The Dalles daily chronicle. [volume] (The Dalles, Or.) 1890-1948, 1891-02-11
BEAUTY m DISTRESS.
A very Uneonnon Sort Of BON. So.


A Very Uneonmon Sort OF Belle Seen I'm
. Crowd Of Well to Do Women
Did you ever see poor and shabby
belle? Such q young Lady stood IN the
throng Of women in a cabin Of Twen-
ty-third street ferryboat yesterday. At
the first glance you would not, in all
likelihood, have noted anything peculiar
about her. You would have seen only
tall, very shapely, modest girl of dis
tinctly genteel appearance. If you had
glanced at her again you would have
been startled, for she presented q picture
as rare as any that we see in the kaleido-
scope Of life in the metropolis. For she
was young, well bred, proud, and yet
very, very poor.
She wore a hat of what appeared to be
rabbit skin, evidently home made and
made with great cleverness and taste,
yet showing in other ways than In the
cheapness OF the fur that it had never
come from a milliner's hands. Moreover,
the fur was bedraggled, as if its wearer
had been out in the rain without an um.
brella. Her Newmarket was of gray
cloth and fitted her perfectly-but the
cloth was old and had faded. and here
and there were little knots of stitching,
showing that small moth holes had been
carefully sewed up without success at
concealment. Her gloves were good but
they were of cloth. But it was when her
face was studied that her condition was
made eloquent. Her skin had that waxen
appearance which the human face dis
plays when the body lacksnutritious food.
There was hint of pathos in her eyes,
and though the lines that were drawn
down and back from her mouth were not
yet deep they were apparent, neverthe-
less; they were the lines of sorrow and
of continually enforced self denial. A
little boy was with her, and when she
spoke to him her voice was soft and
musical. Her choice of words was that
of an educated and refined lady, he1
manner was dignifed. When she moved
about you saw that one shoe, though
polished, was torn and out of shape. She
was very, very poor. And she was con
scious of her condition; indeed, it was
poor rs now. She must have once beer
in comfortable circumstances.
Very richly dressed ladies crowded
around her, pushed against her, pressed
close to her. Their perfumes filed the
DIR, tuciI ucaNJ 1uIS Blu pdSG nHI u6uC
as it hung by her side, their brilliants
flashed in her face. It was remarkable
gathering of fashionable and wealthy
women. There were mincipg, tripping
fay like young women, some almost in
solent in their pride and ease. There
were chubby, rosy, well nigh stupidly
comfortable little women, swathed il
fur and broadcloth- There were great
rotund matrons moving luxuriously eacf
in her own atmosphere OF comfort ani
plenty.
There were practical, firm looking
young married women making no dis
play of ornament or superfuity, but bear
ing themselves confidently, as lacking
nothing and asking nothing. ALI thes,
surged around the shabby belle as tn,
boat foated into the pier. They squeezed
her among themselves, they hid her as i
they had swallowed her up. Not on,
appeared to notice her, nor did she seen
to be conscious of their presence. Bu
she must have noticed it; not figure, O
brilliant, or fur garment, or whit
of scent could have escaped one so keenl,
intelligent as she. How every person
ality, and every luxury, and every hin
of comfort must have cut her like q knif'
thrusti-Nsw York Sun.