St. Paul daily globe., 1885-12-20

New Years in cottages that are to be opened
for our reception. 1t is no longer swell in
New York to receive calls on that holiday,
you know.
Last week l wrote something about
mission for the reformation of men that
party of good heiresSeS had opened in a
tough neighborhood Let me give you
more of their experience. 1t was after z
o'clock, and first one young man, then two,
then one again and then another, came up
the steps, opened the door, reached the
reading room, saw the young women,
seemed immensely surprised and at once
retired to the street. No one spoke, but
one of them made noise with his mouth.
strangely like kissing, as he closed the door
behind him. What was the matter?
Why did they not come in? Were
they afraid of so many strange young
women? Yes, the girls agreed that was it.
That would never do, they further agreed,
and so a meeting was held at once to ar
range for committees of three maidens to
come the next night. three the next, three
the next and so On-So as not to upset their
plans at the outset by driving away the
very youths for whose benefit the scheme was
devised. The leader in intellect and re-
sources of all sorts-Miss Bessie "a dear, in
nocent friend OF mine) at once offered a
motion that the three hereafter to be in
charge of the rooms each night adopt cos
tune like that of bonne or nurSe-white
frilled cap, starched apron, etc.
A vote was being taken on this when the
meeting was interrupted by the return of
the frowsy woman in the red shawl, now
accompanied by three women of the same
class-evidently drinking, loafng, vaga-
bond tenement women. (Oh, dear. 1 want
so much to write you how the tenements are
demoralizing certain classes of the fair sex
here in New YorkD Well, these women
attacked the young ladies in the foulest Ian
guage, and one of them actually assaulted
Miss Bessie, catching her by the shoulders
and shaking her, while the poor frightened
child family yelled ''Murder!" ''Fire!" and
''Help!" and the rest were
TRANSFIXED WITH HORROR.
You dirty baggageH' is the mildest name
the women applied to any one of the poor,
dear. innocent girls, whom they evidently
took to be altogether improper persons who
had sought to establish some vile den, or
whatever they call such things in the papers;
some sort OF place requiring raiding by the
police pparently-indeed, these ruffian
women ntimated that this was their belief,
and in horrible language (nearly the half of
which was as SO much Greek to the terrified
girls,)
Hearing the shrieks of the young lady
who was being shaken, passer-by stepped
in, stalwart, honest looking, well-dressed
man of middle-age. He had time of it,
l tell you. The ten young maidens and
the four old slatterns all screamed at him
at once. He retreated, but Miss Bessie
caught his sleeve, led him to the billiard
room, shut the door and in less than
minute, as it seemed to him, told him all
about it-nearly all that 1 have here writ
ten down. The consequence was that the
gentleman ordered the slatterns to leave
instantly, and, ordering and pushing, push
ing and ordering, got them out at last.
bolted the door, and then, turning to the
affrighted maidens, delivered himself thus:
Young ladies, have just sixteen sec
onds to spare on my way to train. This
is the craziest set out ever heard of. You
can't get out of here quick enough; some of
you will be insulted and all of you will be
locked up in the police station before the
night is over. Take my advice; go every
one of you to your homes, tell your broth
ers and fathers what you have done. and
then
LET THEM HIRE MEN
to run this place or else close it up before
you are all disgraced-or worse"
With that he flew out of the door, and in
an instant, before the girls could recover
their senses. three fashly-dressed young
men strobe in.
But perhaps ought to stop here. The
rest is too awful for anything. cannot
enlarge upon it, Simply let me say that
one Of the three men caught Miss Lulu in
his arms and kissed her, the second seized
Miss Mable and dragged her down on his
knees on the sofa, and the third pounded
on the piano with his cane and insisted
upon having ''some young lady sing some
thing tough" WE'LL such scattering! In
less than half minute every girl was in the
street running for dear life and screaming.
At the same instant there was crashing,
and two of the windows fell to pieces.
broken by stones thrown by the angry Irish
women on the sidewalk. l cannot bring
| myself to go farther. Suffice it that po-
liceman kindly went in and got the girls
hats and wraps, and locked up ''The
Haven" for them, and now it is run by the
young men of the Bible class in the church
they all attended, and the young maiGens
are either out of town or pretending to be,
while they wait for the storm of laughter
| and gossip to blow over.-Clara Belle in
4