VOLUME XVI. NUMBER 51.
HELP THE
FALLEN TO
MAKE GOOD
Chicago’s “New Man
Factory” That Is Do
ing Work of Real
Worth.
AIDS UNFORTUNATES
Story of One Man Reclaimed and
* Made Good Ci Yen—Earnest
and Self-Sacrificing Men De
voting Their Lives to Uplift
the Fallen.
‘ By ROLLO H. M'BRIDE.
Manager o£ the Parting of the Ways
Home.
|HICAGO— In the year 1900
there lived in Bristol, Belgium,
a poor, hard-working widow by
• the name of Remmers and her
only son, Emile, aged' 10, a
bright, manly boy, to whom she was
very much attached. Unfortunately
for Emile, his mother married a sec
ong time and the stepfather did not
take kindly to the boy. Therefore, he
became a trouble-breeder. It was de
cided that Emile should be sent to the
United States. The father then prov
ed extremely kind to him and bought
his ticket to Chicago. Believing that
America was a wild and dangerous
place—and Chicago in particular In
habited chiefly by Indians and cow
boys—he presented Emile with two
revolvers, saying: “Take care of
them; you will need them when you
get there.”
Sailing from Liverpool via the Al
lan line, he encountered unusually
bad weather, passing through a blind
ing snowstorm —the w r aves mountain
high and the ship rolling and tossing
in the gales. In fact, the passage
was considered to be one of the
most stormy ever experienced by even
the most hardened sailors.
In due course of time 3mile arrived
in Chicago and, calling upon the
French consul, he was able to secure
a position as porter in one of the
finest restaurants. He took the little
money he had left and paid for a
roonr This done, his means were c ■
haus. <l.
The second night, going home from
work rather late, he was attacked by
two tougns, as he passed under the
"L” tracks. They pounced upon him,
gagged him and threw him upon th'
ground. He, realizing his danger,
drew one of the revolvers his father
had given him and fired several shots.
The toughs promptly took to their
heels. The shots attracted the atten
tion of a detective, who, rushing to
the scene, saw two men running away
and one upon the ground. He there
fore grabbed the only one he could
find, and Emile, thinking him another
hold-up man, commenced to fire wild
ly again.
Law’s Injustice. W
It was necessary for the police nan
to blow his police whistle for help—
and the upshot was that Emile land
ed at the Harrison street police sta
tion in the patrol wagon. This sta
tion is famous- for having housed
many of the world’s most notorious
criminals. It has since been torn
down, but was then a dark, gloomy
jail—enough to strike terror into the
heart of an Innocent young boy—
alone and friendless in a strange land
—unable to even speak our language.
He was brought up before the judge
the next morning and —not under
standing our customs or ways or lan
guage—and little realizing the drama
enacted about him—sat patiently
in the prisoners’ dock, listening to the
testimony—yet unaware of the evi
dence given against him. The detec
tive swore to three charges—disor
derly conduct, carrying concealed
weapons and resisting the law. On the
first he was fined $59, on the second
$56.50 and on the third $31.50, or a
total of $147. Having neither money
nor friends, he was committed to the
House of Correction to work out his
fine at the rate of 50 cents a day.
It seems incomprehensible that a
judge could pass so severe a sen
tence as this on the mere unsupported
word of a police officer and not learn
the other side of the story.
The famous Black Maria, with its
capacity of 70, backed up at the Har
rison station and took its load of
human driftwood, among them a trem
bling, frightened boy—Emile. The
llrnnuUm SulktttL
doors clanged shut and they started
for the House of Correction. Here
the doors were unlocked and the men
unloaded. They entered the large re
ceiving room, with its shower baths,
barber chairs, benches and the bags
in which the prisoners leave their own
clothes when they are stripped. The
bags are then sealed. The men go
first to the barber chairs, then to the
shower baths, and then don the uni
form of the House of Correction —
picked from the clothing piled on the
benches along the walls, perhaps dis
carded by some unfortunate dis
charged in the morning. They are
then taken to the cells.
In a Felon’s Cell.
Locked in his cell, Emile realized
at last the full and bitter meaning of
his conviction. His heart was broken
—his manly spirit crushed. He fell
upon his knees with the tears running
down his face. He murmured brok
enly some little prayer his Christian
mother taught him. All night he
rolled restlessly upon the little, nar
row bunk —thinking, thinking, think
ing—wondering what would be the
outcome. Early in the morning, with
the rest of the prisoners he was called
to go out to work. He had no privi
leges other than those granted by any
penal institution —no clock, no calen
dar, no newspapers. He was permit
ted, however, to draw a magazine or
book from the library.
Emile was a model prisoner and
Superintendent Whitman, was attract
ed by his manly face and strict com
pliance with the rules. I might say,
in this connection, that Mr. Whitman
is considered by all of the criminolo
gists of the world to be the most
humane —and yet the most practical—
and the farthest advanced in the
knowledge of the proper care and
handling of prisoners of keepers of in
stitutions of his time. He is greatly
beloved by all the gurr's and prison
ers under his care. This, then, was
the type of man that too' an interest
in Emile and did so much for him.
Notwithstanding the dirty work and
the soiled clothes, as day after day
Emile pushed his wheelbarrow to and
fro, Mr. Whitman saw through the un
prepossessing exterior into the heart
of the innocent, unfortunate hoy. He
saw that Emile ’ as or' of his cle
ment and ordered him to his own
home. He was given a bath and a
suit of spotless duck and assigned as
a waiter and houseman under Mr;.
