The Reason. (Savannah, GA.) 1908-19??, July 11, 1908, Page 4, Image 4

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4 Since the above was written Judge Parker's complete defeat by the convention has been acknowl edged; so has GufTy, another of Mr. Bryan's most active opponents. This seems to indicate that the people will do to trust when properly informed trusted to set down hard upon a man or a principle not in thorough agreement with decency, common sense ami ordinary honesty. IN DISTRESS - BUT WHO CARES? His wife in an alms house, himse’f in a peon's cell. Such is the unfortunate position of Mr. Barring ton and his wife, an aged couple formerly engaged in the grocery business in the suburbs of Savannah. Mr. Barrington is charged with doing business without a liscense, in fact, has been convicted of such crime after pleading guilty; and has been sentenced to thirty days in jail, which sentence he is now serving. His bunk is hard, —you bet it is hard. In the middle of darkest night, amid the wild fanatical shrieks of criminals, he reaches out his polished hand to grasp the hand of his care-worn companion who has been his bosom friend all down through life's rocky way; but she is not by his side as she use to be in the back-room of their little 1 store, —he feels not now her warm touch, nor hears again her messages of sympathy and cheer. Desolation, humiliation and degredation, accom panied by thoughts of his old wile subsisting on charily, are his constant companions. It use to be different. The couple once had a comfortable home on the farm, in the midst of green fields of waving corn, a farm stocked with lowing cattle and trampled over by barrel-shaped pigs and Ideating sheep, a farm with barns bursting open with grain and smoke houses odorous with meat. A home in the country among simple, kind and affec tionate neighbors. THE REASON A home next door to those who never kill a pig without dividing it up.- - all of whom feel the jar when distress befalls one of their number! Instead of being caught by blackberry vines as when he rambled of dewy mornings over his farm, old man Barrington in the Late evening of life has been caught bv the strong arm of the law; instead of feeding on Ethiops sweets he is feeding on water and hard-tack; instead of the brooklet's pretty song he hears only the mad man's rave! And al] for the want of SIOO with which to secure a license for doing business in an out-of-the-way place where the volume of trade would scarcely justify the payment of $lO for such privilege. The stock carried has never. at any time that the old couple trudged at it to make their living, amounted to over SIOO. It is a fact that there were months while tin 1 old man lasted that the gross receipts of the business were less than $125. These facts, however, provide no justification for Barrington's offence unless art of theft can be justi fied when committed to prevent starvation or beg gary. Bather than beg. rather than steal, old man Barrington would, if let alone, hide out in a secluded spot and ply his trade buy and sell a few groceries, in order to provid** two feeble old bodies with the means of a livelihood. He woidd do a little more, rather than take what did not belong to him, rather than beg. —he would tell a lie and say it was another man's business, an old soldier's who had a permit to do business with out a license. A lie—mighty small thing to (‘lose flu* door of a business house, but rain stops the cotton picking, and sorrow, a thing less subtle but more overwhelm ing, the joy of feasting. It may be that the little “lib" had help in its last moments in closing the old man up in the shape of a circumstance — an incident—the prosecution which Mr. Barrington instituted sometime ago against his landlord for assault ami battery, under which charge tin* said landlord is now bonded in the sum of S3OO for his appearance before a court of law. Whether this circumstance had anything to do with the sudden and unexpected termination of the old man's business career cannot be authoritativelv * stated, but it is known that not until such prosecu tion arose was any thought given the matter of forcing the collection of the license tax.