Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1881-04-14


some attire and elegant adornments she
always, as Bessie Wimple used to say,
''looked just squee,'' whatever that
meant. NvS
But it was no use; discouraged or not
discouraged, could have nothing new
in the way of dress. Pa was straining
every nerve to keep business going, and
couldn't tell when ma had her last
silk; SO certainly wouldn't distress my
kind parents with any needless COM.
plants. -
aItook my ''fancy French boots" from
the. drawer. They at least were all
right, and elegant boots they werel l
bought them with q five-dollar bill Aunt
Nellie gave me when she went from here
after her last visit; and got them for
considerably less than their real value,
on account of a small spot on the left
one, which could never be seen when the
boot was on.
l. placed the boots where, as / at
length laid down to take my nap, / could
see them distinctly, and, still brooding
over my perplexities and planning
what would be the best adjustment to
make of such garments as could raise
for adornment on the night of the par
ty, my eyes unconsciously rested on
those beautiful boots, when 10! sud-
denly noticed sort of moving and
perking on the part of the right one, and
all at once there came from it q low, clear
voice. in which it said:
I" You think your lot somewhat hard,
do you, deary, because the finery others
wear so jauntily is denied you, except
in too moderate an allowance? and it
comes hard for you to so continually
use your pretty hands in mixing cake
and rolling pastry; but we, the boots
you admire so justly, were adorned by
hands even softer and whittier than your
own, and eyes of a finer hue than yours
have gazed on our stylish shape. But
the young girl who held us in her tender
hands and gazed on us with fearful eyes
was far poorer and more forlorn than
you ever dreamed of being.
eve first gathered shape in great
building whose doors were always kept
locked; whose entrance was guarded
well; whose windows were barred, high
and inaccessible.
50 You've guessed it, have you, deary?
Yes; we We're cut and finished in a
prison.
''We remember we'll the night poor
Sue was committed. She didn't seem
hard aud defiant nor bold and reckless,
as many of them did; but we should say
she seemed proud. and terribly hurt
and when the warden asked her name
would only say Sues but the warden
was kind and fatherly, and told her
gently it would involve him in some
difficulty if she persisted in refusing to
give her whole name; then she went
close up to him, and whispered Batter
SON. and he nodded his head, and with
out repeating it after her as they gener-
ally do, set it down in his book.
"We were only half completed; there
was to be that tracery on the top, filled
in with embroidery, and the button holes
were to be worked by hand. We had
been rather carelessly placed on shelf
which bore the number 49, the sadly
circumscribed apartment to which Sue
Patterson was conducted. For an hour
after entering, she sat discansolately on
the edge of the hard cot then she began
slowly uncoiling her wonderful hair. 1t
was literally black as ravens wing
but soft and silky; and she seemed en-
veloped in its shiny masses when *at
length it lay in all its rich abundance
about her. After while she raised
her eyes to where we, in our plying,
prying watchfulness, stood silently re-
garding her.
Imagine clear, sweet, gray eyes and
a soft olive-tinted skin, an oval face and
faultless features set off blythe intense
blackness of that enveloping hair. She
would have looked very young but for
gestive of experiences of disappointment
and privation.
''After regarding us keenly for mo-
ment she slowly arose, and taking us
in her hands, soliloquized:
sssAnd there are fine, dainty ladies in
comfortable homes, who wear such
things as these without giving a thought
to the place from which they may have
come, and knowing nothing of the
breaking hearts and aching eyes of
those who have helped to fashion them!
All, me! if mother had lived should
never have seen the inside of prison
walls; and if only Reuben Hampstead
had not been lost at sea, l might have
had my own little home, and never have
been forced to enter this rueful place.
But I grew tired and discouraged, and
when that bad, miserable woman called
me the names she did, because l wore
such shabby clothes, l struck her blow,
never dreaming SO much could be made
of it; but when she declared that tried
to kill her the officers believed her,
and here am. The Judge said at first
1 might go on bail, if any one would
come forward; but who, / should like to
know, is going to befriend woman
that's doa0ne And to be sent up for six
for hitting a woman who dared
insult me SOL
''Her face had grown fierce, and the
gray eyes shot angry CLEANS which al
most made us tremble, and in her ex-
element she pinched US numerically.
its no use,' she went on; 1--we
been a clean, Woodworking girl. I've
never taken a penny not my own, and
my clothes are old and soiled because 1
acas clean and honest; but I'll be bad
enough to suit them all when once I
leave this place! I'll make them trouble
enough in time to come; the next time
they shut me up it shall be for cause,
I promise them that!' she added, des-