The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1891-10-04

ana see the gay pass Oy.
Yet take their weary work again,
And with a mournful eye
L. E. L.
However fine and elevated, in a senti-
mental point of view, may have been the
poetry which has emanated from this
gifted writer. we think we have never seen
anything from this source that ought to
give better opinion of her than the little
ballad from which the above verses are
taken. They show that the accompli shed
lady possessed not merely knowledge of
the dreamy, ideal wants of human beings,
but Of those more pressing and homely
ones, which the fastidious and poetical arc
often the last TO appreciate. The suffer
ings of poverty are not confined to those of
the oommoa, 50 ualid, every day poor, in
ured to hardships and ready with open
hand to receive charity, let it come to them
as it will. There is another class on whom
it presses with still heavier power. The
generous, the decent, the self-respecting,
who have struggled with their lot in
silence, bearing. all things, hoping all
things and willing TO endure all things,
rather than breathe a word of complaint,
or TO acknowledge even to themselves that
their efforts will not be sufficient for their
own necessities.
Pause with me a while at the door of
yonder small room, whose solitary window
overlooks a little court below. 1t is ir-
habited by a widow and her daughter de-
pendent entirely on the laoors of the needle,
and those other slight and precarieus re-
sources which are
ALL THAT REMAIN TO WOMAN
when left 10 struggle her way through
this bleak world alone" II contains all
their small earthly store, aud there is
scarcely an article of its small stock Of fur
ntture that has not been thought OF, and
toiled for, and its price calculated over and
over again, before everything could come
square for its purchase. Every article is
arranged with the utmost neatnes and
ca e; nor is the most costly furniture of a
fashionable parlor more Sacredly protected
f.om dust; more sedulously guarded from
q scratch or rub, than is that brightly var
nished bureau, and that cherry tea table
and bedstead. The floor. too, boasted once
carpet but old Time has been so busy
with it. picking hole here aud making a
thin place there; ana though the old fellow
has been followed up by the most indetati-
gable zeal of darning, the marks
of his mischievous fingers are
too plain to be mistaken. 1t
is true, a kindly neighbor has given a
faded piece of baise which has been neatly
clipped and bound and spread down over a
large and entirely unmanagea6le hole in
front of the firepiece, and other places
have been repaired with pieces of different
coors; and yet after all u Is evident that
the poor carpet is not long for this world.
But the best face is pat upon everything.
The little cupboard in the corner, that
contains few China cups and one or two
antiqusted silver spoons, relics of better
DAYS, is arranged with Jealous neatness
and the white muslin window curtains,
,,ls lN.ao 1l has f,,11,
starched and ironed and put up with exact
precision; and on the bureau, covered with
a snowy cloth, are arranged a few books,
and other memorials of former time and
faded miniature, which, though it have
little about it to interest stranger is
more precious TO the poor widow than
everything besides. Mrs Al is seated
in her rocking chair supported by pillow,
and busy cutting out work, while her
daughter, q slender, sickly- looking girl is
sitting a. the widow at the window intent
on some ine stitching.
Mrs A was in former times the wife
of prosperous merchant; the mistress oil
genteel and commodlous house, and thu
mother Of an affectionate family. But evi
fortune had followed her with q steadi
ness, which seemed moro ike the stern de
cree OF some
ADVERSE FATE
than the ordinary dealings OF a inercifu
providence First came q heavy run o
losses In business; then, long and eKpen
siye sickness in the family, and the dealt
of children. Then there was the selling o
the large house and elegant furniture, L
retire to humber style OF living; ant
finally the sale of all the property, with
view 10 quitting the shores of nativ
country sno commencing life again il
new one But scarcely had the exllet
family found themselves in the ports OF
foreign land, when the father was sud
denly smitten down by the hand of death
and his solitary grave made in the land Of
strangers The widow, brokenhearteC
and discouraged, had still wearisome dis
tance before her, ere she could find hersel
among friends. With her two daughters
entirely unsttended, and with her finance
Impoverished by the detention and expense
of sickness, she performed the tedious re
mainder of the journey.
Arrived al the place of her destination
abe found herself not only without immedi
ate resources, but considerably in debt to
relative who had advanced money for he
travelling expenses. With silent endur
apce she met the necessities of her situa
tioa. Her daughters. delicatsly reared
and hitherto carefully educated, wer
placed out at service, and Mrs. A heI
self sought employment as nurse. Tia
younger child soon fell sick and the har
earnings Of 3 mother were all exhausted il