The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1884-05-31
HOW SHE BEGAN.

r
IT was a strange experience for two
young girls-this going out from the
quiet of their isolated home into the
hustle and danger of a great city;
stranger still that they should have
been allowed to do it. But Aspiration
and ignorance are staff in either hand
TO the young.
Neither Wanda nor Bertha had any
idea that theirs was an unusualventure.
They took leave of home almost gavly,
and if an emphatic tear or two de-
manded recognition it was but curly
and impatiently given, while the fleet
INCEST, Iicklest smile received ELUSIVE
encouragement 1888 $3.50.
at is the loveliest day ever knew"
said Wanda.
And the patient, toil-worn mother
said: yes L think it is an omen;" at
which both girls laughed, finding mer-
riment in their mothers gentle super
stition.
The train moved off. The. little group
on the platlorm-the quantity, dinghy
dressed mother, the burly, prosperous
father, and the half-grown, pretty Sis
ter-disappeared as they rounded a
curve, and the two wayfarers were
launched upon their voyage. to an I'M
known port. ,Fff ~ sfr E..
1t was October, and the sun
shown red through the smoky air.
Miles upon miles of corntieldS flew past,
great expenses of rolling prairie melted
and vanished, as on they clattered. and
rumbled, and sped. 1t was a monot-
ony of motion to throbbing, endless
tune of engine and wheels.
Il like it," said Bertha.
at is the beginning of music" said
Wanda.
This journey had another motive
than pleasure. 1t had work; it had the
future. Life on the great Kansas farm
with its cattle raising and corn-growing
might be satisfactory to the middle
aged, especially as the profits were so
substantial and the details of manage
ment so absorbing, but this new gener-
alton was born with a stomach for
culture. Painting, music, embroidery
and French must be their diet, having
already nibbled at these dainties, with
all the relish of ineXperience, in their
local schools and clubs.
The parents counseled together over
the wishes of their daughters. There
was money enough. Why not send
them to city for the sake of better adj
vantages? There was Nine. Muller,
an old acquaintance of their youth,
who, early left widow, had maintained
herself by teaching music in Chicago,
and had made modest fortune out of
it. Why not confer with her?
She was applied to forthwith. In re-
Spouse came this letter: ''Send the
girls to me for year. | live in hotel,
but will take charge of them and in
struct them. The very room they need
is vacant Shall l engage it?'
The answer was Engage the room.
The girls will come"
And now they were actually on their
way.
Hegel was their name-Wanda and
Berth Hegel and this the picture they
made seated together inthe railway car:
They were OF pure German stock,
though for two generations transplant
ed into American soil. Wanda had the
real ilaX-flower color of the Fatherland,
blue eyes and tow hair, while the pink
of an ancestry that drove their herds
up the mountain slopes to feed in sum-
mer and set their girls to watch them,
thus securing the finest oXygenation of
the blood, glowed on brow and cheek
and found rudy efflorescence in the
lips. Bertha, on the other hand, was
smaller and dark, with dense, shy lashes
over her eyes, so heavy that some
thing of muscular eXertion seemed
actually necessary to lift the lids. She
was clear brown and had delicate
brown hands.
They had already discussed Chicago
so eXhaustively during their prepare
tions that, though it was now so soon
to become reality, they had nothing
more to say of it. True to their prac-
teal training they beguiled the time by
making sensible comments about the
country they passed through, its fertii-
ity and adaptability to various crops, its
deficiencies compared with the Kansas
farm and the general loneliness and
desolation of its homes in contrast with
the centralized and important charac-
ter of their own.
II don't see any farms like ours, do
you Wanda?' was Bertha's keynote.
"No; none so pleasant and well-cared
for, | am sure was Wanda's refrain
Frequent recourse to bountiful
lunch-basket kept them from being al
most dreary. All me! thirty:six hours
of this tedious expectancy was indeed
securing esthetic advantages at the cost
OF great fatigneR Butit passed; and lust
at nighthlIdf theisecdnd day they saw
the CLOUD by day of Chicago.
Their coming had been arranged for
in all its details, and in due time they
were safely ensconced in their sky
parlor, their dinner eaten, and Nine.
Mullers final instructions and good
nights given. Then they were for the
first time alone, and prepared to go to
rest as once.