The Pulaski citizen. [volume] (Pulaski, Tenn.) 1866-current, 1874-11-26
TIE KAISER FREDERICK.

TIE KAISER FREDERICK.
Virginia Real was a clerk inltbe GREAT
store of Pink & Plodding. She stood
in the lace department, and displayed
and measured till her little body ached
every night. Pink & Ploddinp four-
ished in brick and plate-glass block,
kept n score or two of salespeople and
runners, and draped all the fashionable
world. Their spring and fall "opon-
ings" 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 beint
who tire of our blessings. She came
to the city lone creature, with moth
ing to advance her except letter to the
rector Of st. Paul's. The rector of st.
PauIs kindly recommended her to Mr..
Ploddiug, who wanted young woman
behind his lace counter Just then, and
Mr.. Plodding took her.
There she stood day ter day, spread.
ing fabrics, hunting unheard of pat
terms, and going through violent gym
nGstics for hurried customers, who, per
haps, piled the counters with tangles
mp to their chins, and went away leav-
ing 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 viii make the heaviest laden of
rs 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. 1t flowed constantly
past her, loved to hurry and vex her,
aud 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 correctlv-got-
ten-up men. Girls who hung variegated
hair round their skulls, and who told
you n thing was "vur poorly" or
"chawmjng," or "delaightful. 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, hose mouth shut like an
oyster-shell, and snapped 50 when it
was forced to unclOse that yOu wouldn't
pry at it often. But she was not of the
lower earth, earthly. The girls dis
liked Virginia; they considered her an
upstart; her reserved ways were 'airs;'
and, altogether, she wasn't their
style;" they snubbed her. The cut
and-dry men were 81 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.
nj 4 T,,G NNI NGI-
low, who worked his human machines
hard, and locked we'll 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 a gentleman merchant
whose father had set him up in busl
ness. and who did the fast horse driving
of the establishment, leaving 1t to ole
Ploddiug to do the fast bargain driving
Mr.. Pink seldom entered the store, bu
he delighted in sending a fiutter before
him when he did enter. He scattered
compliments, and silly, patronizint
speeches, right and left. When Mr.
Pink saw Virginia he fixed his eyes ol
her and promised to amuse himself will
that little girl. But he never got ol
with her at all. Respectful toward
him, vet she held herself so much ab W
him that his bOastCd shots fell beioN
her feet. The serene shop-girl dccline'
Irritation with that fasciI ating being.
She was so lonely. Her boarding
place was a chill resort, where board
e1s" were boxed in small rooms, fe'
sparingly and solemnly, and told tn
nrice Of every article of food while
was between their teeth, by that sever
wiuow, Mrs. Stump, who surveyed he
victims from the head of long table
Here, again, people we're negative t
Virginia.
Not many recreations were there 10
her. She sc, dom saw play or hear
music. A city in wealth of resource
rolled around her, and she stood, lik
Tautalus. unable to command them
There was nothing for her, she told hel
self again and again, but to stand I
that store, pay her earnings to ia
baarding-hou keeper, and keep tn
tread-mill going till she died.
Often this unhelped child grew de'
perate. aud, Uhen she came home G
nights, she threw herself upon the hool
and beat her tired, bursting head agaln'
the wall. It was foolishness, to be sur.
Int the foolishness of a human being J
mental AGONY was what drew out th
tenderest compassion from one WI
once soiourned on the earth.
IF / had some one J p" cried Nlrglnl'
Uiust somebody A friend
Tt did not strike her to say love-
Lovers she might have found anon
the Youths who frequented Mr.
Stump's, and looked upon Virginl
with some favor. But in none of theS
could she find her friend. Many youn
Girls have passed thI oUgh such exper
ence in a big, lonely city, and nav
taken the huska which chance thre
them. or, worst of all, have been goaoe
by maddening heartache down the aat
road Of ruiu. She was so young 10 |
. all forsaken and lost in the tng worlo
She wondered, bitterly, why she ma
been created at ali The gift OF ID
comes 10 so many of us wrong slde ou
We pull it this way and that; pu'
shall find the design, the beauty al III
the glory of it, If we're patient. Sou
are to find the meaning of lie III IoV'
some in splendid work; and hapl
few in heroic deeds reserved 10 theL
which viii echo down the centuries.
Never mind, DeaTie-down-ln-the-IlU u
just pull away. You're ure TO con
out dry and high, if You Keep Il go'
heart and stiff lip.
Oce night, as Virginia Leaned aBatu
the window, looking at the heaVy sh
she heard violin. The sound "
faint; but, as she listened, 1t grew III, II
filed all her sense of hearing. 1t talk
10 her like an angel. Her heart SVEN
She leaned towards the darkness irC
which it spoke, strained after IT,