Bitter Cry

by S. L. Stoner

  “Other than being all around rascals, we have no evidence they were involved in anything more than running the messenger service so that it undercut every other messenger service in town. To do that, they admitted Abernathy ordered them to illegally hire underage kids. Willard probably strong-armed Tobias and Matthew for them, but we can’t prove that happened with their knowledge. They’ve been advised to leave town and I think they’ve taken that advice.”

  Matthew cleared his throat and asked, “What about that Willard fellow? What’s going to happen to him? Even though he shoved me around, I don’t think he has all that many brains between his ears.”

  “You’re right about that. He’s almost childlike. Clark took advantage of his stupidity. But my detectives have discovered that the two of them have left dead bodies behind in every town they’ve lived in. We’re still trying to straighten that out. So, Clark may not hang in Oregon but she might in some other state. Like I said, old Willard’s talking.”

  Lucinda was the first to break the ensuing silence. “And, Glad and his family, what’s going to happen with them?”

  Millie Trumbull’s smile was radiant. “Things are working out wonderfully. When Mae and I took Glad to see his mother, you should have seen that poor woman’s face. I’ve never witnessed such joy. In the past week, her health significantly improved. Dr. Lane is confident she’ll be ready to leave the sanatorium in less than six months at the rate she’s going.”

  Mae jumped in, “I saw the children yesterday. Millie’s gotten them settled at the Boy's and Girl’s Home. The three oldest are going to school with both boys working just two hours every day after school. Glad’s still selling newspapers. He’s still got those big plans for buying a regular route. Terry’s now apprenticed to a carpenter. Come summer, he’ll be working full time. Little Carrie Lynne is finally getting a chance to be a child instead of a little mother. And, baby Emma Jane is thriving.”

  Sage spoke up. “I talked to Stuart Franklin. He needs someone to help around the boarding house. When Mary Tobias is healthy enough she has the job. And, the good news is that the house right next door is being renovated and will be just perfect for the family.”

  Lucinda grinned at Sage, letting him know she knew exactly who had bought the house and was turning it into a suitable home for the Tobias family. He responded with a slight shrug.

  “Those are fine children,” Mae said. “Mary Tobias has done a good job raising them.”

  Sage raised a glass in a silent toast to her comment and added, “Both boys are doing well in school. Glad’s started that morning paper route he wanted. Terry is liking carpentry. He says that’s what his dad did before the liquor got him. They both insist that we call on them if ever we need help with anything.”

  “I saw Glad yesterday," Lucinda said. “He couldn’t stop talking about how grateful he was.”

  “I’m sure you buying him that paper route had something to do with his gratitude,” Sage said as he sent a tender look in her direction.

  Hanke cleared his throat and turned a somber face toward Meachum. “Mr. Meachum, Mr. Adair says you know something about that little boy who died of exposure.”

  Meachum looked down into his wine glass and sighed before meeting Hanke’s gaze. “Well, I found a man who rode the rails west with the lad and tried to look out for him. You were right about those burn scars. He worked in a glass factory but not in Chicago. He traveled here all the way from St. Louis. His name was Johnny Devlin. He was only nine-years-old. He’d worked at the glass furnaces for three years.”

  Meachum’s face stayed glum. “The man said that Johnny’d been bought off one of those orphan trains by a couple who lived on a floating barge in St. Louis. They bought four boys off the same train, including Johnny. The boys were made to work shifts in the glass factory. Since the barge only had two bunks for the kids, two of the kids were always working in the factory. The couple didn’t work at all. Just took the kids’ wages and drank them up. I’m told a lot of that goes on in St. Louis.

  “Both of Johnny’s parents died but he remembered hearing them talk about a cousin who lived here in Portland. So, when Johnny ran away, this is where he headed.”

