Misfortunes crowded upon them after that. They became driftwood on the sea of life, washed hither and thither and finally cast upon Milwaukee. Then the baby died. It was the last blow, and nagging temptation won its victory.
Short forged a check for $48 on the German-American bank. He made it out to Louis Short, signed the name “J. Seikler, president,” and passed it in Mrs. Mary Moore’s saloon, 251 Herst avenue, on July 28. With the money the baby was buried. Then came the law and Short’s arrest.
Short pleaded guilty, admitted everything, and tried to be brave. So did his girl wife, but the strain was too much. She broke down, threw her arms around his neck and hid her face on his shoulder.
Judge Neelen adjourned the case one week, for there is a possibility that Short’s father will send him the money to pay Mrs. Moore back.
There was a soft patter on the floor of the Children’s Court this morning, and in through the gates, swung open for them by a tall policeman, advanced two little maids, eyes cast down, doll feet taking quick, small steps. Justice Wyatt brushed aside the dry legal documents before him and looked down from the bench with more interest than he had displayed all the morning. The benchers craned their necks and the court officers were all eyes. Here was something out of the usual routine--two little Chinese maids. Somehow they didn’t fit into the picture of juvenile offenders, mothers from the tenements full of cares and burdened with babies, the motley array of parents, complainants, street arabs and heavyfooted guardians of the law. On the Yang-Tse-Kiang, perhaps, the little maids would have fallen into harmony with their surroundings, but not in the hurly-burly of an Occidental court room. Who were they and what was the occasion of their coming?
An agent of the Children’s Society explained. He was Obadiah Cunningham. The almond-eyed visitors were the Misses Moy You Toy and Chin Fung Toy, who had strayed beyond the boundaries of the three crooked streets which mark the limits of the local Chinatown. For two moons the quarter had been upset. The joss gave no comfort when his aid was sought and one night threw the luck sticks into the air in his temple ever so many times; but no matter if they came down with the wished for side uppermost, not a word came from beyond the pale, out of the wide spreading territory of the “white devils,” about either Moy You Toy or Chin Fung Toy--that is, not until this morning, when the lost were found again and taken to the Children’s Court. Then the Chinese women--the men do not care so much about the disappearance of a girl as of a boy--could once more eat with a relish their dried fish, and duck eggs dug from the soil of their native land, in which they had remained packed until the day of consumption.