Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1872-10-07

MEMPHIS, TENN: MONDAY EVENING OCTOBER L 1872

out of the water. This now unhappy
gentleman is one OF the most humane OF
men, and he would have gladly relieved
the sufferer had he known her distress.
And in this he is atype Of great London,
going on about its urgent affairs with
thousands Of pounds ready TO mitigate
any suffering it knows OF, butquite igno-
rant Of the agonies at its side until they
are revealed by the chronicles Of anguish
and death in the papers. The fate of
this young girl has awakened q demand
for some new establishment in Lon
don which shall be devoted to the
protection and aid of women wander
ing in distress A Strangers Home will
probably be founded. The old pagan
custom of sacrificing some human be-
ing at the beginning of every impor-
tant undertaking, seems to have some
deep root in nature. Most Of our insti-
tutions arise out Of some tragedy, and
reforms progress by calamity. The fate
of poor Alice may be the means of
sheltering some of hes sad sisters, in
the future, from agonies like her own.
If such, a Home of Refuge as is now
proposed is raised, it might well have
sculptured in it the form of this poor
girl, with the last words of her letter /:
"What is left 0, God in Heaven, have
mercy upon poor helpless sinner.
Thou knowest how have striven against
this, but fate is against me. cannot
tread the path of sin, for my dead
mother is watching ME. Fatherless,
motherless, home have none. Oh, for
the rarity of Christian charity under
the sun. am not mad for days l
have seen that this would be the end.
May all who hear of my death forgive
me, and may God Almighty do so, be-
fore whose bar / must soon appear.
Farewell to ALTO this beautiful yet
wretched world. Alice Blanche Oswald.
l am twenty years Of age the 18th of
this month.
The particulars which have been
brought out by this letter and the coro-
ner's inquest have not been pleasant
reading for an American. That this
educated girl should have been brought
over to Scotland by an American family
and then turned adriit with no more
than the pittance due as her wages, is
dismal accessory, but not so dismal as
that she applied for aid at the American
Consulate, and apparently from that
source received a reply which quite
upset her" 1t is not necessary to be-
ieve the suggestion of one of the daily
papers that the letter received contained
improper overtures to her. 1t is highly
improbable if the letter came from the
Consulate it contained nothing more
than the ordinary refusal of aid. But
even in that light it is a painful rehec-
ton that an educated girl should apply
to our Consulate for aid in vain. 1t is
true that the Consulate cannot be turned
into charitable institution; but we
would say that q good deal of discrimi-
nation in such cases is required, and
that an American woman in anything
like the style Of the letter left by Alice
Oswald should hardly be an addition to
the consular waste-basket. This incl
dent is not unlikely to give point to GER
tain complaints that have already been
heard of certain brusque, not to say
rude, treatment, which persons visiting
the Consulate have met with from some
of the secondary officials of that insti-
tuition, 4tlF