The Sedalia weekly bazoo. [volume] (Sedalia, Mo.) 187?-1904, 1882-06-27
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three young girls, at Danville. ILL
nois. When the first telegram of
this triple self-destsuction was read,
it was strongly sensational. Their
was hint of romance connected with
it and the worlds cold heart said to
them: "Fool!sh girls; to die for a
lover, worthless mayhap, unworthy Of
their love"
But when the full story was told
there was a pathos and sadness
about it which brought tears to the
eyes and swept from the heart-chords
a melancholy strain.
No sadder fate can befall a girl than
a life Of drugery. 1t is so repulsive
to our every idea of the eternal ft-
ness of things" that We are stirred to
burning indignation against that fate
which sends one of these frail and deli
icate creatures to the kitchen, the
laundry. the nursery or the sewing
room, to be the slaves Of proud mis-
tresses, cold masters, grinding and
brutal Shylocks.
Just think of the life of a girl.
blooming into womanhood, her heart
attuned to those softer lays which are
the poetry and music other being, com
PEELED by poverty to earn the
crust of bread and the scanty gar
ment.
Can any fate be more hard, cruel or
unjust ? For her there is no happi-
piness. For her the song of bird
makes no melody; the golden SUM-
shine never falls. Flowers bloom into
beauty and fragrance, but not for
this poor child. The heated kitchen
is her home, or she sings the "Song of
the Shirt" in some cherries attic.
There is literally nothing to make
life worth living to them. They are
as completely cut off from social pleas
ures and the joys of intercourse with
friends as though they were immured
in some bastile and guarded by saw.
age men. The pleasures aad rec
reations which are granted to their
more fortunate sister, they know
nothing of. There are for them no
bits of time for indulging taste or in
clination. They know nothing of the
meaning of the word, "Rest," or
''Love," or "Home."
Day after day they must toll and
slave, wearing CALLING chains and grow
ing farther and farther from that ma
ture common to womanhood. Lack
ing money, social position, fine appar-
eI, they are looked upon as prey for
human beasts, to be dallied with, en-
loved for season, then cast aside to
die in poverty, disgrace and ruin.
There is no irreverence in saying
that there is a sad, and seemingly
partial, bestowal of blessings and
pleasures and all that tends to make
life better than death.
Why should one want to live just
for the privilege of breathing? lfthere
is never to be any fruition of these
hopes and aspirations which are
born with us and are interviewer
with our very being, then is life a
farce, a mockery, an oppression, a
living death. Better far be brute
of the field or forest, having none of
these gifts, which are only curses,
than to be as We are, and yet bound
down to a bitter and cruel fate.
Here are three girls, children of
poverty, who saw no brightness or
sweetness in store for them. Theirs
we're to be lives of toll. The coming
years would only bring the hard tasks
of poorly paid labor to them and
sternlv demand that they do the bid
ding. like scorned and cowed galley
slaves.
They preferred death. Let us
not judge them. They have gone to