The Lambertville record. [volume] (Lambertville, N.J.) 1872-1968, 1879-02-05
MISCELLANY.
LOOK OUT At THE WINDOW.

A little girl stood at window watching
passers by--men, women and children going
en- their daily routine of work for ther livings.
One figure in the throng--a stately, beautiful
girl-drew special attention, and she watched
her day by day. Years passed, and the lot of
The obseryant little girl now become woman.
was cast in a land far distant from the home
of her infancy. But the panorama was fixed
upon her memory, and when she lost view of
the present in dreaming of the last the
throng of men and women still novel ON be-
fore her and chief among them all passed the
Juno like figure of the stately young girl on
her daily walk to work. The little child was
Francis llodgson Burnett. And out of the
phantom OF memory she has vitalized the
character which holds rank with the most i'm
pressive works of modern fiction" The Lass
Of Lowrie's.'
IL is an lnnoccut, some may say gsimple
trait, to be interested in strangers, land to have
eyes which range beyond immediate and per-
sonal surroundings. And it is regarded gene
rally as proof of practical prudence that
men and women, as they grow older, grow
selfish, and narrow their vision down to them
selves. The world goes by them as an idle
wind, which they regard not. Some thing of
this self occupation is certainly necessary, as
without it the battle of life could not be en-
countered. But their are other duties in life
besides those which we owe to ourselves -
Our own desires and comforts, even our own
subsistence are not the only things we should
oaucidnr Tho Eo;,
and friends has something selfish in it, since
their happiness reacts upon themselves To
these duties which may be called enioyments,
there need be no exhortation.
But to the wider elaims-those of common
humanity, common as to their wide range, is
there not cause to say they are with too many
people, uncommon as to their performance
Might we not all retain, with advantage, much
more OF the curiosity as to others and the in
terest in them of which we have permitted
years and rude experience to deprive us
Might we not watch the passing crowds with
more of the feeling of human interest? Is
it not something to US that we see battered
shawls, while woare warm in furs and pad
ded cloaks; thin coats, worn thread bare,
while we are warm in good garments. And
as we gaze out at the window-if we conde
scend SO far, while waiting, perhaps impa-
tiently, for our hearty meal, it is then really
nothing to us that figures shuttle by, slip shod,
with the pinched face of u hunger which is
not sure of being satislieda
Everybody cannot construct novels. Pro-
badly there are too many pens busy at such
work already. There are other modes in
which the habit of observation may become
useful-to the observed as we'll as to the OBJ
server We cannot all invent remance-but
we may find sad romance in reality-and take
part in it too-if only VIC have patience to
follow home the ragged threads which fiutter
before MS.
We read of children freezing on their beds
fer want Of clothing and fuel of families at
starvation point, or near it and we hear all
the shades and shapes of suffering, which
have their place within call of the comforta-
bic and the happy. These statements sur
prise and almost strike the many as impossi
bilities. But If we all took more interest in
The possible history of the human creatures
we meet; if it was less matter of city pride
not to know onc's neighbours they might be
followed homo sometimes, and the follower
become deliverer like the long lost uncle in
the last scene of the melodrama. Or, If no
quite so sensational an entrance is made
conditions might be learned where curiosity
would seem no more idle. The worst kind of
distress is the dumb distress which does not
lift up its voice; and the most painful suffer-
ings is that of those who conceal their power
ty. Let the well-to-do look about them and
see IL they cannot find a better thing to be
proud of than ignorance of all the world out
side of their own narrow circle.