The state rights democrat. [volume] (Albany, Linn County, Oregon) 1865-1900, 1874-07-10
A ROMANCE OF the STREET.

A group of ragged girls were play
ing on the sidewalk of Baxter street,
half blocking the way with their
boisterous antics. DIR. Henry Cotton,
q young physician attachedt to chari-
table institution in the neighborhood,
found it almost impossible to push
his way through the crowd of hoy
dens. Uncouth faces and rough
words greeted him, as with no very
gentle hands he made for himself q
passage through their midst. One
of the girls, bolder than her noisy
companions. caught at his coat and
pulled him half round.e He looked
at the girl, whose temerity excited
his surprise. She was about twelve
or thirteen years old, and as.ragged
and dirty as any of the lot; her beau
ty shone through her dirt and rags.
Her cheeks we're round and dimp-
led, her lips full and red, her eyes
and hair black as midnight, and her
form apparently wonderfully perfect.
DR.. Cotton passed on few steps,
but the girls beauty excited his in
terest, and he called her. At first
she was disposed to run away; but
finally she went up to him, taking
care to keep just out of arms reach;
"What's your name, my girl?'
asked the young man.
"Rosa Garden" she replied.
"Where do you live?"
"With Nanny Ginger, down there
in the rag-cellar- she's my aunt
she is"
"WeIl, Rosa, he said as he started
to go, "you are too pretty and bright
witted to live in this place and with
these hard people. Wouldn't you
like to go to school and be q lady
when you grow up?"
Rosa ideas of q lady were associ-
ated with clothes, and she replied af-
frmatively without the slightest hes
ition.
"Then I'll tell you what to do,
Rosa," added Henry; "wash your
face and comb your hair, and-do
you know where the Girls Refuge is. "
"Yes, I guess So"
"You go down there, ring the bell
and ask for Mrs Brown. Tell her
that you want to live there and learn
to be LADY," and he went on about
his business, leaving the girl with
her noisy companions.
But Rosa had no relish for romp-
ing. What the young man had said
to her kept running in her head, and
she soon went to her squalid home to
think it over
Rosa received little but hard usage
and short rations from "Mammy
Ginger" who only kept the girl for
the work she could squeeze ont of
her. Her present life was so miser-
able that no change could well have
been made for the worse, and so she
inclined to follow the strangers ad-
vice. That, night she dreamed Of be-
ing fine lady, dressed in silk, and
with plenty to eat, and upon waking
in the morning she no longer hesi-
tated.
After exciting "Mammy Ginger's"
wonder by washing her face and
combing her hair as well as she could
with her fingers, Rosa slipped out
and went to the Girls Refuge, an in
stitutionfor the care and education
of orphan and pauper girls. Ring
ing the bell, she inquired for Mrs.
Brown, as the stranger had told her
to do, and at last reached the pres
ence of the matron of the institution.
"Well, little girl" said Mrs.
Brown, "what do you want?"
"I want to be'a lady"
The odd reply, coupled with the
girls striking beauty, won the atten-
ton of the matron, and Rosa soon
found herself an inmate of the in
stitution.
Eight years rolled by, bringing DR..
Henry Cotton to the age Of thirty
Eight eyentful years to the country
and to him, for they comprised the
bloody years of the great war. At
the first breaking out Of the great
hostilities he entered the army as an
assistant surgeon and served through
out the entire struggle. At the close,
like thousands upon thousands OF
others he found himself completely
unsettled in his habits and disposi-
ton. With few hundred dollars
saved from his pay he returned to
New York to find that his friends had
been scattered. Nobody knew him
and he had not relative in the
world.
"But have profession, I" be said
to himself, perfected by years Of
practical army experience; l will es-
tablish myself, and prosperity will
bring friends around me again"
Naturally buoyant and hopeful, he
prepared to recommence life, with
good spirits and bright anticipations
for the future. He hired a respecta-
BILE but modest Office on semi-fash.
ionable uptown street, furnished il
plainly, and displayed sign denoting
his calling. Days passed and nc
patronage. He saw his dollars going
out with none coming in.
81 must economic, he concluded
81 will give up my boarding place to
begin with"
After this the lounge in his Office
was his bed, and the cheap restaurant
got his patronage. Still these meas
ures only checked the drains upon
rVIa r.. fo,,.r,, ~