CHILDREN’S CORRESPONDENCE COLUMN.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XX, Issue XVIII, 30 April 1898, Page 559

CHILDREN’S CORRESPONDENCE COLUMN.

Any boy or girl who likes to become a cousin can ao so, and write letters to ‘ Cousin Kate, care of the Lady Editor. ‘Graphic’ Office, Auckland. Write on one side of the paper only. All purely correspondence letters with en elope ends turned in arc carried through the Post Office as follows:—Not exceeding Aoz. |d ; not exceeding 4oz, Id ; for every additional 2oz or fractional part thereof, |d. It is well for correspondence to be marked ‘ Press Manuscript only.’ Please note, dear cousins, that all letters addressed to Cousin Kate roust now bear the words * Press Manuscript only. If so marked, and the flap turned in, and not overweight, they will come for a Ad stamp in Auckland, buc a Id from every other place. THE ‘GRAPHIC’ COUSINS COT FUND. This fund is for the purpose of maintain ing a poor, sick child in the Auckland Hospital, and is contributed to by the ‘ Graphic ’ cousins—readers of the children’s page. The cot has been already bought by their kind collection of money, and now £25 a year is needed to pay for the nursing, food and medical attendance of the child in it. Any contributions will be gladly received by Cousin Kate, care of the Latty Editor, ‘ New Zealand Graphic,' Shortland street, or collecting cards will be sent on application. MR MARGERINE It was the time of the great Dock Strike in London. A young man went to his comfortable breakfast, and read in the morning paper the miserable records of starvation among the working people. His very heart turned sick within him. ‘ I can’t eat,’ he said, ‘ I’ve no right to be fed while these poor wretches starve. I am going down to the docks.’ His resources were not large. He earned his living by literature, and that does not mean a fortune. But he hail a little money set aside, and he took that little with him. He went first to a Church Belief Association, and found that its benefactions were confined to a certain parish. ‘We are taking care of our own poor,’ the manager said. ‘lt is all we can do. And the situation is horrible. Suppose you take Dey-street, and see what you can do.’ The young man hurried off to Dey Street. He saw there an enormous building, a sort of rookery, it seemed to him, in which birds of evil omen might gather. He entered it, and the woman who had it in charge met him upon the threshold. He asked if there was much suffering in her house. ‘Yes,’ she answered, ‘very much,’ and then told him on what floors he would find the -worst cases. Making his way among them, the visitor discovered for the first time what the poor may be to each other in"time of troublehow much. courage and manliness may go hand in hand with starvation. He had provided himself, at a provision shop, with a huge basket of food, and it chanced that the word ‘ Margerine ’ was painted on the outside of the basket in big, black letters. He stopped, with this basket on his arm, at all the doors the housekeeper had mentioned. At one of them a pale, haggard-looking man appeared ; but he refused all aid. ‘lt aint that I’m al>ove bein’ helped,’ the man said, ‘ but I’ve got enough ahead to keep me and mine in bread for one week more. If the strike aint off by then. I’ll take help and thank you ; but there’s worse off than w'e are now, and they must lie seen to first.’ On, from room to room, the young man went, with his basket on his arm. One poor mother burst out into wild sobbing. ‘ O God bless you, sir, (lod bless you !’ she cried. ‘ I thought these little uns would ’a’ lieen dead before to-morrow, and you’ve saved ’em. God bless you !’ He left bread here and a bit of bacon there, and some bovril for a woman to drink who was too far gone to eat anything. At last he went down the long flights of stairs, and again he found the woman who

kept the house. She had said nothing to him of any needs of her own ; but he had noticed a strange, hollow look almut her eyes, and had seen that her lips were strangely white. The thought of her had gone with him all through his round of visits, and he had kept in his basket a loaf of bread and a bit of bacon. ‘ When did you eat anything last?’ he said to her, when he found her again. The colour surged into her cheeks, and her voice trembled as she answered, ‘ Oh, I had something day before yesterday. Yon know they can’t pa their rents now.’ ‘ And you never even spoke of yourself I 1 ‘ Well, I knew some of them upstairs hadn’t had anything to eat for three days. And I ’ ‘ And you starve,’ cried the boy, for he was a boy in heart though he had passed his twenty-third birthday. He emptied his basket on her table, and went out into the air. The strike lasted five days longer. The young man hardly knew how they passed. He worked some hours of the day at space work for which he got immediate pay, and every day he went down to the docks. They learned to expect his visits, as they looked for the sunrise. Mr Margerine they hail called him at first, because of the name on his basket. They called him ‘ Our Mr Margerine ’ before the five dark days were ended, and when the strike was over he felt that he had tasted a cup of joy so sweet and full that life could hardly hold anything more blessed. One day, some months afterwards, he was walking through a crowded city street, and he felt some one pull gently at the skirt of his coat. He looked, and a small boy smiled up at him. ‘ Say, mister, do you like the “ Pall Mall ’’ best, or the “ Globe ?” ’ squeaked a little voice. The young man hesitated at this sudden demand, but the little voice went on, ‘ Cause I wants to give yer one ’cause you saved my mar’s life, Mr Margerine, and I don’t forgit it.’