Rutland weekly herald. [volume] (Rutland, Vt.) 1859-1877, 1872-03-28
The Story of lucy.

About twenty years ago, girl-baby
was born to a carpenter and his wife
who had five boys already swarming
and squabbling about the three-rOomed
house. The baby shared the fate of sol
itary girls among brothers. She was
| the something rare and unwonted which
| had never come into their common life
before she was the bit of porcelain
among rough crockery her father and
the bigger boys dubbed her ''little lady,
carried her out proudly on Sunday after
moons, when their own clothes We're
coarse and patched enough but she
never lacked bit of embroidery or a
feather in her cap. She, unlike myriads
OF other children, was born to no mex
Orable inheritance of poverty or dirt or
crime. The carpenter was hard-work-
ing, honest, domestic old man, whose
highest ambition was to give each of his
boys a steady trade, that they might
never need to take to shifty ways to earn
a meal" For Lucy,Of course, he hoped
for something better. His wife was a
thrifty Scotch -IrishwOman. who had
lived in one house at service for fifteen
years before her marriage and could
command a high salary at any time now
as housekeeper. Girls In the old
country" she said, ''were set to work
from the time they could walk. They
did not need to drudge so here. There
were chances for them in a free cOun-
try" She never passed a rich mans
daughter, delicately dressed, that she
did not think of these chances, chances
that numbered not only easy living and
refinement, but equipages, YelYets, dia-
mOnds. Education placed all men on a
level. Her mothers heart was sore and
tender. Why should not her little girl
enter into that high unknown world Of
luxury from which she had been shut
out g.? God had made no life of happy
womanhOod which was not possible to
the ohild She had a practical nimble
intellect, was frank, earnest, affection
ate bushes and tears came quickly.
signs of a delicate nature and tender
conscience, befitting to a servant as
queen, both of them being Gods chill
dren. One would have said the girl was
born to be in time pure maiden. a low
ing wife, faithful mother.
She went to school years after her
brothers were at work, but learned little
more than to read and write whatever
ability she had assuredly did not lie in
the path of boOk-knowledge the boys
bought her a cheap piano at auction, on
which she strummed a few street airs.
People who noticed the girls readiness
and winning manner, told her mother il
was time she was making some provision
for her, and offered to take her into
their houses as a servant. But menial
work was a certainty which to Lucy's
,~N~1
drudgery at home was spared her that
she might run with her school compan-
ions, or read the cheap papers Of the
day. Gradually the line delicacy faded
out of her face, her voice grew loud, the
quick step dragged laZily, it became a
matter of course for her to watch her
old father work for her while she sat
idle. At last the turn came, the elder
brothers married, the old man and his
wife died, aCformcd brother kept the
house with Lucy. but it was necessary
that she should earn her own living.
There were half dozen homes open to
her, where she would have had light
work, which would have fitted her for
her duties when she married. high wages
and the protection and the protection
and seclusiOn of a refined Christian fam
lily. But this girl. whose Master was
born in a stable, was indignant at being
asked to take the place Of a servant.
She went into a mill. The wages were /
good. She had her ambition. Nclvets
and diamonds made the lady. She ccald
at least flaunt in Terry and Milton gold.
She had the Imagination Of other young
girls-the Zrst for love. adventure. No
knights or gentlemen came about the
mill. or lovers to the house, hut there
was the chance compliment from vOuIg
men on the streets. the encounter on
the street cars going homo at night
The story is told There came a day
W hen the ticfOrned brother. who had
watched over her since she was q baby
with a sOr.r tenderness because no other /
woman could ever be near or dear to
him crushed and drove her from The .
door. She went gladly. Tho street life F..
suited her now: for the change In The .
girl did not begin i'm dress or face or +.
voice it worked oUt from within. Year T.
by year her training had corrupted soul /
and brain. 1t mattcred little when the .
of decay showed themselves
to the world. For years She has tested .
street life. Last week il ended In the .
bright sunlight bloated. filthy woman .
crept ont Of the prison van into the stone ,
of the city prison, and the iron .
gates with their heavy clang shut on her .
not to open for two years. Lucy .
-. sentenced for grand larceny.
Whether, when they open, her ruined
body will be there 10 drag itself out into .
the sunlight again, matters little. 1t I
may live until old age But Lucy, hon
est, unsclfish, pure in thought, died long /
ago. If it had been only to sleep with /
her mother on yonder hillside, we might
have made the grass green above her,
Knowing that the child would come
again Sut she, still living, went down
ntO a grave from which there is no
place of resurrection, though we seek it
and with tears. Perhaps it is
1 story without a moral at least it has !
lOne, if mothers do not find il for them /
selves. -Netc York TriJune