The Ketchum keystone. [volume] (Ketchum, Idaho) 1885-1899, 1891-04-25
ancient times, and the ruins of the
royal palace and of other magnifi-
cent buildings are still to be seen
on the site of Sardis.
Beauty IN Distress.


on the site of Sardis.
Beauty IN Distress.
Did you ever see poor and shah
by belle? Such a young lady stood
in the throng of women in cabin
of a Twenty-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
a picture as rare as any that we see
in the kaleidoscope of life in the
metropolis. For she was young,
well bred, proud, and yet very poor.
She wore hat of what appeared
to be rabbit skin, evidently home
made and made with great clever
ness and taste, yet showing in other
ways than in the cheapness of the
fur that it had never come from
milliner's hands. Moreover, the
fur was bedraggled, as if its wearer
had been out in the rain without an
umbrella. 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 itwas when her
face was studied that her condition
was made eloquent. Her skin had
that waxen appearance which the
human face displays when the body
lacks nutritious food.
There was hint Of pathos in her
eyes, and though the lips that were
drawn down and back from her
mouth were not yet deep they were
apparent, nevertheless; they were
the lines of sorrow and Of contin-
ually 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, her manner was digni6ed.
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 evident that she had not long
been as poor as now. She must
have once been in comfortable cir
cumstances.
Very richly dressed ladies crowd
ed around her, pushed against her,
pressed close to her. Their perfumes
filled the air, their heavy furs slid
past her hand as it hung by her
side, their brilliants flashed in her
face. It was remarkable gather
ing of fashionable and wealthy wo-
men. There were mincing, tripping,
fay like young women, some almost
insolent in their pride and ease.
There were chubby, rosy, we'll nigh
stupidity comfortable little women,
swathed in fur and broadcloth.
There were great, rotund matrons
moving luxuriously each in her
own atmosphere of comfort and
plenty.
There were practical, firm look
ing young married women making
no display of ornament or super
fluffy, but bearing themselves con-
fidently, as lacking nothing and
asking nothing. All these surged
around the shabby belle as the boat
foated into the pier. They squeezed
her among themselves, they hid her
as if they had swallowed her up.
Not one appeared to notice her, nor
did she seem to be conscious of
their presence. But she must have
noticed it; not a figure, or a brill
liant, or fur garment, or a Whit OF
scent could have escaped one so
keenly intelligent as She. How
every personality, and every luxury,
and every hint, of comfort must
have cut her like knife thrust u
New York Sum-