The Democratic advocate. [volume] (Westminster, Md.) 1865-1972, 1883-02-17
Select STORY,
THE GRAYSTONS.

The Gravstons were one of the decayed
families that abound in New York, as IN
aIl other large cities. Mrs Grayston was
the daughter of well-tO-do old merchant,
who uave her comfortable house as we'd
ding present. and as her husband prospered
in business, the family were almost as fash
ionable and prominent as they wanted to be.
But one day Mrs. GraystOn's husband
died, leaving his wife, three girls and very
little money; her father had died some years
before. after having suffered some reverses
that swept away his property.
For year or two Mrs. Grayston con-
tinued to live as comfortably as ever, thanks
10 what had come to her from her husbands
business but Just as she became not unwll-
limo to doff her black robes and re-enter the
society which she was still young, pretty
and spirited enough to enjoy, she found her
hank account exhausted Her husbands
LAWYER advised her to sell her house, hire
small one. and live as economically as pos
sible on the proceeds Of the sale, but this
course seemed to her as bad as going out
Of the world, 50 she delayed doing anything
until an accumulation of bills forced a sale,
and Mrs. Grayston took her family to
boarding house.
Unable any longer to entertain in the
STYLE she had done, Mrs. Grayston learned
rapidly that acquaintance are seldom
friends, and the discovery caused her many
bitter tears.
She wanted to be true to the memory OF
her husband, but in her wild desire to re-
tain the position she was fast losing, she
gave many a witching smile to desirable
bachelors and Widowers who seemed to like
her But marriage was not the result;
half a dozen men would have contended for
her had she been without encumbrances;
but three girls, who soon would need to be
dressed as young ladies, united to threaten
with responsibilities by which the rashest
man was appalled,.
Gradually Mrs. Grayston's money de-
parted, and so did her friends. Some fam
lies moved away; others changed their
abodes and their social sets, until Mrs.
Grayston was absolutel ly out Of society and
without a friend. With her last few hun
drcd dollars she made desperate efforts to
put herself in the way of earning hvell-
hood for her little family. She attempted
to teach to keep boarders, to write Tor the
magazines, to paint and embroider; but none
of her faculties had ever been trained and
she failed at everything; so, finally, she and
her girls came down to supporting them
selves by sewing for the shops. BY steady
work they earned food, clothing and shell
,er but very little more. Yet in their
poverty they eagerly read every line they
could find in the newspapers about the
fashionable world, and their principal re-
taxation was to look into shop windows at
fashionable gowns and ornaments, to saun-
ter through fashionable streets at hours
when well-dressed ladies were making calls,
and to wander on Sundays among the fash
ionable churches
Such was the condition of the Grayston's
when Briggs Bergman, who had been
clerk with Mrs. Grayston's father, and at
terward gone West and became success
ful merchant himself, came East to visit
his married sister. Bergman inquired
about all his old acquaintance, and was
astonished at what he heard about his old
employers pretty daughter.
"a poor widow Nobody knows much
about her now? Why, confound it, Kate,
it's enough to make man raging Com
munist to learn that society has neglected
such woman"
"What would you have society do, broth
err" asked the lady. "Take up subscrip-
tions to maintain Mrs Grayston and her
three daughters in style? Society has all
1t can do to pay its own bills
Society is heartless-it is a hog"
growled the sturdy old fellow, and straight
way he set out to find his employers
daughter He was both shocked and de-
lighted at what he saw; Mrs. Grayston's
beauty and spirits had departed, and her
home was painfully plain compared with
the great, well furnished house of her
father, in which he had first met her, but
her manners were still perfect, and her
daughters, now all young women, were
handsome and refined to degree that the
girls in his Western town seldom reached.
Bergman returned to his sisters house,
after having prolonged his visit to Mrs.
GraystOn to very late hour, and ragged
anew at the meanness and heartlessness OF
New York society.
"Those girls" said he, "have handsomer
faces, better figures and more pleasing man
ners than any of the young women that
come here to see your daughters. say it's
an outrage that they're bound to needle
and thread all day Kate, why don't you
hx them up SO that marrying men may see
them p