The weekly hawk-eye. [volume] (Burlington, Iowa) 1858-1860, 1859-04-26
The Half.stalyed Ireljsn Girl.

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Ia all the romance OF modern hcticn we
have nowhere met a m re touching lllustra-
ton of true heroism than the following true
narrative, which we cut from the last report
of the Childrens Aid Society This ls the
society which has provided homes and en-
plopment, mostly at the West, for more than
four thousand poor aid destitute children
in New York:
There occur, every now and then, IN the
work of cur Society among the children of
the poor, incidents revealing such suffering
and such true nobleness OF character in this
unfortunate class. that it seems almost a
wrong not to let them be known 1t is diff
cult for people in comfortable circumstances,
even to imagine any one of delicate nature
and accustomed to comfort, reduced SD low
as positively to suffer from hunger; and yet
our experience shows that this occurs con.
tinaally in New York, especially among
young girls and women. 1t is an evidence of
it's unnaturalness, that, of all previous suffer
ings, when such persons are at length res
cued and placed in comfort, they Always
remember longest, aid with the most pa nlul
feelings, the pangs from want of food.
10 be famished in this great storehouse of
plenty, seems the last of n:isfortunes
of perhaps fifteen years with refined manners
and pretty, though pale face, presented
herself at our office. and nervously asked
for some place in family in the country
she told the usual tale Of poverty, AID we
only observed that her hands were very thin
and bony, and her checks hollow, and then
on being assigned to an excellent home by
Mr. Macy, her eyes filled with sudden tears,
fac of rbap fnlp riv
her to eat, which she received quietly, and
on the next day went to the place.
Lately on II visit to the city, We learned
the particulars of her history She had
been, in England, in good circumstances, as
her manner and language showed, had come
over after the death of her father, and the
waisitng of his property, to seek her fortune,
as do SO many others, in America She
sought at once to enter some trade. and to
earn living for herself; but without friends,
and with the crowded competi ion of the
city, she couli find no opening. In the same
way at the intelligence Offices after waiting
many days, she discovered no chance for
herself Each day her means were being
exhausted, and she was, at length, forced to
pawn all the ornaments and relics of better
times. She was reduced finally to living in
q. small attic room of tenement house,
sleeping on some straw in one corner. Hour
after hour, through the weary day, her little
feet were traversins the streets, us she fol-
lowed advertisements and looked for chance
to work
| At last she reached the point in which
every available means had been sacrificed,
every penny spent, and hunger stared her
in the face. She describes her feelings
then most teuchingly. One day she could
get through quite comfortably without any
thing to eat the second, she says, she
crouched herself in her bed, -'aud, do ou
know, sir, what ! found the best to stop the
hungerl Why. drank water, and then
PRAYED, and somehow ] always ielt better
and stronger after it ! The third day, when
it seemed as ii she could not bold out nue..
longer, she would so family down stairs to a
woman she knew in one Of the lower room 8,
and this woman would offer her something
to eat, which she would take carelessly, no
one ever suspecting that the poor creature
was being saved from starvation
In this mode Of life she grew so weak she
could scarcely walk and as thin. she says, us
any skeleton. She was attacked, too, with
terrible headaches, and some days, she was
delirious, for she now remembers how she
in the little room, bringing her food.
Once or twice she determined to beg, though
she felt rs if sue would rather die and she
went into store, and said gaspingly: She
was hungry. The people were very kind,
and Eat her in d hair, and gave her food,
and once, she recollects, "a cup Of tea.
Then as she lay on her heap OF straw, think.
ing OF the dear old English home, and the
comfort there, the mother and the days that
were gone, she would sometimes say; What
have done to deserve this (? Why should
God pick me out to suffer SO? Why
should be SO deserted?
One day she had gone down into the
lower room, and sat there, weak and des-
pairing, when gentleman entered, whom
she describes as very grand and wealthy
in his appearance He spoke to her kindly;
said he had watched her go in and out, had
said she must be in misfortune; that he had
so much admired her yes, and loved her!
She answered, gasping with weakness,
why do you come here to insult me, be-
cause am Foorf
Then. as she describes it, he replied thar
he did not mean to insult her, that he truly
loved her-and, in various phrases, he off
cred 70 her to live in splendid home with
him, but not as his wife.
The poor girl. crouched down with hel
head in her hands, confessed that, for n mo
ment, the thought crossed her mind-What
if she should do this No one will know it
Here 10 cOlnelOrt and home--an escape al
length; on the other side, long, weary
struggle and starvation. But in the midst o.