Union County star and Lewisburg chronicle. [volume] (Lewisburg, Pa.) 1859-1864, 1860-05-04
History Of a Rescued Young Woman

NUunS lduS Win NdUl aud uiuSCE III tudl
great, miserable, wilderness city j
About two years ago, an English girl, Of
perhaps fifteen years, with refined manners,
and i pretty although pale face, presented
herself at our Office, and nervously asked
for some place in a family in the country.
We observed that her hands were very
thin and bony, aud her checks hollow, and
that, on being assigned to an excellent
home by Mr.. Mack, her eyes filed with
sudden tears Of thankfuness. Something
was given her to cat, which she received
quietly, and the next day went to her place.
Lately, on revisit TO the city, we
learned the particulars Of her history.
She had been, in England, IN good circum-
stances; had come over on the death of
her father, and on the wasting of bis prop
erty, 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
of the city, she could fud no opening.
Each day her means were being exhausted,
and she was forced to pawn all the orna-
ments aud relics of better times. She
was reduced finally to living in small
attic room of tenement house, sleeping
on 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 point at which every
available means had been sacrificed, every
penny spent, and hunger stared her in the
face. She described her feelings then,
most touchingly. One day she could get
through quite comfortably, without any
thing to eat; the second, she says, she
crouched herself in her bed, "And, do you
know, sir, what found the best to stop
hunger? Why, l drank water, and then
| prayed, and somehow | always felt bet
ter aud stronger after it !" The third day,
when it seemed as if she could not hold
out much longer, she would 90 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 carc!essiy, no one ever suspec-
~ hat ha haI
saved from starvation.
In this mode Of life she grew 50 weak
she could scarcely walk, and thin, she
said, as any skeleton. She was attacked,
too, with terrible headaches, and some
days she is sure she was delirous, for she
now remembers how she seemed to see an
gels and spirits in the little room, bringing
her food
Once or twice she determined to beg,
though she felt as if she would rather die;
and she went into a store, and said, gasp
ingly, "she was hungry" The people
were very kind, set her in chair, and
gave her food-once, she recOilects, cup
of tea.
Then, as she lay on her straw, thinking
of her dear old English home, and the
comfort there, the mother and the days
that we're, she would ask, "Do | deserve
this? Why should God pick me out to
make me suffer so? Why should | be
deserted!"
One day, she had gone down into the
lower room, and sat there, weak and de-
spairipg, when gentleman entered whom
she described as very grand and wealthy
in his appearance. lie spoke to her kind
ly, said he had watched her go in and out,
and said she must be in misfortune that
he had admired hcr-yes, and loved her
She answered, gasping with weakness:
'Why do you come here to insult me be
cause | am poor" He replied that be
did not mean to insult her, that he truly
loved ber-and, in various phrases, be Of
fercd to her to live in splendid home
with him, but no, as his wife.
The poor girl cgouched down with her
head in her hands, and confessed that for
a moment the thought crossed her mind,
"What if should do this? No one will
know it. Here is comfort, and home
an escape, at length; and, on the other
side, long, weary struggle, and s,arVa-
ton" But in the midst of this-she al
most believes it was real-there seemed to
come up before her 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-aDd
then she thought of all she had ever told
her Of Heaven, and of God, and she star
ted up and said, with sobs and gasps, 81
know | am pOor-I have nothiDg-I have
no home, and no frends-I am starving;
but, if you should give me all the money
of New York, heaped ten times over,
would no; do this thing. Why do you
come here to tempt me and insult me be-
cause l am poor p She almost fell down
gasping; but, she says, she saw the mae
start back, with face ghastlV pale, saying,