The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1891-06-20
BEAUTY IN DISTRESS.

Did you ever see poor and shabby
belle? Such young lady stood in the
throng of women in cabin of ferry
boat. At the first glance you would
not, in a likelihood have noted any
thing peculiar about her. You would
have seen only tall, very shapely,
modest girl of distinctly genteel appear
ance. If you had glanced at her again
you would have qeen startled, for she
presented picture as rare as any that
we see in the kaleidoscope of life in
the metropolis. For she was young,
wei bred, proud, and yet very poor.
She wore hat of what appeared to
Be rabbit skin, evidently home made
and made with VIII! great clevelness and
taste, yet showing in otheir ways than
in the cheapnes5 of the fur that it had
never come from a miliiner' 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 per-
fectly; but the cloth was old and had
faded, and here and there were little
knots of stitching, showing, that small
,,,Ntl bo1a- LoI haan
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 He skin had that
waxen appearance which the human
face displays when the body lacks nu.
tritlous 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 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 re
fined woman. When she moved
about you saw that one shoe, though
polished, was torn and out of shape.
She was very, very poor. Aud she
was conscious Of her coalition ; indeed,
it was evident that she had not long
been as poor as now. She must have
once been in comfortable circum-
stances.
Very richly dressed ladies crowded
around her, pushed against her, pressed
close to her. Their perfumes filled
the air, their neavy furs slid past her
hand as it hung by her side, their
brillisnts flashed in her face. 1t was
remarkable gathering of fashionable
and wealthy women. There were
min cling, tripping, fay like Young
women, some almost lnsolent 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 looking
young married women making no dis
play of ornament or superiority, but
bearing themselves confidently, 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 figure, or a fur gar
ment, 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