Part 5 (1/2)
The days i for employment were forlorn and miserable; I was the fifth wheel of a coach which no one wanted Finally, when I had spent arly meal, I saw an advertisement for a teacher in the reforardedeye; told me two teachers had recently been driven frohest boys that ever went unhung; but if I wished to try it, he would pass rasped at the chance like a drowningnearly 1,000 hard looking specie hall, in which, at a tap of the bell, great doors were rolled on iron tracks to subdivide it into e of a lady assistant The organ pealed out the notes for the opening song which was given fairly well; but when I atte of the responsive ritual, a stalwart young giant hurled a book at my head, and bedlaleader by the hair and collar, and with a strength hitherto undreahts to a closet door, hurled hi and turned the key The boys said afterwards that fire flashed frorasped a heavy stick, used for raising the s, and told them in stentorian tones of a desperate man, that I would break the heads of all ere not instantly in their seats The schoolma'ams quivered with fear, but the boys slunk to their places and I harangued them to the effect, that they could have peace or war; if peace, they would be treated kindly and be taught to become successful men; if war, they alone would suffer, for I had come there to stay
I tried to inspire these poor vicious boys, conceived in sin and born in iniquity, with the thought that knowledge is power; that reatest and best of earth had risen froht and liberty of the children of God; that they could becoood; that if they would set their faces resolutely towards the better life, I would gladly help to the utmost of ht that is never seen on sea or shore One touch of nature makes the whole world kin They had never been appealed to in that way before, and the spark of goodness lying dormant in even the most depraved natures, responded to the breath of kindly words
I touched the bell, the great subdividing doors were rolled, and my assistants quietly proceeded to the work of instruction, confident that the as over
When I had ht, and retired to my room, I reflected that every human existence has itsready upon the bough, but, alas! ho are wise enough to pluck theates of the enchanted garden where are flowers and sunshi+ne, or it may condemn us, Tantalus-like, to reach everood I dreamed that the clock of fate had struck the hour for me, that I had found my mission on earth, and that henceforth the ”Peace be still” of the Master would cal the island the next day, I found reat dos towered aloft above the encircling walls, like aerial sentinels warning us to lift our thoughts to the blessings that co by to lands beyond the sea; in front was a veritable bower of paradise, apple and peach-trees fruited deep, green lawns, rippling waters, fair as the garden of the Lord Every prospect pleases and naught but iven from the Harlem shore for the institution's boat
I ju arms of the uniformed boys of our boat's crew propelled us across the river, where two policehteen years of age Quick as a flash she pushed one of the in the air; then she shrieked with laughter and ran like a deer up the street The other policeon, seized the reins fro black driver, plied the whip to his horse and gave chase
”What for you dune dar?” cried the darky
”Shut up!” was the only reply, and aent, Gilpin-like, with the horse on the run We headed off the girl, and after a rough-and-tu, and scratching like a wild-cat We took her byof the prison and put her into a cell
Scarcely was I seated at the table when the alar officer of the day I ran over to inquire the cause, and found the powerful young virago, our prisoner, enjoying herself hugely When the h a hole in the cell, the girl shot out her arrabbed her by the hair and with the other hand was now pulling out the hairs by the roots, sometimes a few at a ti the official's nose against the wall, then knockout blows on the face The ony and faint fro, so I seized a dipper of hot water and dashed it on the girl's naked arm; the matron fell heels over head on one side, and the prisoner executed a somersault in the opposite direction, then jumped to her feet, shook her fist atAmazon had been arrested in a vile den kept on a house-boat in the harbor, and long made life a burden for our woirls in this reform school as compared with the one thousand boys, proved clearly that women, there as elsewhere, are either the best or the worst of the huel she was intended to be, she usually descends to the lowest possible pit of degradation; as soon as this girl in question found there was nothing to be gained by her fiendish outbursts of fury, she cunningly changed her tactics with her pious teacher, and pretended to ”be born again” She ostensibly chose the Bible for her favorite reading, prayed fervently, and became so circumspect in her deportment that she was proirls division
Here she contrived to bake into a cake a letter which she gave to a visitor, who took it to one of her for with her confiding teacher in the garden, a boat appeared rowed by fourhypocrite ju in the rateful depravity, the boy I had chucked into the closet on ht here became my firm friend, and the stroke oar ofa boat ride in the harbor with two of my lady assistants and six stalwart boy oarsmen, when a boat shot out at us froraded woside, one of the women said to the boys: ”Throw that officer overboard, and coet you 400 a piece as bounty, then you can desert froood time” My teachers fainted with fear; my crew rested on their oars, ith desire to escape; it was a crisis I looked them steadily in the eyes
”Boys,” I said, quietly, ”when sinners entice thee, consent thou not--row”
”We won't hurt you,” said et into that boat”
”Never,” said I ”You shall not go to hell, pull!” The rabbed at me, my boys pounded them off with their oars, and one of the men fired two shots which whistled close to orously, and we sailed away amid the jeers and curses of our enemies
”Sherman,” said I, to my stroke oarsman, as we landed on our island, ”why didn't you throw me overboard?”
”You have been kind to us,” he replied, ”and we never go back on our friends”
I had the pleasure before I left this school, to secure good positions for all my crew, and they became useful men I was soon after this promoted to the vice-principalshi+p of the institution, and an ex-ood man, but quite absent-minded He recalled torain, put his wet umbrella into bed with his wife, and stood hiht
One day, when I was off duty, I went sailing with two ladies through ”Little hell Gate,” which rushes with great fury by our island, to the sea All at once the alaret ashore, I ran the boat onto a partially subed rock, and it would have been capsized, had I not jumped out onto the rock and pushed it off Doent under the rushi+ng tide When I came to the surface I saw the white belly of a shark, as he turned to seize me in his jaws I could almost feel his sharp teeth My head struck the side of the boat, just as the ladies, with great presence of rabbed me by the hair, and pulledlike a porpoise, to the wall gate, unlocked it and entered
A frightful scene was before round, covered with blood, and around hi, kicking, and trying to snatch his keys so as to escape by unlocking the gate Luckily my bat hich I had played baseball with the boys stood in the corner, and grabbing this I struck out with all ht and left Just then the guard came up on the run, the wounded man was carried to the hospital, and his assailants locked up
Williams, it appeared, had, in his absent-ates, and let out upon him this horde of ruffians who had been put in there for safe-keeping He finally recovered, but left the island through fear of his life
The discipline of the school wasthem to the music of a brass band composed of the boys themselves They were as proud of their uniforuard of Napoleon, and their ambition was stimulated by merited prohly enjoyed the work of uplifting those waifs on our sea of life; they responded appreciatively to the influence of kindly words and acts, even as the Aeolian harp yields its sweetest music to the caresses of the airs of heaven It was an inspiration to watch the blossoher aspirations, and to feel that ere cooperating with the invisible spirits in developing the hidden angels in this youthful arreed of that organized appetite called ”Tammany Hall,” reached out its devil-fish tentaculae, which neither fear God, nor have anyShylock-faced trustees began to supplant those noble ate of heaven to so ,--children of the vile These avaricious, beastly emissaries of ”Tammany,” soon snarled at us poor teachers that we ive place to those that would Not a school book, or a shi+n-bone for soup, could be bought unless these leeches had a coht enormous baskets and filled them with fruit practically stolen from our children, and carted them home for their own cubs