The workingman's advocate. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1864-1877, 1866-04-21
Written for the ADVOCATE
One Life Oul Of Many.

4 "0aT sincsrest laughter
| With some pain r. trAnght"
Our swestes songs are those, that tell Of saddles
/ 'sYet Il we could scorn
II Hate, and pride, and fear,
4 II we things born
i Not to shed . tear,
l know not how thy JOY, ever should come near
81 cannot do it mother !"
The speaker was a young girl, with q
slight figure. A face that might have been
handsome, but was not, for it was pinche6
white and wan, and listless, tired, detected
look, that told of long endurance, and close
fellowship with suffering and privation. The
Ioom she was in was an attic upon whose
upholstered walls the finger of want had
written again and again,
''The short and simple annals OF the poor"
Not the poetic sentiment Of poverty, but the
bare, meagre facts Of commonplace lives.
The woman who lay sick on straw pallet
and who was the mother Of the young girl
was drinking the last dregs Of a cup Of bit
terness, with deep thankfulness hat it was
the last of that lifelong draught. 1t was
still source of exquisite sorrow to her, that
her only child was uncared for, but she
could struggle with destiny no longer even
the few wants yet remaining to her were m
supplied /; no fuel remained, no food could
be purchased, unless Agatha could obtain a
small sum in advance, from the rich milliner
for whom she worked by day, and often by
night, going home alone in the dark and
cold, when other young girls, no tenderer or
! more yirtuous than she, were warm and
Asleep beneath sheltering roofs Agatha
had worked so for nearly four years-years
Of unTemitting toll and hardship, Of keen en-
durance and strict penance, years that had
no spring or summer, no light or bloom
nothing save the dull, grey stretch of rea
life, overloaded by an adverse sky. Dc
you wonder that Agatha was a cynlc al
eighteen
Mrs. Lyle had been urging her to borrow
small sum of money from her employer, to
meet the emergency that was drawing near
and A. atha had replied with the sentences
that begins this sketch.
/ "You will have all Of your wages soon, y
Mrs. Lyle said drearily; ''then you car
easily repay her. Poor child there will BE-
trouble enough without that other case thai
few dollars will ease"
"Well, mother, ] will try anything will
be better than to see you want, but | might
as well appeal to that stove for help as tc
Miss Warner. She has made her money by
grinding the poor her silks, and laces, and
ribbons, are bought with the price of human
life, and she draws her bloom and beauty
from the wan cheeks Of poor girls like me
Oh, mother If did not think there would
be day Of fearful reckoning, ! should lose
faith in God, as have in man
Mrs. Lyle clasped and unclasped her thin,
nervous fingers, and her lips moved as if in
prayer. "Out of Thy mercy, Thy divine
love-" she murmured, deliver her from the
hand of the hand of the oppressor
Last night" continued Agatha, IL was
going to the bakers to get the rusk for our
poor supper, and she went by in her trading
dress and velvet mantle, and | knew she
was going to some place of amusement to
pass the time away that is not full Of work
ing hours for her, siuce she has a subordinate
to drive and goad her slaves, ' nile she is
absent overheard her telling in her false,
honied tones, how she was tired and worn
out by the care Of so many young creatures,
but that she dared not shirk the RESPONSE.
bility Of watching SO many IMMORTAL souls.
Souls why if it was only over bodies she
starved and overtasked | should not care,
but it is the soul she destroys wanted to
confront her then ard there, and seattle her
with lightning torrent Of scorn, bur-I could
not afford it I"
Mrs. Lyle listened passively; she had
heard it all handred times before, when
just as helpless to prevent the wrong as
now; she suddenly startled Agatha by
asking
"Have- you come TO any understanding
with Mr.. Edsallg"
| The girl blushed wildly but looked pleased
/ too, all the hardness went out Of her voice
and face, and she spoke in hushed, tremu-
lous voice, that had Al under current Of deep
passion in it, like strain Of plaintive music
So love transforms everything by its won
drous power
at is all right with him mother; he has
not yet asked me to be his wife in so many
set words, but We understand each other.
think he is waiting to try me- Some lives
are purified by sdversity, and | shall vel
come it, if indeed il will make me better
fitted to become his wife, he is SO noble"
81 hope nc is" her mother answered, "for
your sake. hope he may be able to stand
between you and the cold charities Of the
world, when am gone he seems like a
true man, land the time is coming when you
win need his Cove"
Agatha murmured some indefinite reply,
kissed her mother and was gone to her work.
All day the sick woman lay there alone, ex-
cept when some neighbor, as poor and un-
fortunate, looked in TO hand drink OF water
or medicine to her. The clock licked
monotonously, as if IT had half mind to
stand STILL and the solitary fy that the
spring sun had developed in the window,
Jagged about in noisy so..'ude. How dim
and poor everything was IN that garnet
Agatha sewed all day, and accomplished a
large amount of work, so that she yentured
- ask Miss Warner for an advance of q
weeks wages, che waited upon her in her
own private room, q place furnished with
every luxury, and stood before an elegant
dressing table urging her plea Miss Warn
er was coidly polite she never prepaid any
one. She was not responsible for sickness
or want in the families of those she employ
ed, aud called away al that moment to the
show room she left Agatha, pale with shame
aii5 despair.
For few moments she stood there won
dering what to do next. On the table by
which she stood lay purse stuffed with
bank notes, that suggested dark thought
to her for moment, q moment only; then
she went slowly back to the workroom,
whence she proceeded to the shop Of Mr..
Edsall. -
u ka,,t . closh;rr otoro era h.4 r;rav