/2)

CHAPTER XI.

LIFE AT THE FIVE POINTS.

MADALINA, THE RAG-PICKER'S DAUGHTER.

”Youth is bought more oft, than begged or borrowed.”

Some wounds do never heal.

Although all my scenes are connected, and bear some relation one to the other, yet they are not continuous. Like the Panorama of Niagara, we must go back, cross over, look up, look down, first from this point of view, then from that, to see all the scenes of that wonder of wonders.

So here, where a mighty torrent rushes on, sweeping a mult.i.tude down the great cascade, we have to look at scene after scene, before we can join them all together into one panoramic view. Our scenes, too, are as real and life-like as those. Sometimes a tree here, a flower there, then a little spray, then a cloud, or the natural color, a little heightened to give effect, and make the picture more vivid; but the rocks and rus.h.i.+ng torrent, the real foundation of the picture, are all as nature made them. So it is with my present panoramic view of ”Life Scenes in New York.”

Again I s.h.i.+ft the scene. Still you will find characters that you have met before, will meet again. It is a tale of sorrow, but a tale of truth.

A little girl was weeping there, Pearl drops of bitter tears, And hope with her was sleeping where She spent her youthful years; Her useless life was fleeing fast, Her only school the street; The future, gloomy shadows cast, Where e'er she set her feet.

Her ev'ry day had one sad end, Her ev'ry night the same; Or sick, or well, she had no friend, 'Twere worthy of that name.

A mother gave this child her birth, Or else she had not been; But Judas like that mother's worth-- She sold her child to sin!

For gold she gave her child to sin, For gold her child betray'd; What gold would you, dear mother, win, Your own to thus degrade?

What gold would you to others give, From sin such others save?

Though gold is good to those who live, 'Tis useless in the grave.

Poor Madalina claims a tear, From those her story read Pray stop and pay that tribute here, It is her only meed.

Now con her story careful o'er, Her life was one of grief, She needs not now your pity more-- To others give relief.

I suppose there are some who will turn away in disgust from the double t.i.tle of this chapter. What, they will say, can ”Life at the Five Points” have in it that is interesting to me, who lounge on silk brocatelle, and look down upon beggar girls and rag-pickers--disgusting objects--through lace curtains that cost more, to every window, than would furnish a hundred families in that locality with better furniture than they now possess?

No doubt you will turn away in disgust at the very sight of the t.i.tle of ”The Rag-picker's Daughter.” Yet you may find something in the character of ”Madalina,” which will make you love the name. I should not wonder, in some of my walks through the city in future years, to hear that pretty name spoken to some sweet child, yet to be born in rose-perfumed chamber.

Then pa.s.s not by my tale of one so lowly. See how sweet is a cup of cold water to the dying.

Read.

”Sir,” said the door-keeper, to Mr. Pease, one night, ”little Madalina, the beggar girl, is at the door, crying bitterly, and says she wants to see you.”

”I suppose,” said the tired missionary, ”I answered hastily, perhaps petulantly, for I had been very much engaged all day. Tell her to go away, I cannot see her to-night; it is eleven o'clock, and I am very tired. She must come to-morrow.”

The poor fellow turned upon his heel to go away, but as he did so, the glimpse of his hand and motion of the coat sleeve across his eyes, told a story.

”Tom,” said Mr. P., ”Tom, my dear boy, what is the matter?”

Tom did not turn round as he had been taught, and usually did, so as to look him full in the face when he answered; in fact he did not answer readily; there was a choking sensation in his utterance which prevented the words from coming forth distinctly.

Now, this boy had been but a short time in ”the Home,” and perhaps a more squalid, wretched, drunken boy, cannot be found in the purlieus of the Five Points, than he was when he was almost literally picked out of the gutter, as he had been once before he came here finally, in the way you have already seen. Once before, he had actually been dragged out of the filthiest hole in Anthony street, brought in, washed and dressed, before he came to, so as to be conscious of the change that had come over him. Then he was brought back again to his low degradation, by just such wretches and ways of the wicked as were brought to bear upon poor Reagan, and will be upon many others, while the destroyer is permitted to walk abroad like a pestilence at noon-day. Now this outcast, who had cared for nothing human, not even himself, stood vainly trying to choke down his grief for the sorrows of a little beggar girl.

Were the reminiscences of one, almost as low down in the scale of humanity, running through his mind--one who, after having been herself lifted up, had exerted an influence upon him to his salvation?