Democratic Sentinel, Volume 8, Number 18, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 30 May 1884 — THE BAD BOY. [ARTICLE]

THE BAD BOY.

"Don’t speak to me,” said the grocery man to the bad boy, as he showed np .in liia shirt-sleeves early one morning, and acted familiar with his old friend. 'Go right away from here, and please keep away, forever. I have overlooked abont a thousand of your eccentric characteristics, because yon have argued wito me, and showed me that yon were actuated by worthy motives. But this last thing yon have done has been the last hair that has broken the camel’s back, and henceforth you and I are strangers, and I will take it as a favor if you will keep on your own side of the street,” and the grocery man opened the door and pointed the way out. “What seems to be eating yon?” said the bad boy, as he went to the backend of the grocery, leaving the grocery man pointing out the open door, sat down on the high stool by the desk, and began to fignre on a piece of brown paper, with a stub pencil. “You most be troubled with worms, and there is nothing better for worms than vermifuge. What have I done now, tlmt causes you such agony ?” “Done ? You have disgraced yourself, your family, and me, and everybody. Didn’t I see yon go down an alley last night, in your shirt sleeves, locked armß with that nigger boy who lives down there ? Don’t deny it, confound yon, cause I was watching yon, and the nigger was drunk or something, because he staggered, and I don’t believe you were much better. That comes of loafing around and being bad. When a white boy associates with nigners, and takes them home when they are drunk, that is all I want to know. Niggers are no better than cattle, and I never saw one that I would walk a block with for a million dollars. Now, own np, didn’t you go down the alley with the nigger, and ain’t you ashamed of yourself. ” “O, is that all? Yes, I did walk with the colored boy, and if I had not held him up he would have fallen down, and lam not ashamed of it. Here is a list of groceries I want you to send to that boy’s house, down in the alley, if you are not ashamed to deliver things in an alley, and here is the money to pay for them, and now fly around, old bar soap.” And the boy took an orange and began to excavate it with his under teeth. “O, that is different," said the grocery man, as he took the list and began to hurry to fill it. “Maybe lam wrong, as usual, but I can’t bear niggers. What was the cause of your helping him home Hennery ?” “There was cause enough. I was coming down toward the river and I saw abont fifty people standing on the br dge, watching a little German child drown, and yelling to everybody to do something. The child had fallen off the wood dock where she was picking up chips. Just as I got there I saw this colored boy throw off his coat and shoes and jump in, and in few seconds he had hold of the child and swam to ■the dock with her and held her np, and somebody pulled her out, and they forgot all about the little ‘nigger,’ as yon call him, and he would have drowned in the dirty water if I hadn’t reached the butt of my fishpole down to him to climb up on. They took the rescued white child away, and brought her to by rolling her on a barrel, and no one thought anything about the colored boy, they were all so glad the little girl was saved. When the crowd went away somebody had stolen the coat anil shoes of the colored boy, and he was not very well, ’cause he had pneumonia in March, and the smell of the nasty river water made him turn pale, and he was weak as a cat, so I polled off my shoes and coat and made him put them on, and took him home. The patrol wagon came, and the policemen would have taken him home in that, but the colored boy said he couldn’t go in the patrol wagon cause his mother was sick, and if she should see him brought home in a patrol w agon it would scare her into fits. So I took him home, and went in ahead and broke the news that her boy was all right to the poor colored lady, who was sitting up in bed with a small wash tub in her lap trying to do some washing for a customer of hers, when she looked as though she was pretty near dead. Gosh, but they are poor ! The mother washes for a living, and the boy skirmishes around anywhere he can earn 10 cents. I gave him my coat and shoes, and went home and got some of my underclothes that are too warm for me, and I took the wash-tub away from the old mother and made her rest, and our hired girl is going to finish the washing and iron the clothes, and I am going to take them to the man she washes for, and I have adopted that ‘nigger’ and his ma till they get well. Now hurry np them groceries.” “Well, you are a daisy,” said the grocery man, as he went to the door to call his delivery wagon man. “Yon are

“No, I ain’t, either; I’m a heathen,” said the boy, as he counted out the pennies and nickels that looked as though they had been taken out of his savings-bank at home. “I am a disgrace to my family and friends, ’cause . I associate with a ‘ nigger.’ People go to war and spend billions and qumtillions of dollars to free colored men, and pass laws that they shall be equal to the average white man, and they associate with them when they want their votes, but when anybody associates with a colored person, unless they have a selfish object in view, and have got an ax to grind, they are a disgrace to their families. That colored boy did not stop to think of his health, of the danger of being drowned or asphyxiated by the foul river, but jumped in the water to save life, and what was his reward ? He had his coat and shoes and socks stole, and had to crawl out of the water like a dog. Oh, this is a nice country, and you are a nice old fool, ain’t yon ?” “Say, kick me, thump me, do anything,” said the grocery man, “but I want you to bring that colored boy here, and I will give him all the groceries he can lug homo,” and the grocery man asked the Iwv's pardon, and he went down the alley to see how hia adopted colored family was getting along.— Peck’s Sun. The grass of th'e field vis often employed as a figure to teach the short* ness of lifo.