stomers in the bar-rooms; here and there two or three idlers shake for
drinks. Policemen stroll listlessly about, and have little to do. But
at nightfall there is a change; the scrape of fiddles, the stamp of
boot-heels, is heard from the dance-halls. Oaths and boisterous laughter
everywhere strike the ear. Children, half-clad, run loose at eleven
o'clock. Two policemen at a corner interrogate a young man who is hot
and excited and has no hat. He admits that he saw three men run from the
alley-way and saw the sailor come staggering out after them, but he does
not know who the men were. The policemen "take him in," on suspicion.

It is here that the Day-Star Mission has planted itself. Its white flag
floats close by the spot where Martin Lavezzo fell, with the long knife
between his shoulder-blades. Its sign of welcome is in close rivalry
with the harsh strains from Sarah Ward's and the lighted stairway to
Bose King's saloon. It stands here, isolated and strange, an unbidden
guest. It is a protest, a reproof, a challenge, an uplifted finger.

But while, to a casual glance, the Day-Star Mission is all out of place,
it has, nevertheless, its following. On Monday and Thursday afternoons a
troop of black-eyed, jet-haired Portuguese women, half of whom are
named Mary Jesus, flock in to a sewing-school. On Tuesdays and Fridays
American, Scotch, and Irish women, from the tenement-houses of the
quarter, fill the settees, to learn the use of the needle, to enjoy
a little peace, and to hear reading and singing; and occasionally the
general public of the vicinity are invited to an entertainment.

It was a February afternoon; at the Mission building the board were in
monthly session. The meeting had been a spirited one. A proposition
to amend the third line of the fourth by-law, entitled "Decorum in
the Hall," by inserting the word "smoking," had been debated and had
prevailed. A proposition to buy a new mangle for the laundry had been
defeated, it having been humorously suggested that the women could
mangle each other. Other matters of interest had been considered.

Finally, as the hour for adjournment drew near, a proposition was
brought forth, appropriate to the season. Saint Patrick's Day was
approaching. It was to many a day of temptation, particularly in the
evening. Would it not be a good plan to hold out the helping hand,
in the form of a Saint Patrick's Day festival, with an address, for
example, upon Saint Patrick's life