BLIND BEGGAR'S ROMANCE.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 87, 6 January 1908, Page 5

BLIND BEGGAR'S ROMANCE.

'A'woman who had Inst air traces of. hor bylind'brother for 20 years, has just found him again in the strangest .circumstances;

Mile. Marguerite. Bregant, an embroiderer, wa< returning home from hor .work'when'-'on the Saints-Peres bridge a hlind beggar asked for.alms: Remeriiberii)g her lost, blind brother, sho stopped and put a coin 'in the. mug tho blind man held.'

In fining sosho-caught sight of tho name, Hippolyte Bregant, on the metal, plate the blind man bore on'liis chest. She throw her arms round his neck-and kissed him, calling him by name' and 'telling liim .that, sho was his sister. He was" taken with a fit of sobbing, stammering, ''they told mo, you were dead." . '

A crowd gathered, on the bridge,-:' and tho police arrested the'boggar. His sister followed him to the police, station, and "there told, a moving story of their parting. Their father married a second timo when Marguerite was 5 and Hippolito Their stepmother llato dth'em, and thoir father was under her influence. Both woro sent to beg in the streets, thogirl leading tho hlind hoy. "They were arrested and placed in separate reformatories until they came of age. ' . ' ■ / ; '"

When Marguerite was at-length released sh>_sought ovcrywhero-for lier brother with out' success. In .'other ways she prospered and. managed /to' earn a moderate' income.. Never forgetting: hor brother,' she made : it. n practice to give alms to every blind beggar, apractice to give-alms to every hlind beggar. But she had almost abandoned.hope whenat last.''her search was.rewarded.. .

When she had.tild her story the blind nian was released'ami 1 she 1 P( 1 him to her homo. willingly .proriiising that- he should never again be .under the necessity of begging. 1 '