The Bolivar bulletin. [volume] (Bolivar, Hardeman County, Tenn.) 1865-1888, 1874-11-20
THE KAIsER FREDERIGK.


THE KAISER FREDERICK. .sa
-- 7ea.r .. .T-s. -. .-=eE.fr "a
Virginia Real vas clerk in the great
store of Pink & PlOdding. She stood
in the lace department., and displayed
and measured till her little body ached
every night. Pink & Plodding -four
ished in a brick and plate-glass block,
kept a score or two of salespeople and
runners, and draped all the fashionable
world. Their spring and fall ''open-
lngs" disturbed square miles of feminine
hearts (and purses), and In any season
their counters were thronged. Virginia
thought herself fortunate at first to be
taken into Pink & Plodding's establish
ment. But we are ungrateful being
who tire of our blessings. She came
to the city, a lone creature, with moth.
ing to advance her except q letter to the
rector of st. Paul's. The rector of st.
Paul's kindly recommended her to Mr..
Flooding, who wanted a young woman
behind his lace-counter just then, and
Mr.. Flooding took her. 5 az-sea
There she stood day after day, spread
ing fabrics, hunting unheard-of pat
terms, and going through violent gym
nastics for hurried customers, who, per
up to their chins, and went away Ieav-
ing the shop girl nothing but troubIe.
She was not quite pretty child she
had 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 viii 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 home
less boarding place.. To be sure, she
saw the world. It flowed constantly
past her, loved to hurry and vex her,
and shook its leisure, its plenteous hap
piness and full purse, always in her
face.
Virginia had no companions among
her fellow clerks, They consisted of
fluffy young women and correctly-got-
ten-up men. Girls who hung variegated
hair round their skulls, and who told
you a thing was " vur poorly" or
" chawming," or "delaightful. I" Men
of that cut-and- dry appearance which a
life behind a counter gives family man.
To be sure, above all stood Miss Blum,
the cashier, whose mouth shut like an
oyster-shell, and snapped so when it
was forced to unclose that you wouldn't
pAy az ~ OlbCLls Dub bu0 WAS uOb Ol bAiC
lower earth, earthly. The girls dis
liked Virginia they considered her an
upstart; her reserved ways were s'airs:"
and, altogether, she wasn't /" their
style ;" they snubbed her. The cut
and-dry men were 50 occupied between
the rushes of business and mental at
tempts to stretch their salaries around
the year that they forget this fatherless
daughter in their midst.
Mr.. PlOdding was leathery old fell
low, who worked his human machines
hard, and looked well to their opera
tions. The flesh and blood, and soul
part of them, he had nothing to do with. |
Different was Mr.. Pink-that elegant
being ! He was 8 gentleman merchant,
whose father had set him up In busi-
ness, 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 hutter before |
him when he did enter. He scattered |
and silly, patronizing |
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. Respectful towards |
him, yet she held herself so much ab I'VE |
him that his beasted shots fell below |
her feet. The serene shop girl declined |
Irritation with that fascinating being.
She was SO lonely. Her boarding |
place was chill resort, where ssboard- |
eIs', 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 |
winow, Mrs. Stump, who surveyed her |
victims from the head of a long table. !
Here, again, people were negative TO |
Virginia. a
Not many recreations were there for
her. She seldom saw a play or heard
music. a city in wealth of resources
rolled around her, and she stood, like
'Eantalus, unable to command them.
There was nothing for her, she told her
self again and again, but to stand in
that store, pay her earnings to the
clearinghouse 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. It was foOlishness, to be sure,
but the fOolishness of a human being in
mental agony was what drew out the
oOAAACACS1 BlsoaAO4 4AOA-A ZIG WAlO
once sojOurned on the earth.
eff ] had some oneI" cried Virginia,
"juEt somebody a friend
b It 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 find her friend. Many young
girls have passed through such experi
ence IN q big, lonely city, and have
taken the husks which chance threw
them, or, worst of all, have been goaded
by maddening heaFtache down the dark
road Of ruin. She was so Young to be
all forsaken and lost IN the big world
She wondered, bitterly. why she had
been created at all The gift of life
comes to 50 many of us wrong side out.
We pull it this way and that; but We