The Republican journal., 1872-03-21
The Story of Lucy.
From the New York Tribune.

Tor which we purpose to make room here
We believe its meaning bears more nearly
on the lives of large class of our readers
than even the national debt or the choice
of our next President.
About twenty Years ago, a girl baby
was born to a carpenter and his wife who
had five boys already swarming aud
Squabblng about the three roomed house.
Inc baby shared the tate of solitary girls
among brothers. She was The something
rare and unwonted which hal never come
INTO their common life before; she was
the bit OF porcelain among rough crock
cry; her father and the bigger BOYS called
her 'little lady," carried her out proud
tv on Sunday afternoons, when their own
clothes were coarse and patched enough :;
but she never lacked bit of embroidery
or feather in her cap. She, unlike my
riads of other children, was born to no in
exorable inheritance of poverty or dirt or
crime. The carpenter was hard work
ing, honest, domestic old man, whose
highest ambition was to give to each of
his boys steady trade, that they might
never need to take 10 shitty ways to earn
a meal" For Lucy, of course. he hoped
tor something better. His wife was a
thrifty Scotch lrishwoman, who had lived
IN one house at service for fifteen years
before her marriage, and could command
high salary now at any time as house
keeper. 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 country" She never pass
ed a rich mans daughter, delicately dress
ed that she did not think Of these ''chanc-
es'; chances that numbered not only easy
living and refinement, but equipages, vel
vets, diamonds. 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
ont? God had made no life so full of bless
ings that it ought not to be possible to
Lacy with her loving blue eyes and Won
dertul bright hair. twas quite true that
God had made no life of happy womanhoo9
which was not possible to the child. She
had a practical, nimble intellect, was
frank. earnest, affectionate; bushes and
tears came quickly, signs Of delicate ma
ture and tender conscience. BETTING to
servant as a queen. both Of them being
Gods children. One would have said the
girl was born to be in time pure maid
en-, loving wife. faithful mother.
She went TO school Years after her
brothers We're 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 bows bought
her a cheap piano AZ auction, on which
she strummed a few street airs. People
who noticed the girls readiness and win
ming manner, told her mother it was time
she was making some provision for her,
and offered to take her into their houses
as servant But mental work was a GER
tainty which TO Lucy ; vague chances was
an insult. Even drudgery at home was
spared her that She might run with her
school companions. or read the cheap
papers of the day. Gradually the fine
delicacy faded ont of her face her voice
grew loud; the quick step dragged lazily;
it became 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; d deformed brother kept
the house with Lucy. but it was necessary
that she should earn her own living. There
were balf-a-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 seclusion of refined
Christian family. But this Girl, whose
Master was born in Il stable, was indig-
nant al being asked to take the place of a
servant, She went into a mill. The
wages We're good. She had her ambition
Neyets and diamonds made the lady. She
could at least Haunt in Terry and Milton
gold. She had the Imagination of other
yuung girls-the Zest for love adventure
No knights or gentlemen came about the
mill, Or lovers to the house, but there was
the chance compliment from Young men
on the streets; the encounter on the street.
cars going home at night
The story is told. There came a day
when the deformed brother, who had
watched over her since she was a baby
with sorer tenderness because no other
woman could ever be near or dear to him,
cursed her and drove her from the door
She went gladly. The street life suited
her now; for the change in the girl did
not begin in dress or face or voice: it
worked out from within Year bv wear
her training had corrupted soul and brain.
1t mattered little when the symptoms of
decay showed themselves to the world.
For Years she has tested the street life.
Last week it ended. In the bright sun
light bloated, filthy woman crept out of
the prison van into the stone archwav 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 to drag it.
self out into the sunlight again, matters
little. It may live until old age. But
Lucy, honest, unseltish, pure in thought,
died long ago II 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. But She, still living went
down into a grave from which there is 10
place OF resurrection, though We seek it
carefully and with tears. Perhaps it is a
story without a moral, at least it has
none, if mothers do not find it for them
selves.