  Silence lay heavy as they contemplated the life of the dead nine-year-old who’d experienced so little compassion or kindness. As if reading their thoughts, Meachum added. “The fellow who’d traveled with Johnny, and told me all this, was heading for Seattle. He’s the one who gave the boy the spare clothes you found with his body and what little money he had. I guess it just wasn’t enough to save him.” Meachum took a big swallow of wine and looked at them. “At least the poor kid knew some kindness before he died,” he said.

  Fong stood up and raised his glass. “I give many thanks to Mrs. Trumbull and every person who hears bitter cry of the children.” The others joined Fong’s toast, the mood lightened, and laughter soon rang out.

  Sage caught Lucinda’s eye and jerked his head toward the front door. They both got up and soon stood outside in night air that hinted at spring’s coming warmth.

  Sage draped an arm around Lucinda’s shoulders and pulled her close. “I was so worried about losing you. I never, ever, want to worry like that again.”

  She looked up into his face. “Sage, it was the thought of you that kept me going during the worst moments.”

  “Lucinda, will you marry me?” Sage asked. He was surprised at the words, hadn’t known they were coming until they burst from his lips. He knew he meant them and felt a sweet relief from saying them.

  Her eyes filled with tears as she looked at him. “Oh Sage, you don’t know how much I’ve wanted to hear you say those words.”

  He grinned. “Is that a, ‘Yes’?”

  She cradled his face in her hands, the tears spilling down her cheeks. “I love you, Sage. I want to always be with you but I can’t marry you.”

  He jerked his face away, feeling shock and pain. “What do you mean?”

  She waved a hand at the people they could see through Mozart’s front window. The recitation of the adventure over, their faces were alight with good cheer. “Look at them,” she said softly.

  And Sage looked at the people sitting around the table: Mae and Eich, Hanke, Meachum, Fong and Kum Ho, young Matthew and even Millie Trumbull. “They’d never object. Mother loves you. Everybody loves you.”

  At those words, her tears increased. “I know, Sage. I have you to thank for giving me the first real family I’ve ever known. But, what you and they are doing is important. I am proud to be a part of that and it would end if we were to marry.

  He shook his head vehemently. “No, it wouldn’t have to end.”

  “Portland’s most eligible and wealthy bachelor marrying the city’s most notorious brothel owner?” Her arched smile pierced him.

  “We don’t have to stay here.”

  “Where could we possibly go that I wouldn’t be recognized? My patrons are wealthy men. They all travel extensively. And, what about your work for St. Alban? Sure we could move to some small, out-of-the-way town where maybe I’d go unrecognized. But how could you carry on your work in a place like that? What about the people here who depend on you?”

  She gestured again toward those sitting inside the city’s second most exclusive restaurant. “How could you bear to leave them and your work behind?”

  She placed gentle fingers on his cheek, her expression soft, a teary mix of love and regret. “With all of my heart I thank you for your proposal but I must say, ‘No’.” She gave his face one last caress before she turned and went back inside.

  Sage stood on the sidewalk, staring sightlessly down the empty street and then up into the drifting overcast. “Well, damn,” he said aloud before he turned and followed her back into Mozart’s.

  The End

  Historical Notes

  This story’s title is taken from John Spargo’s book, The Bitter Cry of
the Children, published in 1906. Spargo provided clear and convincing evidence that thousands of American schoolchildren suffered from starvation and malnourishment. Today, Spargo is best known for the impact he had on the child labor issue although his lifetime focus was on all the negative impacts of childhood poverty.

  Rather than adding to historical notes below, I wanted to confirm, here, three historical facts included in Bitter Cry. First, at the time this story takes place, funeral parlor directors also served as coroners. Second, the Flying Squadron, with its discipline of brutal railroad bulls, did exist though just a few years later than when this story takes place. And, finally, the gambling den labyrinth described in the story was taken from a news article of the time that was written by a reporter who accompanied the police on an unsuccessful raid. Some of the story’s other taken-from-history historical facts are as follows:

  Social Agencies

  There were scores of social service agencies in Portland in the early 1900’s. This story mentions just a few of them. Many of these agencies were created through the efforts of progressive women, though written history fixates on the involvement of what was frequently a figurehead male.

