HE HESPERIAN
m
PIG ALLEY FOLKS.
i.
One of the queerest, dirtiest, meanest
streets in the city is I'ig Alloy. It is not
exactly a street, nor an alloy. It has queer
turns and crooks in it and one never knows
when ho reaches the end. There are many
corners the German corner, the Irish cor
nor, the Russian corner, and the "nigger"
corner, and in between .the corners are the
dwellings of the poor whites. It is a motley
crew that lives there in Pig Alloy.
There is no paint wasted on the houses in
Pig Alley. They are all black and ugly,
and the soot and smoke from the engines
that go whizzing by all the time make the
houses blacker and uglier every day. They
do not all face the street, some do not face
anything. Thoy are just huddled togethor
as if they were trying to keep warm. Pig
Alley folks often uso rags instead of window
glass, and let their chimneys tumble down,
and "stop a hole to keep the wind away"
with rubbish that 1 fear has no connection
with the imperial Cajsar.
The Alley can boast no sidevalka save
rickety ones, and of these not many. In
summdr time the trees for there are trees
even in Pig Alley hide some of the ugli
ness, but in winter they show it more pain
fully. Then the snow comes, and makes
even Pig Alloy look clean and pretty for a
while but it does not last long. In summer
the Alley is the very paradise of dirty peo
ple. The dirty children play and quarrel
and cry in the dirty street by day and the
dirty men and women quarrel and fight there
by night. New Pig Alley folks are born
and old ones die, but the Alley only stops
and says that it has to bo so, 'and life goes
terribly on again.
ii.
The children in Pig Alley are many a
whole regiment from each of the corners.
They are a good deal like other children.
They like to tear their ragged clothes and
got their dirty faces dirtier. They like to
fight, and throw stones at each other. They
like to make a noise all children do. Thoy
like to get old tin pans and beat on them and
march around the Alloy like "sogers."
Sometimes thore is war among the young
sters of the Alley. The corners do not got
along very well together. The Biddies and
Mikes hate the George Washington Thomas
Jefferson Perkinses, and tho Hoinrichs and
Minas hate the Biddies and Mikes, and thoy
all hate tho poor little Russian children with
tho unspeakable names. When tho floods
come up into Pig Alloy from tho creek not
far away, tho Hoinrichs are glad because it's
" fun to seo tho Russsian women cry."
Sometimes the children go to school, if
they can got clothes enough. The teacher
asks them who was the greatest man that
ever lived, and Germans and Irish and Rus
sians and all vociferate "George Washing
ton." Then the teacher has them sing
Let Englishmen fight for Victoria their queen,
Let Russian hurrah for their Czars,
Lei Irishmen fight for their banner of green,
But we for the stripes and the stars."
And when you hoar the "we" come out
so strongly you may begin to have faith in
these little Pig Alley folks, to think there is
hope for them.
in.
Little Martha Washington Perkins is the
blackest little girl in tho school. Hor dress
is always neat and clean, though patched
with varied colors, and her calico apron is as
stiff and shiny as starch and a patient ironer
can make it. Sho is tho cleanest of all Pig
Alley children, but hor face it is oh, so
black 1 And I fear that not even the most in
fallible soap could make it white.
Sho hates tho little Biddies and Mikes
who live down on tho Irish corner. Thoy
called her " Snowball " once, and now thoy
always call hor that only sometimes they
say "nigger Snowball."
The fine gentleman who came to visit the
school one day did not know all this. Ho
thought ho was very kind when he patted
her on the head and. picked up her book
