The morning star and Catholic messenger. [volume] (New Orleans [La.]) 1868-1881, 1874-07-05
Waiting for Something to Turn Up.
Philadelphia Catholic Record. |

ma an echo waiting for something
to turn up" We oil know what it meaus
saddest, weariest thought imaginable; to
come it has brought despair and madness.
How many weeks, months, and years have
been endured and fretted away "waiting
for something to turn up !" The poets
words about "hope springing eternal in
the human breast" give clue to the en-
during power that enables US to go on
"waiting," although the "something" keeps
ever recsding, and GLIDING the grasp of
the anxiously stretched out hand.
Let US look for a few minutes into the
home of certain family, fitted by intel
pose to do the work of life creditably.
Great sacrifices had been made to prepare
those fine, bright youths for the battle OF
existence. There they are, with all their
early fire and ambition, ready to fly a.
moments notice to any sort of work. They
"something willturn up" And they "wait,"
and their little fve-year old brother
t"waits," too, for the toys he is to have
when the "sometbing" Turns up; bat it
seems very long to "wait," and at last the
poor little fellow only looks at the toy
shop aud says, nervousiy, mamma, has
Robert got y 'swation' yet ~ Bat they
live ON bravely, leaning upon hopes kindled
| by the promises of friends who were just
the sort of people to hear Of 'something"
At last health and spirit begin to waue !;
the clothes, obtained to make an appear
ance when ''something should Offer" are
getting shabby, and the home income, al
ready far too small for the family wants,
seems to have shrunk into something l. IS
| than it used to be. Do you thiuk these
lads have sat idle and listless by the fire.
side simply "waiting Z" Not at all their
"waiting," poor fellows, has consisted 10
many a long trudge, and many care
i fp11u lott IN oak Annn1nvU,apt.
The work was long in coming, and the
"waiting' was disastrous. The boys went
| wrong, the father died mad, the poor moth
| er (shs was q foreigner of noble birth ;
remember her as o bride in her orange
blossoms and ancestral diamonds) dragged
out her days in extreme poverty, and fever
at length released her weary soul.
There is ledger in the top back room
of poor but decent house. He is tall,
pale man, apparently gentleman, but
very poor. He passes much of bis time
indoors. but takes no meals at home. Per-
seems anxious for the postman's knock,
and generally, after the receipt of o letter,
goes out, probably to post a reply, or call
somewhere in the hope that for him at last
"someshing has turned up" Who can
tell what are his privations, his WEAKNESS,
lost chances, and uncertain futuref
There is the lawyer, the doctor, with
their cultivated intellect, high notions of
duty and refined manners. How many of
| these, with and without family cares, are
growing prematurely old with the same
sad thing, "waiting for something to turn
up" Men and women know it equally.
A ladyiike woman of middle age took a
house in our neighborhood year ago.
She evidently had friends of position, for
during the season saw several handsome
equipages at her door, and from the-man-
ner of their occupants toward my neighbor,
- 20, hat aha vuo1l Epo
too, and probably loved by them-but,
excepting few arrivals and departures,
| the house has had no inmates but the lady
| aud her two servants. lately heard
through an agent that the house was to
be disposed Of by, letting or sale, and this
| induced me to make few inquiries.
learned that the lady has been gov
erness. After long years of toll, she has
sun2 her all in furnishing a house, hoping,
through her many friends and by adver-
tisements to obtain boarders, aud SO main
tain a home. But no one seems to require
the accom- mod alton she has to offer, and
she has been for year vainly waiting
for something to turn up"
We can imagine how drearily the weary
months have passed for that once active
woman-how she has compelled herself to
be patient, to sit day after day, nicely
dressed, waiting"
Aud her nights-how many aleepless
once And now, poor soul, if che had no
capital to depend upon through this long
stagnation, she must be sold ont, and turn
again into the bleak world, and toll as
formerly, but at a discount; for she is now
neither young nor strong, and will at once
be rejected by many as "too old" We
cannot tell what loving hopes and plans
were in her mind when taking her house,
possibly to make a shelter for poorer sisters
now abroad, or the little children of an
other. Her scheme has failed, and she is
probably penniless and broken-hearted.
We know, too, of house, where the
father is out of employment, and the an
xious, toiling mother tries to keep up
the hope that connecting will turn up"
her little ones want clothing and education.
The scanty means barely provide food and
firing, but she goes on in patient trust.
Her pale face tells of self denial, and many
sleepless night.
And SO millions on the wide earth are
ever sending to Gods throne the ceaseless
chant Kyrie eletson, Missrere nobis, all the
while they are "waiting for something to
turn up" How many of our well to do
people in business trouble their heads to
give lift to the boys of n struggling fami-
IC ia 0raat charity In halO n.