American citizen. [volume] (Canton, Miss.) 1864-1890, 1874-08-01
THE KAISER FREDERICK.

VIRGINIA REAL was clerk in the great
store of Pink & Flooding. She stood in
the lace department., and displayed and
measured till her little body ached every
night. Pink & Flooding fiourished in /;
brick and plate-glass block, kept a score
or two of salespeople and runners, and
draped all the fashionable world. Their
spring and fall Openings" disturbed
square miles of feminine hearts (and
purse 81 and in any season their counters
were thronged. Virginia thought her
self fortunate at first to be taken into
Pink & Plodding's establishment. But
we are ungrateful beings who tire of our
blessings, She came to the city lone
creature, with nothing to advance her
except letter to the rector of st. Paul's
The rector of St. Paurs kindly recon-
mended her to Mr.. Flooding. who want
ed young woman behind his 1ace-coun-
ter just then, and Mr.. Flooding took her.
There she stood day after day, some
times great circles darkening around her
eyes, spreading fabrics, hunting unheard-
OF patterns, and going through violent
gymnastics for hurried customers, who,
perhaps. piled the counters with tangles
up to their chins, and went away leaving
the shop-girl nothing but trouble. She
was not quite pretty child; she had a
great deal of dark brown hair, and
swift, dark eyes, and baby hands
when she came to work in the morning
she was flushed and fresh as sleep and
youth will make the heaviest-laden of
us all; but, as her day-sands slipped, so
slipped her bloom, till night drove her
haggard and old faced to her homeless
boarding place. To be sure, she saw the
world 1t flowed constantly past her,
loved to hurry and vex her, and shook its
leisure, its plenteous happiness and full
purse forever in her face
Virginia had no companions among her
fellOw-clerks- They consisted of fluffy
young women and correctly-gotten-up
men. Girls who hung variegated hair
round their skulls, and who told you a
thing was "vur poorly" or "chawming,"
or ''delaightful :" who, in short, aped all
the dawdling of upper-tendom. Men of
that cut-and-dry appearance which a life
behind counter gives family IMAM. To
be sure, above all stood Miss Blum
the cashier. whose mouth shut like an
forced 10 unclOse that you wouldn't pry
at it often. But she was not of the low
er earth, earthly The girls disliked Vir-
ginia; they considered her an upstart;
her reserved ways were '.airs;" and
altogether, she wasn't "their style :"
they -nubbed her. The cut-and- dry men
were SO occupied between the rushes of
business and mental attempts to stretch
their salaries around the year that they
forgot this fatherless daughter in their
midst
Mr.. Flooding was Ieathery old fel-
low, who worked his human machines
hard and looked well to their operations.
The flesh and blood and soul part of them
he had nothing to do with.
Different was Mr.. Pink-that elegant
being! He was u gentleman-merchant
whose father had set him up in business,
and who did the fast-horse driving of the
establishment, leaving it to old Flooding
to do the fast bargain driving. Mr. Pink
seldom entered the store, but he delighted
in sending a f1utter before him when he
did enter He scattered compliments
and silly, patroniZing speeches right and
left. When Mr.. Pink saw Virginia. he
fixed his eyes on her and promised to
amuse himself with that little girl. But
he never got on with her at all. Respect
full toward him, she yet held herself so
much above him that all his boosted shots
struck below her feet. The serene shop
girl declined Irritation with that fascinat-
ing being.
She was so lonely. Her boarding place
was chill resort, where "boarders"
were boxed in small rooms, fed sparingly
and sOlemnly. and told the price of every
article Of food while it was between their
teeth, by that severe widow, Mrs. Stump,
who surveyed her victims from the head
of the long table. Here, again, people
were negative to Virginia.
Not many recreations were there for
her She seldom saw a play or heard
music: clty's wealth or resources rolled
round her, and she stood like TantaIus
unable to command them Sometimes
she slipped into the free seats at St.
Paufs and watched the pomp of religion
If the rector ever saw her after service,
he gave her patronizing nod There
was nothing for her, she told herself again
and again. but to stand in that store, pay
her earnings to the boarding. house
keeper, and keep the tread mill going till
she died.
Often this unhelped child grew des-
perate, and when she came home of
nights she threw herself upon the floor
and beat her tired, bursting head against
the wall. 1t was foolishness, to be sure,
but the foolishness of human being in
mental agony was what drew out the
tenderest compassion from One who
once sojourned on the earth.
If / had some oneI" cried Virginia,
Just somebody, A friendr'
1t did not strike her to say lover.
Lovers she might have found among
the youths who frequented Mrs. Stump's,
and looked upon Virginia with some
favor. But in none of these could she