The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1885-03-20

A SHORT, TRUE STORY.
IOripinall

lOIlRlUai.l
After the holidays is time all employees
of the great stores and factories in New
York look forward to with dread and not
without cause 1t is the time when ''wOrk-
Ing forces are cut down."
Among the disheartened army that were
compelled to turn their backs upon certainty
and their faces toward anxiety were two
not yet eighteen.
They had been born in France and partly
reared in Spain, and spoke both French and
Spanish, and knew English fairly we'll
They had come to this country with their
father and mother two years ago, and in.
stead of being greeted with good fortune, as
they had all hoped, disasters kept close at
their heels The father went into business,
lost money, and then fell i'll and died The
neither, a good Hnguist, with graceful
French ways and manners, went out a
goyerness The two sisters being experts
with the needle, and gifted with the native
good taste of their country women, un1e ctook
to do dressmaking and nearly lost their eye.
sight. Then they went into great store as
saleswomen, and earned five dollars week
apiece
They lived in a wee, fireless room in a
cheap boarding house, and paid seven dol
lars a week for the privilege The other
three dollars must pay for everything else
clothing, laundry work, car fare, L.s1icine,
if needed, and the hundred and Incl
dental expenses of life that are a. ure to
come as the days are to follow each other.
Indeed, the three dollars refused to be suffi-
GENTLY elastic to cover even the 'edfuls,
and the mother made up the deficiency out
of her small salary. Therefore it was not
strange that on the Saturday following
Rev Years when they were told that their
services would not be needed for couple Of
months they went to theic fireless room, and
holding their arms about each other wept
as if their hearts would break.
When their laundress brought home their
small wash, an hour later, they told her, be-
tween sobs, that they could give her no more
work to do, because they had lost their
situations.
The poor are often generous. but ya
can't do without clean clothes. children"
said this hard working saint ''aifd I'll do the
washin' just the same while you're out of
work as ever, and ye can pay me when ye
get into work again"
And, though they at first demurred, at
last they were won over, and were grateful
for this, the first light on their cloud of
despair.
The next day the elder sister went out to
look for employment and the younger went
to see her mother, who tainted when she
heard of their distress.
The poor child walked home to save
car fare. The way was long, she who was
never strong was weak from much weeping
and vy-heartedness; she was thiniy clad
and shivered from time to time as with a
! chill. When she got to her own little room
she lay down exhausted When her sister
returned an hour later with a bright face,
eager to tell that she had had good luck,
she stopped to kiss AdeIe's pale cheek as she
lay on the bed with her face !.al buried in
the pillow, kissed her and sisriekad, Tor she
hal kissed dead face. Tia hoe or, verdict
was ''leart disease" Yes, certainly. that
was the true diagnosis; and he might have
| added, 'superiniuced by poverty"
GEO. o. MARVIN