THE RED TENEMENT.

Auckland Star, Volume XXIII, Issue 108, 7 May 1892, Page 4 (Supplement)

THE RED TENEMENT.

I think the person in whom was centered my greatest interest for a number of months, although I knew nothing of him except his name, was Simon Webber. I became interested the first time I saw him and my interest never waned for the next fifty-two weeks. There was a rustic seat on the corner of the street just opposite to where I lived, and on this he was seated the first time I saw him. By his side was a dark haired, brown eyed child—the only person whom he looked at the second time and tho only thing that seemed toliave any attraction for him, except something in the direction of my house. He sat there for about three hours, then, taking the child's hand in his, walked away and I did not see him again for two weeks. It was ou Sunday morning, as it was before, and near the same hour when he seated himself in tho same place, and divided his attention between the child and what I thought to be my house. He staid there for about two hours, then went away as he did before. After he had turned the corner I stepped out on the banquette and surveyed my premises to see if I could discover wherein lay the attraction for the man, but I failed, so went indoors no wiser than when I came out.

I pondered over it for sometime, and just as I concluded to give it no more thought I saw Simon again in his usual place and as much occupied as ever in house gazing. And there he came with the child always on Sunday—twice a month for the next ten months. He had a good looking, though a very serious face, and the child was quite pretty. Many a woman smiled at the little one and threw a second glance at him.

My housemaid, a girl of sixteen, became very absentminded, and my powder bo.*c and pinching irons were far more frequently in her room than in mine. This mado me think of something else, and after noticing her more closely I saw her sitting at the window, considerably bedecked and adorned, coquetting with or at Simon Webber.

I thought at once that she was the magnet which had such a drawing effect upon the man, but in this I was mistaken, as I afterward found out, for not once did he nod his head to her, and long after she left he continued to come at regular intervals. And I continually wondered what his business was—if my house was haunted and he on the lookout for the ghost. This was not a very soothing thought, so I determined to put the question to him and rest easily or uneasily, according to his answer.

When I did he looked at me calmly for a moment, then replied: "Your house haunted? Not that I know of," and without saying another word he turned the corner, leading the child, and I went back wondering if he was altogether right in his mind, and this I continued to think over until one day several months later.

There had been a severe storm the night before, particularly damaging to the electric wires. Many of the poles were split from end to end, others bent, and most of them lying flat on the ground. Wires were kinked, twisted in knots and scattered all over the streets. Betimes the next morning men were busily engaged in setting new poles and putting the fixtures into proper condition. As I glanced down the long line of men working like so many bees my eyes fell on the familiar face of Simon Webber, whom I had not seen for several weeks, and his little companion. The little one sat on the lower step of a cottage, swinging her feet and seemingly perfectly contented with herself and the world in general. It was too cold, I thought, for a child of such tender years to be so long without fire, so permission to bring her indoors was granted me reluctantly by Simon. When the work had reached completion, he stood at my door waiting for tho child, but at my earnest solicitation he came in and partook with great zest a cup of steaming coffee. As he returned to me the cup, he said gravely: "You some time ago asked me a question which I answered rather uncivilly. I was very unhappy that morning. Knowing this, I hope you will pardon me." After I replied he dropped his eyes to the floor, and allowing them to follow the outlines of a figure in the carpet, he in his slow, measured tone went on. "I think you must have seen me many times on this street, looking intently at something which you no doubt for a time imagined to be this house, but it was not. Tho red tenement sits ono block back of there. To a-void the publicity that would have been the consequence of going on the street on which it was built I came here, where a pretty fair view of it is to be had by looking between 475 and 477, a little westward, which gave you the impression that I was watching your house. Three years ago I was a lineman and had been since I was quite a youth. One evening just about dusk, I went up to a pole that hadn't been in order for quite awhile. While I was examining some of the wires a voice asked me, almost in a whisper, to come down a minute. Of course my first impulse before moving an inch was to look for the person, and I saw a young woman standing at the base of the pole.

"In one moment I was beside her, looking into her pretty face and wondering who she was and what her business could be with a lineman. She looked around a little nervously, then said: 'Won't you please lend me your spurs for one moment? I stayed out a little late so I dare not climb the stairs, and there's but one other way to reach my room—by climbing tho pole. I must hurry or he'll see me. Please don't refuse.'

"I was so astonished at the request that I took no time to ask myself whether she was risking her life or not, but went back up the pole as fast as I could, marking with chalk where she should "ptit her hands, and quicker than it takes to tell it, I strapped my spurs around her feet and watched her ascend that polo almost as well as I could.

"When she reached the top she gave a spring, and clinging to the window for one moment to regain her breath she made a swinging motion and landed safely in her room. She disappeared for a few seconds, then tossed into my hands my spurs wrapped in a thick towel, together with a slip of paper on which was written: 'Don't think strangely of me. I will explain first opportunity. I thank you a thousand times.'

"That pole was on the right hand corner of the red tenement looking north. I had been there many times, but had never seen her before, but that may have been attributed to the fact of my never looking to the right or left, or ever having paid any attention to anybody's windows, or even any one on the street. I walked a few blocks up and returned just in time to see a rough looking fellow dart in a back alley just as an old man climbed the steps and entered the room in which the young woman had gone.

"I turned my steps toward my lodging quarters, but I was thinking all the time of that girlish face, the gray old man and the rough looking chap, and wondering who they were. I never went near the red tenement after that without glancing up at her window, an act I had never been guilty of before, and was usually awarded with a smile. I saw her, I think, a half dozen times in as many weeks, but only from the street, while she seemed always busy in her room with her household duties. One morning while I was on duty she attracted my attention by rapping sharply on the window pane with her thimble.

