Louisiana capitolian. (Baton Rouge, La.) 1879-1881, 1881-01-20
4 WASHERWOMAN'S CHILD.


A little swiss muslin apron, with ruff
hes, pockets and ribbons, is q very &C.
ductive thing, even when tossed with
artless carelessness upon the fancy table
of q charity fair but who can paint its
magic power upon an unwary youth
when its futtering ribbons span slen-
der dainty waist and the pink-tipped
fingers of two plump little hands play
at hide-and-seek in its apologies for
pockets 7
Could mortal man help stopping to
speak to TIME Blair, as she stood be-
hind the great album of autographs,
alert and ready to register subscriptions
as fast as they were secured
1t must have been an apron that made
her so radiantly charming, for no other
table made such stoppage in the line
of travel, although the hall was lined
with tables, temples and stands, covered
with bats for the charitable, and pre-
sided over by the beauty and fashion OF
Offport Weekly, and if newspaper Is
not to be believed, then what is ?
Still, in spite of facts, most all the
young men did congregate around that
little table of TIMES. She had she'd
small shower of tears when it was con-
descendingly offered to her, but it was
that OF nothing, and it would not even
have been that if the good rector had
not been so obsolete in his notions as to
suppose that the child of q shiftless
drunkard, whose widow took in wash
ing, was fit to associate with the daugh-
ters of the upright and solid men who
sat in the body of the church and
soiemnly put their regular contribu-
tions in the weekly plate, carefully
pushing their aims well under, that
their five cents need not be known to
men.
However, having seen his little parish
Toner pointedly left out in all the prepa-
rations for the ladies' festival, he
did insist, and carried his point, that she
should have a position among the fair
amateur saleswomen. .. ... -t
The richest old woman in the congre-
CATION had donated to the charitable en-
terprise huge collection of stupendous-
ly uninteresting autographs which were
not even genuine, but attested fac SINH
lies of the signature of every man ofnote
from Moses to Treasurer Spinner-who
had ever been rash enough to pnt his
hame on paper.
The amiable first directress of the sew
ing society was Talleyrand in petit
coats. She brought the two difficulties
together, and let one take care of the
other; that is to say, if that low, odious
little creature was to be forced upon
them, let her undertake the book, which,
of course, would never be disposed of,
but which must appear, or the offended
donor would promptly remove herself
and her fortune to the rival church.
After the ecstacy caused by the dear
old rectors pledge that she should have
share in the delight of waiting at the
fair, it was something of heartbreak
when, by request, she presented herself
before the committee Of arrangements, to
find herself appointed to a most unen-
viable position.
She might not have known, in her in
nocence, that it was station, SO alb
horTed, but the ill-concealed mirth of
the others Mt her appointment oft made
her aware of the small esteem in which
it was held. ~ "
Then there were other drawbacks, and
altogether it was a sad little face that
TIME wore as she swept off the porch of
the little tumble-down black cottage that
she called home.
"There's no us trying" she said, as she
bent her lovely curly head lower and
lower to keep the tears ont of sight. 'No