The Universalist. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1884-1897, 1888-07-21
HELEN OF TROY.

Helen Of Troy bent over long table
in the city OF her nativity and ironed,
ironed, ironed; hour after hour, all day
long, silently pushing aside with red
and swollen hands the polished white
cuffs which found their way to every
part of the civilized world.
For the modern Helen was "Troy
Laundry Girl"
Had you told her that the work done by
her hands was actually sent, not only to
every part of her own land, but to Europe
and the islands OF the sea, she would
have stared duly at you without in the
least comprehending the scope OF her
work. For in the curriculum OF the
school IN which her education had been
shaped, the only geography known was
that of the streets.
The whole world outside Of Troy was
labeled and set aside as "Unexplored
Territory"
The thoroughfare on which stood the
tenement in which she was born was OF
that order common to our older cities, in
which the proportion had long since been
lost between the number OF inhabitants,
human, canine and feline, and the visible
supply Of clothing and food-as had that
also between the Christian graces, and
the degradation ana filth.
Dukes alley was in point of fact the
Give Points" of thrifty, Christian, mod
ern Troy.
Helen was child OF the alley. Twen-
ty years before our story opens she had
been born the child of thief, the first
offspring of marriage with feeble
minded girl, poor and degraded as him.
SELF
Not a parentage calculated to endow
it's children with shining virtues by any
known laws of heredity
For ten years she had fought and
scratched and sworn her way through
life in Dukes alley, and "held her own
with the best of them," which interpret
ed by the outer world would have read,
"the worst of them"
In the ten years, almost as many little
brothers and sisters had successfully
period their feeble protest against the
hard conditions of their environment, and
gone the silent way.
Only one had survived the struggle;
Rhods, four years younger than Helen.
The neighbors had been known to say
sits lucky Bills folks young 'uns dies
off, for don't know how they'd ever raise
'em, n they wouldn't be good for moth
in if they did raise M"
"Bilrs folks" were not held in high
esteem even in Dukes alley.
"Don't let any on 'em lick ye, Nell!
Let m know ys're as good as any on
'em" had been the parental counsel.
Bills idea OF goodness" was not, per-
haps, that held by his Christian and phi
lanthropic fellow citizens in the broader
and less crowded streets near by.
To Bill it's metes and bounds were
grit-muscle.
In the society of the alley, I'm as
good a man as he," freely translated
would have been, HE can't lick me-
Helen's leanings toward goodness"
had been developed solely on this line.
Untaught, defiant, stupid, the one ten
der spot in her heart was her love for
Rhoda.
"Lay hand on Rhody, m I'll scratch
yer eyes out,' was an edict frequently
issued against her companions of the
alley, and they knew that safety lay in
obedience.
An epidemic swept over the city, and
Dukes alley was decimsted.
When the health officers invaded Bills
domicile and carried out its stricken in
mates, kind Mistress Murphy next door
took Nell and Rhoda into her own room
behind the saloon to stay until their pa
rents return.
But an adversary "better" than Bill had
at last tested strength with him, and he
was forced to yield.
What could be expected of Bills wife
but that che should do now what she had
unquestioDingly done through all her
welded life, follow Bill.
So they never came back to the tene-
ment in Dukes alley.
Mistress Murphy told the orphans
their parents We're dead.
To Nells dull intellect it meant little
beyond a cessation of kicks and blows.
She had not yet grappled with the prob
lem Of the food and clothing supply.
Mistress Murphy solved it for her.
otis here yell stay and yell help me
in the saloon for the bit Of bite and
sup yen made; and as for Rhody, why
what'n kspe one'n kspe two"
"But I'm thinkin' what I'll do wild her
at all to kape her out of the way, for it's
no earthly use she is for the work, and
she'll be the way in the saloon"
It's thinkin' i am I'll iist sind her |