Morning journal and courier., 1891-10-20
THE FAMILY PEACE OFFERING.
How n Sad Loss Was Productive or
 Much Good 10 Everybody.

Much Good 10 Everybody.
 From the New York Recorder.l
 A great many children were gathered about the door of an apartment on a street between Third avenue and the northern end of Central Park last Sunday.
 The children were not as clean ss they might have been, but they were none the less interesting and interested on that &C., count.
 A funeral was going on within. It was baby's funeral and the chief mourners were their companions of weekdays. The little dead baby WAS the youngest child of the tailor and his second wife. The neigh bors are all we'll acquainted with the de- tails of recent domestic history in the tailor's household, They retAiled it sub stantially es follows: The tailor's first wife, an honest, industrious woman, died about three years ago, leaving him the un- desirable inheritance of three growing daughters. The neighbors who peeped in at the windows when the light was bum ing at night were accustomed to seeing a lone man fsshioning under-garments for his daughters The women smiled st the measure and tailor chart be used st the shop being brought into requisitiou to cut white muslin into required forms. They agreed that it was s pathetic sight But in spite of his endeavors to be a mother as well as father his girls ran very wild-so the neighbors said.
 Then he sprueed up bit and finally he went away, and when he came back he brought a new wife. She was an early love of the tailor's and she was an old | maid; moreover. she had money Before he went for his bride he made each girl complete suit of clothing and in order that the gala day attire might be reserved | for the introduction to the new mother, | he locked the apparel in the closet and put | the key in his pocket. The neighbors say | the girls were very wild when he WAS away in Connecticut after his bride. He didn't finger long, and if he thought the install nent of & mistress over his domestic es- tablishment would put sn end to his trou- bles he was mistaken His troubles had | just begun
 For long months war wsged within. Nightly were heard piercing screams of the daughters whom he sought to beat into | subjection. The nsighbors whispered
 ''step mother" But the tailor's girls wore neat gowns and white aprons, and that there was improvement in their behavior could not be denied Yet war still ragged. Finally came baby Then all was | changed The mother-love was born in | the step-mothefs heart. She and the girls worshiped at the same shrine. Then | they fought with each other about who was to rock it and hold it, and csress it and carry it, and wheel it in the elegant | perambulato-. They made dates for days and even weeks ahead. The family baby was an angel unawares.
 Then it was taken ill The tailor
 brought home some work for the oldest | girl to finish the other night The neigh | bOrs who peeped in at the window said the
 tears dropped on the cloth she wAs sewing because the baby was dying All the chil- dren in the block loved the bsbv though | babies were by no means uncommon in the block.
 So they stood around the door Sunday | morning. They saw the photographer | coming to take the dead baby's picture. | and then they all tip-tced in to look at the | little white coffin and the occupant, and the candles burning at the head and al the | foot.
 They watched the mourners curiously as | they came out to the carrisgez. Their | grief was very genuine. It was very swollen, inflamed grief as to the tailor's | gifls, and the mother WAS a diminutive | mite of a woman smothered in crspe. | The girls moaned and walled when they caught sight of their youthful friends in 6
 manner most appropriate and convincing. | The tailor himself wore his silk hat, which
 he had not worn but once since his first
 wife was buried, and that was on his sec
 oDd bridal day. A long Prince Albert
 coat hung mournfufly about his legs
 Some of the neighbors fingered after the
 funeral to inspect the interior. One of
 them picked up little blank book from
 where it had fallen behind table. It was
 soiled with fnger-marks and stained with
 tears. The girls had marked in it their
 individual dates to take the baby for an
 airing in the park. The baby's mission
 had been accomplished.