"As I looked up she said just loud enough for me to hear, 'If you've time, come through the back alley, up the steps at left entrance at 11 o'clock this morning.' i "At the*-__ooin.ted_hpur_J r; }___~ sßijjps,in.

an entry leading to" .tie' stairway, and she was with me. 'As yon may know,' sho be-' gan, 'there's a dreadful mixture of people' in this house, with whom I have nothi_. to do, and they in turn hate me for it. One under this roof is an unpleasant looking ' man, whom my father wishes me to marry : on account of his business prospects, and I suppose, his attachment for me. H e has annoyed me so with his attentions that I almost hate him, and he knows it. He is ■ jealous and has a very mean disposition. I' da.ro not go out at anytime without hisknowing it and speaking of the fact in such a way that my father, who is dread- . fully strict, hears him and gives me a leo.' tare. If he sees me walking home with a young man, or sees me get a letter or hand one to the postman, he tells it; then oj course, father wants to know all about it. " 'The rest of these delightful people are forever spying too. The consequence ia I am forever in hot water. Now on Lehigh. street, SSO, there's a man whom I like very much. Robert Baring is his name. He knows you qnite well by sight. I will thank you exceedingly if you will give hiqi this note and stop there when you're oj_ your way here, so if he has any message for me he will give it to you. You see, father doesn't allow him to visit me, so we don't see each other very often—-only when I can slip ouc for an hour or so, when he joins me and we take a walk. If you'll be our letter carrier we'll get along much better. Then by being a little careful George Birch will be so nicely outwitted. When he has no more teles to tell I wonder what he will do. Well, I suppose you *, are willing to be our mutual friend, aren't you?' "She was standingthereand had laid her hand in mine. I promised to serve her, then left her by the way I'd come. In the months that followed I saw her many times and carried to and fro many messages between the sweethearts. I had been their mail carrier for six months and had given her a start up the pole almost as many times, when her father died. Of course her lover went to see her then as often as he liked, so there was no more need of me. One morning about twa months after her father's death she *j_n down stairs and overtook me as I turned the corner. She told me she was to be married that night at the minister's residence and that she and Robert wanted me to be one of the witnesses.

"I consented, though wondered if she didn't know what a hard request she'd made of me. I stood up there bravely, though it took all my power to do so, and saw Katie Allen give herself to Robert Baring, and I wondered if he did then or ever would love her as devotedly as I did. Shortly afterward I doubted it very much. He was not overly kind to her, staid out at clubs late and was not as considerate for her feelings as he should have been. I saw her just often enough to know she was. very unhappy, though only a bride of ten months.

"George Birch became very sullen. He never spoke to Baring except to tantalize, and when he'd been married one year Birch so grossly insulted him that there was an altercation in which both were wounded. Baring died within twenty-four hours, but Birch lived to suffer awhile.

"He had a lingering spell, then improved, only to get worse later. Katie had been a widow for a year, when she sent for me to tell me that George was dying and wanted to see her. She was very nervous and miserable; she dreaded going, yet had no wish to refuse. I advised her to go and went also, at least as far as the steps. I wouldn't go in the room. When she came out there were tears in her eyes and she looked pale and frightened. She told me in a low voice, almost in a whisper, that he was dead. I walked with her to her door, then left her alone with her unhappy thoughts. Her husband left her but little wealth, so she went back to the northwest room of the red tenement, the one in which I'd first, seen her, which she rented quite cheaply and managed very well, with her baby \ girl for c«mpany and a small hired girl for help.

"I visited her only occasionally unty, sho left off her garb of mourning, then I went there more frequently. In time she ised to bo my wife, but three years went by : without her setting our wedding day. She i told mc that George Birch had said that if .j she married rhe or any one else he'd give • her no peace, but haunt her day and night. t She did not want to believe that he could, ' but weeks before the day set for our mar- •: riage she was in a terribly nervous state, '.- and declared she'd seen George in her door every night for a month. >; "The evening before we were to be mar- , ried I was sitting in the room holding her child on my knee and thinking of the bright* morrow when the back door opened suddenly and she screamed: 'Look at George Birch! It is not his ghost, but him, himself. See how he looks at me! My God! I can't stand it! 1 can't marry you, Simon— I can't—l can't. Save my child; don't let her see that face!' She moaned, wrung her hands and looked mad.

"I went two blocks for a physician, but when I returned Katie was gone. I looked for her, and others, too, but we never found her or heard any tidings bearing on the subject. The general opinion was that in her fright and excitement she had destroyed herself. But how, without there being some evidence afterward, I am puzzled to know. "I sold my new home, or the place that was to have beenour home, and taking her child I took up my abode hi my same old lodging house and there I've lived ever since for this child, who will be a second Katie Allen in beauty. God grant her a happier life. "I gave up my position as a lineman. I could not climb a pole without thinking o£ her. Since then I've been knocking around, doing anything that came to my hand, until today, -whien I was called into service through necessity.

"The red tenement is sold and is to be baken down. Hearing this I've been coming here now and then, each time thinking 'twas the last, to look at the house where I first met and loved my beautiful"

Simon passed, looked fondly at littlo Katie, then gathered her in his arms, tucked her feet within the front of his coat, bowed silently, crossed the street and walked slowly, with eyes full to the brim and quivering lips, to the room in which he lived with every crevice of his heart open to admit the light from baby eyes and the music of childish prattle, hoping it would in time overcome the somber dream 3 of . blasted hone.- ~" *