The Princeton union. [volume] (Princeton, Minn.) 1876-1976, 1880-07-22
Robbed of Her Sunshine.

from 81. Louis there comes strange
story; so strange that at first it ap-
peared like an invention of some in
geniOus manufacturer of fables. In
vestigation shows it to be founded on
fact. For nearly twenty years wealthy
man has been starving his daughter Of
the sunshine, keeping her all the while
locked up in a suit Of richly furnished
rooms. The infatuated man is the VIC
tim of queer delusion. In earlier life
he had lost all his children. One by
one each of them fell prey, to some
disease, and the father became discour-
aged. There is no state of physical all
ment nor any condition of mental or
moral worriment for which some quack
or other is not found to prescribe. When
all this mans children had gone, and q
new little daughter was born unto him,
one of these quacks dropped in. This
particular quack was probably a mixture
of Indian herb doctor and gypsy fort
une-teller. With solemn guise !. Of
profundity of wisdom he delivered
his opinion, which was that the new
born child should be kept for twenty
one years out Of the direct rays of the
sun locked in as prisoner. IF this
prescription were observed, she would
live. If it were disregarded, death
would be the result. Surrounded by all
that wealth can give her, except free
dom and sunshine, this poor creature
has now reached the age Of 20. She is
pallid and fabby and thin and languid.
She looks more like half-animated wax
works than like living girl. She has
books and pictures and embroideries and
laces and fine apparel. She takes exer-
else after fashion, but it is the fashion
Of the convict in the penitentiary. She
has been told that her Imprisonment is
for her good, and, like dutiful daugh-
ter. she would fain believe it so. But
her monotonous life is so burdensome to
her that she would rather die than live
out even the year which must elapse be-
tween the present time and her emanci-
patton. To her the outside world is
something as intangible as the life of
the antediluvians. She knows of it by
hearsay. The tutors and servants, who
exercise rigid scrutiny over all her move.
ments and are as jailers to her. have
told her of green trees and running riv-
ers and crowded streets and noisy
throngs and the busy rush of the
worlds traffic. A dim picture of all this
floats confusedly before her mind.
but practically she knows nothing
them. In the narrow confines Of her
luxuriously Furnished room, she won
ders and meditates and PAGES up and
down and chafes at her inactivity. She
would joyfully exchange her lot with the
poorest newsboy or the most unwashed
101 11- ~ 1k>.a = e.
ished for sunlight, and declares that she
must have it or die. When the term of
her captivity shall expire, and her ty-
| rannical father opens the door for her
to the outer world, she will be like a
poor, pale, leafess and fowerless plant.
He will then congratulate himself on
having saved his daughter. But re-
proaches should overwhelm congratula-
tions in his mind, for he has brought her
| up to life which will make her utterly
| miserable.
Sunshine is not thing which can be
| administered in one dazzling dose when
| the victim of shade and shadow attains
maturity. As well deprive child Of
| proper food until it comes of proper age,
and then spread before it rich array Of
delicacies which it neither can UNDER
stand nor digest. Rather feed the child
on the most delightful and nourishing
diet during infancy and youth. Flavor
the food with sunshine and let the child
walk in the. light. A childhood of
shadow. clouds. the whole life. : A flood
OF sunshine from the earliest infancy
means strength and JOY and health and
happiness all the way down to old age.
To rob a child of its sunshine is to make
| its whole life a pilgrimage Of woe. -
Philadelphia Times.