The Rutland daily globe. [volume] (Rutland, Vt.) 1873-1877, 1874-06-06
\ Romance of the street.

a group of ragged girls were playing OF
the sidewalk of Baxter street, half block.
ing the way with their boistcrous antics
DR. Henry Cotton, young physician at.
tached to a charitable institution in the
neighborhood, found it almost impossible
to push his way through the crowd of hoy.
dens. uncOuth faces and rough word.
greeted him, as with no very gentle hands
lie made himself II passage through Their
midst. One of the girls, holder even. than
her noisy companions, caught at lis coat
and pulled him half around. lie looked
at the girl, whose temeriy excited his sur
prise She was about twelve or thirteen
years old, and as ragged and dirty as any
of the lot; yet her beauty shone through
her dirt and rags. Her checks were round
and dimpled, her lips full and red, her eyes
and hair black as night, and her form ap-
parently wonderfully perfect. DIR Cotton
passed on few steps, but the girls beauty
excited his interest, and he called her. Al
first she was disposed to run away, but f.
nally she went UP to him, taking care &c
keep just out of arms reach.
"What isyour name, my girl? asked the
vOunu man.
''Rosa Garden she replied
''Where do you live?"
''With Nanny Ginger, down there in
the rag celler-sie is my own aunt she is. .
''Well Rosa" he said as he started to 90.
''you are too pretty and bright-witted to
live in this place, and with these hard peo.
PIE Wouldn't you like to go to school
and be nice lady when you are grown
up?"
Rosa's idea of lady was associated with
clothes, and sher replied affirmatiyely without
hesitation.
"Then I'll tell you what TO do, Rosa, -
said Henry. "Wash your face and comb
your hair, and-do you know where the
Girls Refuge is?'
eyes. guess So"
"You go up there, ring the bell and ask
for Mrs Brown. Tell her that YOU want
to be lady;" and he went on about his
business, leaving the girl with her noisy
companions.
But Rosa had no relish for romping.
What the young man had said to her kept
running in her head, and she went to her
squalid home, thinking it all over and
over.
Rosa received little but bad usage and
short rations from "Mammy Ginger" who
kept the girl for the work she could squeeze
ont of her. Her present life was so miser-
able that no change could well be made for
the worse, and so she was inclined to fol-
low the strangers advice. That night she
dreamed of being Il fine lady dressed in silk,
and with plenty to eat, and upon waking
in the morning, she no longer hesitated
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 institution for the care and education of
orphans and pauper girls. Ringing the
bell, she inquired for Mrs. Brown as the
stranger had told her to do and at last
reached the presence of the matron of the
institution.
"Well, little girl" said Mrs. Brown,
what do you want?"
81 want to learn to be lady"
The odd reply, coupled with the girls
striking beauty, won the attention of the
matron, and Rosa soon found herself IN in
mate Of the institution.
Eight years rolled by, bringing DIR Henry
Cotton to the age of thirty. Eight event.
full years to the country and to him, for they
comprised the bloody years of the great
war, At the breaking out of the great hos
iilities he entered the army as an assistant
surgeon, and served throughout the entire
struggle. At the close, like thousand upon
thousand Of others, he found himself com
pletely unsettled in habits and disposition.
With few hundred dollars saved from his
pay, he returned to New York, to find his
friends scattered. Nobody knew him, and
he had not relative in the world.
"But have profession" he said to
himself, "pcriectcd by years of army ex-
perience; will establish myself, and pros-
perity will bring friends around me again. 3"
Naturally bouyant and hopeful, he pre-
pared to recommence life, with good spirits
and bright anticipatons for the future. lie
hired respectable but modest Office in Il
semi-fashionable up town street, furnished
1t plainly and displayed a sign donotng his
calling. Days passed, and no patronage
lie saw his dollars going out, with none
coming in.
II must economize,' he concluded; II
will give up my boarding place to begin
with"
After this, the lounge in his office was
his bed, and the cheap restaurants got his
patronage. Still these measures only
checked the drain upon his stores. The
few professional calls that he had were
mainly from these too poor or too dishonest
to pay, and his income did not one-half
meet his closely curtailed expenses. He
grew downhearted and discouraged Month
after month passed, and at last his money
was all gone. What should he do? The
idea of giving up his profession was distaste-
full, and he chung 10 a hope until actual
want came in the shape of unappeased
hunger. Then, one by one, he pawned his
fine surgical instruments, getting but a
small fraction of their real value. Articles
of clothing followed, until he found himself
utterly unprovided to meet the cold weather
that was coming on.
Finally, convinced that he must abandon
his profession, he studied the "want" col
umns OF the newspapers, and spent two en-