A THIEF'S GENEROSITY.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XXX, Issue 289, 7 December 1896, Page 4

A THIEF'S GENEROSITY.

.-7 S-ime time ago a young girl went upon* the-stagO-; she was prettyj delicate, and .-.very poor.. Her mother 1 and * younger sister were , argely dependent on her for support, and she lived six miles away 'rom the theatre. This concatenation of circumstances made life a hopeless . drudgery. Finally her jhance oame. The manager of the theatre where she played was bringing out a new piece, and her part was a good one. The rehearsals were long and arduous, but she bravely travelled baok and forth to the theatre four times every ;day — to tbe rehearsals in the morning and again in the evening, when she played a part in a lever do rideau. One morning she arrived feeling very tired and ill; the rehearsal was long, and her responsibilities seemed too great to be borne. At last the moment arrived when she received her weekly salary, and was free to go home. Oh ! that weekly salary, there was so muoh to be done with it ! Fiißt, then, a new hat for her Bister, boots for her mother ; and for herself, sha must add a few details to her pretty dress for the . new piece. How was it ail to be done with her few pounds ? Her head throbbed and she felt weak and weary. Suddenly, in passing through a small ciowded Bireet, a big rough boy jostled her, snatched her purse, and ran away. The catastrophe was so hideous and appalling tbat she was stricken dumb ;' she could not have cried ' ." Stop thief 1 "if her life had depended upon it., A dreadful despair Beamed to tighten her heartstrings — penniless, ill, unknown, and six miles from borne, She felt almost as if she should fall. Suddenly the boy at the top of the sireet looked baok. Her whi'e, stricken faoe and j despairing attitude so appealed to him that he hesitated a moment, and, walking rapidly towards her, thrust the purse into her hand. " Here," he said, " you need this more than i do," : She did not see him vanish, for her troubled eyes were too full of tears. This is no flight of fanoy ; it really ooouned in London during the dvii days of August. It illustrates how powerfully one soul crieß out to another, and with what energy a weak girl oan arrest and turn the steps of a criminal by power of anguish only. I often think that if we gave more attention to the soul, to the. will, to the. intelligence, and strove to understand them better, we wonld reaoh a higher control of the body, lhere is no sequel to the story, except that the girl had a moderate success in her part, and went away to the sea for a muchneeded holiday. And the boy P Perhaps that white, blue-ejed, tragic faoe follows him, and arrests him in h.s downward oareer, At any ra c, it makes one more hopeful of tinman nature to realise that even in the breast of a oriminal there is a germ of pity and ssmpathy and justice too strong to be always resisted.—JKxohange^