77^ PAPTIIK OP THE WAYA HOHE
Whitman’s direction. Mr. Whitman
says that it was wonderful to note
the change in the boy—out of 'he
noise and dirt and r’Lcouraglng sur
roundings of the institution into the
peace and quiet of the superinten
dent’s home. He asked innumerable
questions of all w’lth waom he came in
contact and gained a knowledge of
English most unusual, considering the
short time he was there; for Mr.
Whitman, after a great deal of trou
ble, had two of the charges against
Emile dismissed and he was dis
charged when he had served only 108
days of his sentence.
Small Chance for Unfortunate.
Mr. and Mrs. Whitman gave him a
warm handclasp and told him good
bye with a great deal of good advice.
They also gave him fifty cents and
when he passed out of the House of
Correction he was handed a card to
one of the charitable institutions for
the aiding of discharged prisoners.
Upon his arrival at this place they
took his record, gave him a lot of ad
vice, handed him fifteen cents with
which to get something to eat, and
told him he had better try the hotels
and restaurants for a position like he
formerly had. He started out and
asked for work everywhere in his
broken English. No one seemed to
want him or to have any interest in
what became of him. Hour after hour
passed and at last —discouraged and
weary—he went back to the charit
able institution. They then gave him
a card to the Chicago municipal lodg
ing house, which nightly houses 600
or more unfortunates from the under
world. He remained there three lays.
The last night he was informed that
he could not come back there.
He was 1" despair. He had no
home —no friends —no money—no
where to go. He had made a fruit
less effort to join the United States
armv. but they Informed Um that he
IRWINTON, WILKINSON COUNTY, GEORGIA, FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 15, 1911.
was too small. Then he tried the
navy, but was told that he could not
speak English plainly enough. He had
spent the fifty cents Mr. Whitman
gave him in cheap meals —merely ex
isting from day to day. He had
reached the point where he conclud
ed that there was nothing left for him
to do but go back to the Bridewell
and ask his good friend, the superin
tendent, to keep him, for he felt that
no one wanted him ans that no op
portunity of any kind awaited him.
After hearing the boy's story, Mr.
Whitman called up the Parting of the
Ways Home and asked me if I could
not use a bright, neat, careful boy.
He scrubbed, cleaned and assisted me
in every possible way to get the
Home ready. This was just before
the opening of the Home. At the ex
piration of nine days 1 was able to
secure a position for him in Memphis,
Tenn., as storekeeper in a prominent
hotel at ?40 a month, room and board.
Surely there was nd one in Chicago
more happy and contented than the
bright, smiling boy I put on board the
train for Memphis that night. He
shook my hand again and again, vow
ing to “make good."
Now a National Asset.
Several letters had passed between
us, and one day this week, much to
my surprise, the door opened and in
walked, all smiles, a neat, nicely
dressed, prosperous-lookii g young
man -Emil Remmers. Throwing his
arms around my neck in his impulsive,
foreign fashion, he said: “Oh, Mr. Mc-
Bride, how I love you! How I love
this Home! For if it had not been
for the Parting of the Ways Home
and you, I might have become a thief
or worse —and I don’t want to do any
thing wrong!”
After telling me his experiences
during his absence, he produced a
pocketbook, well fll ’, and a bank
book, showing that within less than
twenty months he had saved more
than $265. He is very ambitions and
his one object and aim in life is to
have a restaurant of his own and be
come a successful business man. At
the present tim^ he is employed as
storekeeper in a first-class hotel in
one of the largest cities in this state.
About this time. Old Charley went
into the House of Correction 'o serve
his two hundred and ninth sentence.
It is said of him that if he should
leave there today he i; expected back
day after tomorrow. He has a regu-
lar job on one of the gates and when
he is released his position is only
filled temporarily.
If, when Old Charley was released
the first time, there had been a Part
ing of the Ways Home to receive him
—to feed him, clothe him and assist
him to employment—the city would
have been spared the cost of arrest
ing and re-arresting—and the House
of Correction that of feeding and re
seeding. This would have been
enough to have operated the Parting
of the Ways Home for years to come.
Not only this, but Old Charley—like
Emile Remmers —would have become
a successful and prosperous business
man—a useful and respected member
of society.
A Restful Life.
We sent our reporter out to Geauga
county last week to interview an old
codger who was celebrating his 104th
birthday.
“How do you account for the fact
that you have been able to attain this
remarkable age?” asked our bright
young man.
“To the fact that I have never work
ed a lick before breakfast,” answered
the centenarian.
“This is a fact worth remember
ing,” muttered the reporter, making
a note of it.
“There’s another thing that pa fail
ed to mention,” a son-in-law whisper
ed in the newspaper man's ear.
“What is that?”
“He never done a lick of work after
breakfast, neither. Git that in your
story, too.” —Cleveland Plain Dealer.
Domestic Demand Satisfied.
Bluebeard explained.
“They always wanted more closet
room, and now they have it,” he cried.
Thus the forbidden chamber was ac
counted for.
We
Got to
MOVE!
Why not come in and look
at the low prices we are
making on our present stock
of goods.
Did You Ever Move?
The trouble and expense
attached===the worries—are
many. We’ve got lots of
goods===stuff that will just
help you over the summer —
and as it’s late we are going
to cut the price===then, too,
A
we don’t want to move these
goods. Come, let’s look
these values over. If you
do we sure will sell you
your needs.
Our new home after Sept,
i, entire “Ohlman Building.”
Your friends,
W. S. Myrick & Co.
SI.OO A YEAR.
