She spoke with a strong German accent. With all her deep, earnest soul, with all her poor, limited mental force, she longed to help the men and women around. As she spoke she bent her head farther and farther back, until her eyes looked up to the sky. There, with perfect faith, she saw the God whose work she was humbly doing in the muddy streets and flickering gaslight of the riverside. While she could control her voice and her deep emotion she talked on her one theme--the power of God to help the helpless. But she BELIEVED, and she FELT what she said. Soon the tears ran over from her upturned eyes, and she could speak no more. Then a man began--thickset, earnest, with a strong Scotch accent. He talked to the men about him in a rough way that appealed to them. ---- As the crowd stood listening many passed. A few were contemptuous; the majority were indifferent. If you see these workers you ask perhaps: "What good do they do?" That is the question that may be asked of every man that ever lived, and only One can answer it. The thin, white-faced girl, playing, singing and PREACHING in the dirty street, does this: She touches the heart of a half-drunken man. Turning from the saloon door he goes home, and takes to his wife and children as much of his wages as is left, a feeling of repentance, good resolutions. Her tears are answered by the tears of miserable girls and women who sink back into the shadow as they watch her pure face. Through them she helps to undo the horrible, soul-destroying work of brutal civilization. ---- Mysteriously, diversely, the work of the world is done. The storm, endless in its power, washes down the mountain-tops to fertilize the valley. The tiny earthworm works in darkness, crumbling up its little patch of earth to make it fit food for plants. Each does its work. The mighty intellect with cyclonic force gives to mankind grand, general views of cosmic grandeur, and introduces to minds prepared the "eternal silences," and the vast serene fields of divine law. THE "CRIMINAL" CLASS DID THIS VIEW OF IT EVER OCCUR TO YOU? Much interest just now in CRIMINALS. Much horror aroused by depravity. Many plans more or less appropriate for making the air pure. Many good men, politicians, women and bishops, who spent the Summer at the seaside willing now to spend a few days wiping "CRIME" off the earth. ---- What is CRIME? Who are the criminals? Who makes the criminals? Do criminals viciously and voluntarily arise among us, eager to lead hunted lives, eager to be jailed at intervals, eager to crawl in the dark, dodge policemen, work in stripes and die in shame? Hardly. Will you kindly and patiently follow the lives, quickly sketched, of a boy and a girl? THE GIRL Born poor, born in hard luck, her father, or mother, or both, victims of long hours, poor fare, bad air and little leisure.