  The Boy’s and Girl’s Aid Society was incorporated in 1885 as a charitable, nonsectarian organization. It received homeless, neglected and abused children from all parts of the state, from infancy to 16 years. All children of school age in its care attended public schools. Many children were temporarily housed by the Society until their parents were able to care for them.

  In 1904, “The People’s Institute” was established in the heart of the working-class North End. Valentine Pritchard, a kindergarten teacher and trained settlement worker, served as its first director. After visiting homes in the neighborhood, Pritchard saw that the Institute provided services to meet the most pressing needs: kindergarten; laundry and bathing facilities; classes in citizenship, hygiene, sewing, cooking, and mothering; also provided were an employment bureau and a free medical clinic. The Institute is credited with being the origin of the University of Oregon’s low-income outpatient clinic. The words spoken by the Pritchard character about the plight of the country's and Portland’s poor children were taken directly from reports of the day.

  The open-air TB sanatorium was located on River Road between Milwaukie and Oak Grove and was the first in the state. It was much as described in the story, with small cabins, tents and an administration building situated on a wooded bluff above the Willamette River. Sister Mary Theresa, formerly Carolyn Glisan, was its first director. She is a featured character in an earlier Sage Adair mystery, The Mangle. The Sister is also notable for using sociological data to convince the state legislature of the necessity for minimum wage and maximum hours legislation—the first such enforceable laws in the nation. The Visiting Nurses Association was an important component of the medical care provided to Portland’s poor.

  The Women’s Trade Union League (WTUL), one branch being in Seattle, was the first instance of middle-class women joining with working-class women to organize unions and eliminate sweatshop conditions. In the first two decades of the twentieth century, the WTUL played an important role in supporting the massive strikes that established the International Ladies’ Garment Workers’ Union and Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America. The organization was also at the forefront of campaigns for women’s suffrage and workplace protection. The organization existed until 1950.Millie Trumbull

  When I started researching for this story, I’d never heard of Millie Trumbull. Now, I feel something akin to outrage that there is no civic recognition of her contributions—no statue of her, no street named after her. Many of Portland’s streets are named after rich white men whose greedy self-interest shaped the city…as it still does today, unfortunately. At last count, Trumbull was a board member of at least in at least fifteen organizations that were dedicated to social improvement and justice. Not only did she sit on these boards, but she usually was the secretary of the organization. In that position, she performed the yeoman’s work of the organization—report writing, correspondence, public speaking, etc.

  Trumbull did everything attributed to her in the story and much more. Among other efforts, she advocated before the legislature for minimum age laws and compulsory education. She served as the Oregon Child Labor Commission’s first staff person and inspector. She arm-twisted Portland’s Common Council into outlawing underage messengers in saloons, brothels, gambling dens, and other disreputable places. And, some credit must also go to her husband who supported her innumerable unpaid endeavors.Harry Lane – Poor People’s Doctor

  Harry Lane grew up in Lane County which was named after his grandfather, the first territorial governor and senator of Oregon. Despite being educated in elite Eastern schools, Lane chose to forego the privilege his family’s wealth and history offered. Instead, he became a rabble-rouser and doctor to Portland’s poor. He was, in fact, known as Portland’s “Poor People’s Doctor.”

  Considered “witty, unafraid, and pugnacious” Lane fought unsuccessfully for a meat inspection code for local packing houses. He also fought to prevent the use of “night soil” as fertilizer on Portland’s commercial truck farms. When that plea fell on deaf ears, he took a gun to the largest truck farm and blew apart all of the clay jugs storing the human waste. There is no record of him being arrested but his action apparently put a halt to the practice.

