Cincinnati daily press. [volume] (Cincinnati [Ohio]) 1860-1862, 1860-04-13


Go, plant your flag in the sun
Beside the ill-doers
OF Gods witnessing Universe
With a curse of yours.
This IS the curse. write.
The Sunerings and Temptations of n Poor
and Unprotected GirI-Her Mothers Mem.
Ory Saves her from Ruin.
c. L. Brace Secretary of the New York
ChiIdren's Aid Society, writes the following
touching account of the struggles ofa young
girl with want and misery in New York:
Some two years ago young English girl
of perhaps fifteen years, with refined manners
and pretty, though pale face, presented her
self at our office, and nervously asked for
some place in a family in the country, and
we only observed that her hands were very
thin and bony, and her cheeks hollow, and
that on being assigned to an excellent home
by Mr.. Macy, her eyes filled with sudden tears
OF lhAnkfulness. Something was given her
roeas. which she received quietly, and on the
next dsy went to her place. Lately, on a
revisit to the citv. we learned the particulars
her history. She had been in England in
good circumstances as her manner and Ian
E1age showed: had come over on the death OF
her father. and on the wasting Of his pro-
pertJ, TO seek her fortune in America She
sought at once to enter some trade, and to
earn living for herself; but without friends,
and with the crowded competition the city
she could find no opening. In the same way
at the intelligence offices, after waiting for
many DAYS she discovered no chance for her
self Each day her means were being ex-
hausted, and she was forced to pawn all the
ornaments and relics ofbetter times. She was
reduced finally to living in a small attic room
of tenament-house, sleeping on some straw
in one corner. Hour after hour, through the
weary day, her little feet were traversing the
streets as she followed advertisements for a
chance TO work At last she reached the
pointat which every available means had
been sacrificed, every penny spent, and
hunger stared her in the face. She des-
cribed her feelings then most touchingly.
One day she could get through quite COM
fortably without anything to eat; the second,
she saws, she crouched herself in her bed,
"and. do YOU know, sir, what | found the
best to stop the hunger? Why drank water,
and then prayed, and somehow | always
felt better and stronger after itP' The third
day, when it seemed as if she could not hold
out much longer, she would go fainting down
stairs to a woman she knew in one of the
lower rooms and this woman would offer
her something to eat, which she would take
careessly, no one ever suspectlng that the
poor creature was being saved from starva-
tion.
In this mode of life she grew so weak she
could scarcely walk, and as thin, she says, as
any skeleton. She was attacked too, with
terrible headaches, and some days she is sure
she was delirious, for she now remembers
how she seemed to see angels and spirits in
the little room, bringing her foodl
Once or twice she determined to beg, though
she felt as if she would rather die; and she
went into store and said, gaspingly, 'she
was hungry" The people were very kind,
and sat her in chair, and gave her food,
once she recollects cup of tea.
Then as she lay on her heap of straw,
thinking of her dear old English home and
the comfort there, the mother and the days
that were gone, to deserve this? why should
God pick me out to make me suffer so? Why
should be so desertedW
One day she had gone down into the lower
room, and sat there, weak and despairing,
when gentleman entered, whom she de-
scribed as very grand and wealthy in his ap-
pearance. He spoke to her kindly, said he
had watched her go in and out, and said she
must be in misfortune; that he had much ad-
mired her--yes, and loved herl She answered
gasping with weakness:
"Why do you come here to insult me be-
cause am poorP
Then as she described il, he replied that he
did not mean to insult her, that he truly
loved her-and in various phrases he offered
to her TO live in asplendid home with him,
but not as his wife. .g.gf .... rt
The poor girl crouched down, with her
head in her hands, confesses that for mo-
ment the thought crossed her mind-what il
she should do this2 No one will know it.
Here is comfort and home-an escape at
length; and on the other side, long weary
struggle and starvation. But in the midst Of
of this-she almost believes it was real---
there seemed TO come up before her a figure
of her mother---she saw the face and the
warning gesture almost as distinctly as she
ever saw any one. She seemed to call her
away---and then she thought Of all she had
ever told her Of Heaven and of God, and she
started up and said, with sobs and gasps, 81
know am poor---I have nothing--1 have no
home and no friends---I am starving, but il
you should give me all the money of New
York, heaped ten times over, would not do
this thingl Why do you come here to tempt
me and insult me because am poor,D and she
almost fell down gaspipg but she says she
saw the man start back, with face ghastly
pale, saying:
'My GodY What sin you have saved me
fromp
That day she heard accidently Of the So
ciety to help children, and resolved to go
there for last chance. If she failed there,
the only thing left for her seemed to be self
destruction or death. We know the happy
result