HIS "KIDDIES.”

Gisborne Times, Volume XXV, Issue 1973, 8 January 1907, Page 1

HIS "KIDDIES.”

A striking story was lately told on the platform by Evangeline Booth, comin tinder of the Salvation Army in America. One night, while Miss Booth sat in her own room, in.one of tho worst parts of London, a poor woman ran in died ° f a fl ' ioUd 110ai ' by Wb ° had Ust

“ Tll oy say she died of cancer, hut it ain’t so, said the woman. “ He’s done it with his drink and his fist! He’s drunk now, too. Tho minute she died ho came an’ tulc the clothes off of the baby and put ’em up the spout! tho local, slang for pawning them. Miss Booth, following lior visitor, went to a cellar, where she found near the body of tho mother two children too young to talk much, curled up on the damp floor. She took them immediately (o her own room, bathed and fed them and put them to>bed.

Three nights afterwards came tho father, still intoxicated His amiable plan, as he announced it, was to wring Miss Booth’s neck, °

Miss Booth told him firmly he could not have his babies, but that lie might look at them if he wished. She then led him to her room, and showed him the babies, their hair combed, their faces rosy, and clean, curled up in bed, dressed in little white “ nighties,” like two angels, or two ordinary happy little ones: I he man continued to bo abusive for a time; then tho words came more slowly. Finally he stopped short, and then burst into tears—not maudlin tears of drunken men this time, but tears marking the shook of an awakening manhood. . “Are them my kiddies?” he asked, finally, in a subdued voieo. Miss Booth finished her story by tho simple statement —“ He never drank again.”