  Lane was appointed director of Oregon’s hospital for the insane but he only held the position for four years. He immediately took on the rampant corruption and graft at the hospital which earned him strident and effective opposition from contractors, government administrators, and politicians.

  Disgusted with the City’s lack of response to his very accurate and forceful demands for certain social hygiene practices, Lane successfully ran for Portland Mayor in 1905. While in office, he stayed loyal to middle and lower-class Portlanders and attempted improvements—all of which were in the vanguard of the progressive changes being sought nationwide. Of course, his entire tenure was bedeviled with unrelenting opposition from the monied and developer classes.

  Lane was the first mayor to value the inclusion of women in traditionally male roles. He appointed Dr. Esther Pohl Lovejoy as City Health Officer; Sarah Evans as market inspector; and, Lola Baldwin as the nation’s second policewoman.

  Also as mayor, Lane took on the major corporations, especially the railroads and utilities, by demanding better regulation. He promoted public control of utilities, started the Portland Rose Festival and spent his two terms as mayor battling special interests, fraudulent contractors, prostitution and gambling.

  Newspapers of the time report an incident where Lane learned of a complaint of fraudulent performance of city contracts. Specifically, he was informed that the new sidewalk curbs were hollow—evidently, it was a way for the contractor to use less concrete while charging for more. Lane took a hammer out to the construction site and began hitting the new curbs to see if they were hollow. They were. Young boys were watching him so he enlisted them to throw stones at the curbs and put a chalk “X” on all those that rang hollow. Most did. The contractor wasn’t paid.

  Lane’s consistent advocacy of progressive change stood him in good stead when he ran for the U.S. Senate because he won the office. He continued to have great support from his constituency until he was confronted by World War I. He was one of only six senators who opposed the war. In Oregon, the response to was a campaign to impeach him. He died on May 23, 1917, while riding the train back to Oregon to face his critics.

  Lane is also noteworthy for his advocacy on behalf of Native Americans in the U.S. Senate. When he was growing up, he spent a considerable time with the local Native American tribe in Lane County. In the Senate, he honored that experience by proposing numerous pieces of legislation that would have benefitted the people he believed had been cruelly and unjustly treated during the Euro-American invasion of the West.Henry Russell

  The character of Henry Russell was
inspired by the work and contributions of Lewis Hine who has been called the “Crusader with a Camera”. Without a doubt, his photographs of child workers did more to educate and outrage the public about the problem than the reams of studies, articles and opinions being written by progressives at the time.

  Hine worked for the National Child Labor Committee. He traveled the country sneaking and bluffing his way into workplaces where he obtained beautiful but heartrending pictures of the children producing coal, textiles, glass, artificial flowers, food, shoes, shell fish, as well as those children earning money through child care, selling newspapers and delivering messages. Hine wrote with great feeling about his photo subjects describing, for example, one child subject as: “An emaciated little elf 50 inches high and weighing perhaps 48 pounds …[who] works from 6 at night to 6 in the mornin."

  Today, Hine’s photographs are lauded, both for their ability to touch hearts and for their technical and artistic quality. He is credited with capturing the beauty that resided in every single child he photographed. But this recognition came too late for Hine. He died in abject poverty, his contributions forgotten. Mother Jones

  Mary Harris Jones, “Mother Jones” began life as an immigrant who’d fled the Irish potato famine only to lose her husband and all four children to yellow fever. Following those dire circumstances she began fighting for worker rights. Using rousing speeches and theatrical gestures, she forced the American public to notice the cruelty inherent in child labor, working-class poverty and the capitalists’ greed.

  In 1903, to protest the lax enforcement of minimal child labor laws in the Pennsylvania mines and silk mills, Mother Jones organized and led a children’s march from Philadelphia to the home of President Theodore Roosevelt in New York. Banners of her Children’s Crusade made declarations like: “We want to go to school and not the mines!” Roosevelt refused to meet with the children but her Crusade put child labor firmly on the public agenda and helped to push reform forward.Child Labor