Democratic Sentinel, Volume 15, Number 41, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 30 October 1891 — A Bret Harte Story from Real Life. [ARTICLE]

A Bret Harte Story from Real Life.

It was a tender-hearted American who saved the murdered Severn Cisneros from burial in a pauper’s grave. When he visited the undertaker’s where lay the bodies of murderer and murdered, he was perceptibly under the influence of liquor. “Say, pard," he said to Carl Schussel, “that gal died afore she wanted to, didn’t she?* “Yes, sir." “And that feller there murdered her?" “So it is said. ” “And ye’r giving him a big burial?” “His friends are. ” “Ye’r say the gal’s got to go to the Potter’s Field?” “I am afraid so.” “Where’s her mother?” “She has none. ” “But she had one onc’t, and she's got to havo a square deal and be buried right Here’S *2O to got her somethin* to wear what’s fit to be planted In. Here’s »20 to get a better coffin with, and here’s-slu for a broken wheel of flowers. Let’s not have It said that old ’Frisco gives the murderer a biggor send-off than that poor girl what he killed. Good by, old paid ” “What’s your name, please? This is an act of rare generosity. ” “Ilave a drink, pard, but my name's my own biz.”—San Francisco Report.