The Somerset reporter. [volume] (Skowhegan, Me.) 1868-1909, 1890-03-20
A HEROINE IN SHORT SKIRTS.



Bear Heavy Burden.
The ideal child martyr doesn't wear
long white apron from her chin to her
heels, carry shallow wicker basket and
trot about all day in the jostling, busy
throng of a New York shop, responding
to more or less vociferous demands for
leash" Yet this is just what is done
by small maiden whose life is full of as
noble, unselfish devotion as ever earned
a crown in the mobile army"
Little Mamie Corrigan looks about 10
years of age. She is frail creature,
who might be pretty if her wan face did
not carry painful suggestion of being
half starved. She has big blue-gray
eyes, shaded with black lashes, and a
mass of soft brown hair, brushed till it
shines, hanging over thin shoulders,
which have a pitiful, weary droop. For
three months little Mamie has been the
chief support of her family. Her mother
has been an invalid for more than year.
Her father was stricken with rheuma-
tism this winter, and there are four
brothers and sisters younger than the
heroine of the cash basket and the white
apron.
Mamie, who left school to become the
bread winner, earns So week. Early in
the morning she rises to prepare food for
the family before going to the store.
Many a time, however, there has not
been any breakfast to get, and the little
one has worked fasting until some of the
kind saleswomen, discovering the child's
hunger, appeased it from their own
luncheon box. After the tired feet have
tramped about all day and carried the
child across town to the top story of the
east side tenement at Night. he: "erL is
only half done. She sweeps, cleans
cooks and washes and irons, often work
ing until nearly midnight to make the
humble home comfortable for her parents
and the little ones.
"How DO you manage TO 90 SO mucn
work, little one?' she was asked. And
she answered very simply:
81 love them" She went on hurriedly
as if to divert attention: Il can wash
and iron pretty well for little girl See
did this apron" 1t was spotless and
had fine "gloss" on it.
"How old are your
I'm going on 15"-with shy, startled
glance around.
"1ou don't mean to say you are IL
such intel"
THE cashes all have to say they're IA
to get engaged put in a saleswoman
who listened to the conversation. The
same young woman told how she had
gone to see little Mamie at her home one
Sunday, and found only bread and water
in the house, but the small place shone
with neatness, having been swept and
scrubbed by the small, roughened hands
of the little cash girl. Hitherto rela-
tive, living at service, has helped pay the
rent of their rooms, but now she is I'M
able to give them any more assistance,
and SO Mamie and a younger brother,
who has just secured place as cash boy,
are the only support of the family.
The truth of this pitiful story was es-
tablished by visit to the child's mother
Mrs. Corrigan said: at breaks my heart
to have my little daughter drudge so,
but what else can we do? My husband
would rather starve than ask for SO much
as crust of bread in charity. And yet
the little ones dhe youngest is ~ must be
fed. | hope to get ON my feet SO that
Mamie need not work after the long day
in the shop. Often now it is midnight
before she can get to bed, and then she
has to get up very early. | had to keep
her at home two days once when | was
too i'll to be alone and my husband was
helpless, and she was docked thirtv-tive
cents for each day, and seventy cents Is
good deal to miss out Of 81. New
York World.
The Latest Fad of the Dude.