Sharp County record., 1891-09-10

the case was proved genuine. Now
have read all Shaltspeare's tragedies,
and all Victor Hugo's tragedies, and all
Alexander Smiths tragedies, but |
never read a tragedy more thrilling
than that case, and similar eases by the
hundreds and thousands in all Our
large cities. Young women with
out money and without home and with
out work in the great maelstromS OF
metropolitan life. When such a case
comes under your observation how DO
you treat it. "Get out of my way; we
have no room in our establishment 1or
any more hands. | don't believe IN
women anyway; they are lazy, idle
worthless set John, please show this
person out of the door" Or do you
compliment her personal appearance,
and say things to her which II
any man said to your sister or daugh-
ter you would kill him on the spot?
That is one way, and it is tried every
day in the large cities, and many OF
those who advertise for female hands
in factories and for governesses IN
families have proved themselves unht
to be in any place outside OF hell. But
there is another way, and | saw 1t one
day in the Methodist Book Concern
IN New York, where young
woman applied for work, and the gen
tlcman, in tone and manner, said IN
substance: MY daughter, we employ
women here, but l do not know OF any
vacant place in our department. You
had better inquire at such-and-such
place, and hope you will be success
full in getting something to do. Here Is
my name, and tell them | sent you" The
embarrassed and Inundated woman
seemed to give way to Christian conf
dence She started out with a hopelul
look that l think | must have
won for her place in which
to earn her bread. ] rather think
that considerate and Christian
gentleman saved a woman. New YORK
and Brooklyn ground up last year
about thirty thousand young women,
and would like to grind up about as
many this year. Out of all that long
procession of women who march on
with no hope for this world or the next
battered and bruised and scotfed at,
and flung off the precipice, not one but
might have been saved for home and
God and Heaven. But good men and
good women are not in that kind OF
business. Alas for that poor thing
nothing but the thread of that sewing
girls needle held her, and the thread
broke.
There is another exploit you can do,
and that is to save a child. A child
docs not seem to amount to much. 1t
is nearly year old before it can walk
at all. For the first year and half it
can not speak word. For the first ten
wears it would starve if it had to earn
its own food. For the first fifteen years
its opinion on any subject is absolutely
valueless. And then there are so many
of them. My, what lots of chill.
dren! And some people have con-
tempt for children. They are
good for nothing but to wear out
the carpets and break things and keep
you awake nights crying. Well, your
estimate of child is quite different
ffr-,rlt tIsro II estiirate Tghe LOST
her child this summer They took it
to the salt air of the seashore and to
the tonic air of the mountains, but no
help came, and the brief paragraph of
its life is ended. Suppose life could
be restored by purchase, how
much would that bereaved moth.
er give? She would take all the
Jewels from her fingers and neck
and bureau and put them down. And
if told that that was not enough she
would take her house and make over
the deed for it, and if that were not
enough she would call in all her in.
vestments, and put down all her mort.
cages and bonds, and if told that were
not enough she would say; Il have
made over all my property, and if !
can have that child back ! will now
pledge that / will toll with my
own hands and carry with my
own shoulders in any kind ofhard work,
and live in cellar and die in garret,
Only give me back that lost darlingr
| am glad that there are those who
know something of the value of q
child. It's possibilities are tremendous.
What will those hands yet do? Where
will those feet yet walk9 Toward
what destiny will that ncvcr-dying SOU
betake itself? Shall those lips be the
throne of blasphcmy or benediction?
Come, chronologsts, and calculate the
decades on decades, the centuries or
centuries, of its lifetime Oh, to save
a child Am | not right in putting that
among the great exploits?
But what are you going to do with
those children who are worse off shar
If their father and mother had died The
day they were born? There are tcns Of
thousands of such. Their parentage /,
against them, Their name is against
them. The structure of their slsull,
against them, Their nerves and nus
cles contaminated by the inebriety o,
dissoluteness Of their parents; the,
are practically at their birtl
laid out on II plank in the middle O
the Atlantic ocenn. In an nnllino,din