The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1885-03-07
GLADNESS.
LOriginal.l

sne way VI uetSctlOu.
A few spectators-idle, Indifferent men
and weary looking women--stiu fingered,
fascinated by the distribution of penalties
that was going on, or interested in soma case
10 come
The last case was reached. 1t was that Of
GLADLY Woods, charged with drunkenness
and disorderly conduct There was percepti-
5le connection among the loiterers a
woman answered to the curious name and
disgraceful charge. Each figure edged a
little nearer to the culprit. and every eye
grew rounder as it looked at her.
She was tall and handsome daughter
Of the gods, even in garments which bore
sorry evidence of a recent debauch of
drunkenness. Her head was bonnetless and
her beautiful tawny hair had slipped out OF
coil and fell straggingly over her shoulders.
She shook it out of her way like name and
wrapped soiled shawl around her with the
grace Of fine lady.
There are faces that dazzle though
framed in disgrace. Hers was one of them.
Even the degradation it was familiar with
had not yet defaced it.
'Gladdy WoodsW The name sounded
strangely homogeneous as applied to the tall.
lawless creature who stood there with defiant
eyes, like wild animal at bay, and whose
garments were literally splashed with the
filth of the street 1t was name suggestive
of fresh spring groves, noisy with the songs
of birds. 1t was as sadly out of place in
that sin soaked atmosphere as rose would
be in the muddy highway.
She was known at several stations on the
road to ruin by various rude nicknames.
such as are common in the society of that
thoroughfare. She had reached that stage
of degradation in which respectable nomen-
clature is lest and certain brief descriptive
portraiture of appellation takes its place.
'Drunk and disorderly, GLADLY Woods,
what have you to say for Iyourself?" asked
His Honor
The girl made no answer. She even af-
fected not to hear.
His voice softened a little as he looked at
her and repeated the question She looked
up with disdain in her burning eyes, and
said: "I have nothing to say"
The officer who arrested her testified
against her, but she either could not or
would not say anything to save herself.
''This Is the fourth time you have been
here on the same charge, GLADLY" said the
Judge at last, ''I hoped each time that you
would never be brought back again. You
surely were never intended for such life as
you are leading. I will send you to the
Island for six months, and believe Pm doing
you aservice by giving you this sentence"
There was faint moan on the other side
Of the court room. A woman, old, bent and
careworn, walked forward and laid her toll
hardened hands on the girls arm. The in.
tense silence of expectation settled upon the
room. The girl turned her handsome face
sullenly away from the faded and wrinkled
one, which looked upon her with almost in
finite pity and tenderness, and did not speak.
''She is my daughter, =" Said the old woman,
turning to the Judge, with the tears stream
ing from her eyes, ''my only child. When
she was born I was so happy named her
'Gladness.' How could 1 know that her
name should have been Misery"
Here she lost the power of speech and
stood voiceless for a moment shaken by
strong feeling. The loiterers leaned still
further forward, with eyes like saucers, and
the Justice kept silent. Perhaps, in different
forms, some idea of the terrific irony of
nomenclature In the case before them en-
tered each mind. ''Gladness," the child
whose arrival into the world had made her
mother so happy, was in police court, dis
heveled, disgraced, and sentenced to prisoni
The girl herself still stood sullenly silent
The old woman went on: 'Her father was
good man and there is none to say harm
of me- Why should our child be a curse
to us9 How have we sinned, that such
punishment must be ours? You have sen
fenced her to prison, and though am her
mother, will not say you have been unjust
Ny heart will ache less when lie down at
night knowing she is there than not
knowing where she is at all, and that's the
way it has been this many day. If could
90 there instead, I'd gladly do it, for love
her-yes, love her as much as if she had,
indeed, brought me gladness instead of grief.
We had little home and we worked hard
that she might have as good an education as
the richest mans daughter, but we couldn't
doit We had but little to give her and she
tired Of our poor ways. Others promised
her more and she did not know that
to believe them would bring her
to this. When she ran away and
left us her father died heartbroken. Then
I followed her here and after hunting for
weeks found her. But she will not stay in
my poor home When she goes out of the
door never know when I'll see her again.
For three years it has been that way. have
tried my best to keep her safe from harm
out of the way of wicked men and wicked
women-but l cannot; l cannotl They are
everywhere. They give her no chance.
While work they steal her away and find
her in evil places.
''There must be some way to save her,
Judge You are wise-you have children of
your own-can't you tell me something I
can do to bring her out of this shame? She
hasn't bad heart have nothing to work
for or live for but her. l want nothing
nothing else. But how shall l save heri
How shall 1 save herP'
And she put her arms about her hayward
daughter and broke into sobs.
The spectators coughed nervously and
there was slight shuffling of feet, as though
the sympathy of which they were half
ashamed was working itself off that way
Then there was silence, broken at last by
the Justice, Whose voice was husky with feel
ing, f'Bfy good woman," he said, lit needs
wisdom higher than my own to lay down a
plan to save her. But love like yours, which
forgives seventy and seven times, and is
faithful through evil as well as good, is holieP
than anything we have on earth. and be-
lieve it IS mightier. l believe it can over
come even such odds as you strive against.
Wait and hope, and pray"
Who could say more. What tongue could
formulate a plan to draw this weak and
wandering creature out of the web of evil