The Tiffin tribune. (Tiffin, Ohio) 1868-1887, 1871-11-30
The Ghost of Russian Hill

It was in the year 1854, and 1 was
living at San Francisco. CHANGING tC
need some one to assist me in doing
some plain sewing, Mr.. Evans, one OF
the merchants of the town, and a man
whose character for benevolence was
known far and wide, gave me the ad-
dress of a Mrs. Adds. She was a
superior person, quite a lady, he said,
who had come to California from the
Eastern States; and was reduced to
live by her own eXertiOn. He added
that she had been recently very i'll
! with nervous fever, was hardly strong
enough yet for the harder work of
washing-Which she had before been
taking inland no doubt she would be
glad Of the higher employment of
sewing.
"Washingv' 1 exclaimed. "a SUI
perior person, quite a lady, and re-
duced to take in washing ~
day." replied Mr.. Evans, "and
thankful to get it."
So, one morning, away l started for
| Mrs. Adds, climbing over the inter-
vening sand-hills that lay between st.
Annis Valley and my more centrally
situated home. The streets were not
then cut through and paved as they
are now, so the expedition was quite
a pilgrimage, and / was tired before l
reached the cottage of Mrs. Adds. 1
recognized it by the description Mr..
Evans had given: a pretty white
dwelling with green blinds, standing
in garden surrounded by a picket
fence, with an ornamental porch, over
which a green vine was beginning to
trail. All looked fresh and new; and
it appeared she had not long got into
1t.
A little girl of nine was playing out
side with boy of three; another child,
a girl Of perhaps six or so, sat wrapped
in a shawl, watching them. She
looked ill; and indeed there was a
delicacy about them all. The moment
they caught sight of me all three
evinced considerable alarm and ran
indoors. In a minute the eldest came
out again, sent by her mother.
Blushing very much, she said must
please excuse her for running away,
but she and her little sister and broth
er were shy and not used to visitors.
She was a gentle, pleasant-looking
child; but an her face there fingered
an expression as of some sudden fright,
and thought it must have been at
me.
Mrs. Adds came to the door then.
A pale, delicate-looking woman with
a sweet face of suffering, and a refine
ment of manner that surprised me.
1t was next to impossible to believe
that she could be doing the work of
common washerwoman. Alas, 1 had
not then the experience I have acquir-
ed since, of what well-reared women
may be reduced to by distress when
exiles in a foreign country.
The porch door opened into the par
lcr, and we went in. 1t was tidily,
nay, tastily furnished, with such
articles as sOjOurners in San Francisco
would most readily procure. A fresh
mating covered the floor. Some
cane-seated chairs, and a round table
stood about the room. Besides there
was a set of hanging shelves trimmed
with fringe, and plenty of little orna-
ments and souvenirs bespeaking home
friendships and loving parting gifts
from the other side of the continent.
All this, and the wOman's gentle
manner and really pretty face,
seemed more and more at Yarience
with her hard calling, but as l have
since learned, one sees these an
Omalies in a new country, as CalifOr-
mia was then. l came at last to the
conclusion that, whatever circum-
stances had rendered it necessary for
Mrs. Adds to work in the way she
did, they had no power to destroy her
rnn vaEvaF,,..V,N .f 4 -
old associations.
You must excuse my little people,
if you please" she went on to say.
"They are like frightened hares, and
fly for shelter at the sight of strange
face indeed, we are none of us strong
just now, though we are gaining
health daily. All except Nancy, my
eldest, have had a long, weakening
fever"
Panama ~ / suggested.
mo" she said, and shuddered a
little, speaking slowly; cit was a
nervous fever. am just recovering
from it myself, having had the most
heightened attack of the three"
And then / remembered that Mr..
Evans had mentioned it-a nervous
fever.
"What caused ~ 1 asked.
But to this question Mrs. Adds
made no answer. An unmistakahle
shiver passed over her frame, and for
the moment l thought she was going
to faint.
81 beg your PARDON" she said. 'I
have been much shaken in the nerves;
Jared and worried. I do hope-I do
trust that we all shall get weilin time.
now that We are in this pleasant and
peaceful house,
perhaps the house you lived in be-
fore was dsmp?''
'sNO, / don't think it was damp; it
was not that" she said. at was on
Russian Hill"
'Unhealthy perhapsin other ways?'
oYes. Unhealthy-fOr us,"-and
there ensued the shiver again.
About the work, ma'am; what is it
you wish me to do?"
1 sat and told her. ] paTtook of
some refreshments that they offered
me-a mouthful of lunch and some
tea. And I came away strangely in
terested in Mrs. Adds and her gentle
children, and quite determined that
that first visit should not be the last.
What is the mystery connected
with her illnses ?'' I Iasked Mr.. Evans
when 1 next saw him. "There seems
to ha