Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1889-03-29
A RAM-FACED GIRL.
And How She Succeeded in a Bust
ness Enterprise.
BY FRANC L. STONE.

"Jean, please cease your primping.
1t annoys me, }" fretfully remarked Mrs
Shows to the elder of the two daughters
young lady possibly nineteen years Of
age, who stood before the mirror in the
cosy, family parlor.
Certainly, Mamma, I was only ar
ranging my hair. The wind blew il
every way but the right one, while ]
was marketing this morning." cheer
fully replied Jean, giving her luxuriant
tresses finishing touch, as she turned
to her mother.
II never could understand why g
person with face plain as yours, should
not wear her hair plain also," continued
the latter, in peevish tones.
"You wouldn't throw away half a
fortune, because you couldn't have it all,
would you, Mammal"
Don't be nonsensical, daughter. No
man will ever marry such a face as
yours. You might as we'll make up your
mind to it.
Jean bit her lips in vexation at the
wrongful construction put upon her bit
of logic, while Mrs. Shows kept up a
fusilade Of criticisms.
If you knew how to play the piano,
or 90 anything else as we'll as dress your
hair, you might accomplish something
to help us out of this stringent poverty.
Look at your sister Kathie, here"
glancing fondly at a doll-faced beauty,
who reclined indolently on the settee
near by. "Her face is fortune. I'm
sure Walter Alder is in love with her.
Any one can see it with half an eye but
he don't want a whole family on his
shoulders to care for. I'd be ashamed,
Jean Shows, if were you, to stand in
my sisters way" ::zzss*.=s.,sz:::==,;ss,:.,
The Shows family had always lived
Comfortably, even elegantly during Mr..
Shows life. Upon his death, some six
months previous, it was found that his
entire heritage to his family, after clear
ing up all Indebtedness against the es-
tate, consisted of commodious, COM
Portable home in the suburbs of Chi
cago, and an army pension which would
accrue to Mrs. Shows during her life.
Mrs. Shows was an irritable, i'm
practical woman, who dotted on her
younger daughters beauty of face and
capacity for executing difficult piano
forte music, and who seemed possessed
of a continual grudge against Jean for
having prominent features and freckles.
When it became evident that either
the income of the family must be in
creased or its expenses diminished,
Mrs. Shows smiled complacently about
Kathie, who of course would teach
music; but some way whose pupils
never materialized, and the spoilt beauty
read novels or lounged in costume,
waiting for scholars to put in appear
ance.
Jean, whose prospects her mother
sighed over, alone grappled with the
situation She dismissed the servants,
looked after the household herself, and
made it possible for Mrs. Shows and
Kathie to live in comparative leizure.
She was accustomed to their taunts
and reconsideration, but brave and
cheerful, kept on in the path of duty.
This morning her mothers remark,
~If you knew how to do anything else
as we'll as dress your hair, you might
accomplish something" touched re-
sponsiye train of thought in her own
mind.
That.afternoon, when her household
dutiesswere finished, she fastened down
town and called on the proprietor of one
of the handsomest business blocks on
Madison street, who was an old friend
and comrade of her dead father.
"Mr. Lever" she asked, "for what
will you rent me one of those little
rooms, with street front, on the second
aoor Of your Madison property?"