In the evening we visited that same place, accompanied by an officer in
private clothes. A large, showy woman and also a bar-tender stood
behind the bar. "Are you the party what was here last night trying to
make trouble?" she inquired. "Well, you're left. The bird has flown.
Ha! ha! I'm running this place now, and I don't need your help,
neither. Don't you come here while I'm in charge of it," etc.
Evidently, the policeman first accosted had given the alarm. I have
never heard what became of that poor girl and her wicked, unnatural
father. A tenderhearted woman in that awful neighborhood, one who had
tried to protect her, told me this:
The girl's mother died when she was a babe. The father (not then a
saloon man) sent her to New York to be raised by her aunt. When old
enough she was placed in school. The aunt died. She was removed to
another school, and there she remained until called for by her father,
who all these years had been her provider. He brought her to San
Francisco, where he now kept a dive and dance-hall. She being a rather
timid girl, it can be readily understood why she submitted to his
authority and tyranny.
My mind now reverts to two of the soldier boys, returned from the
Philippines and seated one night in one of those places where we were
permitted to work and also to sing. Toward the close of the song,
Can a boy forget his mother's prayer,
When he has wandered God knows where?
I discovered them with their arms about each other's shoulders and both
with the tears silently coursing down their cheeks. Setting my
instrument on one side and remembering my own dear son, the daily
object of my prayers, I essayed, in earnest, gentle tones, to admonish
them. Both acknowledged having been carefully reared by Christian
mothers, one of whom was dead. Had they been my own, I could not have
more earnestly pleaded with them. In consequence of my admonition they
soon took their departure, promising as they did so never again to
cross the threshold of any place where they would be ashamed to have
their mothers find them, and also to seek once more their neglected
Savior. Both were soon reclaimed; for I had the pleasure of meeting
them later in a house of worship on the Army's camp-grounds, at the
Presidio.
Christian parents, you that through death or other means have been
deprived of the companionship of your children, why not occasionally
join some of the rescue workers in their efforts to save somebody's
wandering boy or girl, instead of sitting in a rocking-chair, nursing
your sorrows? Speak the kindly, loving word of warning or advice;
encourage the wayward son or daughter to reform; and thus better your
condition as well as theirs. This will _surely_ bring an indescribable
peace and satisfaction to the soul, assuage much grief, and help to
promote the Master's kingdom. He takes us at our word. We sing:
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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