The Madison daily leader. [volume] (Madison, S.D.) 1890-current, 1893-02-24
SPREADING SUNSHINE
BLIND JENNIE's PATHETIC STORY or
III, WAYS or DOING GOOD.

Il -
l WAYS or DOING GOOD.
she Has Built Temple In Tenement,
Where She Holds Sunday school Each
Saturday and sunday-she Has Scattered
Sunshine I'm Many Homes
In little east side tenement she lives,
o woman .'sore afflicted unto God, vet
who knows not the nature of repining.
All, mol IL you ask any child OF the
neighborhood to tell you the happiest,
sweetest, most tranquil person in 1t,
wager they'll shout with unanimity,
Blind Jenniel"
| And it is true as true can be. The hight
has gone forever from the eyes, blight
rests on the feeble body, but ON the
| peaceful soul and on the mind i1lumed
are lights no doctors or magician's skill
could conjure up, and Jennie, blind
Jennie everybody's friend in Lewis
street, basks in eternal sunshine.
A simple little story is Jennie's, a story
that might fill full of tears, suppose,
and much sentimentality. But what is
the use Of weeping if Jennie smiles? Us
| it not better to rejoice that the little
heroine has found SO much good to do in
the world which has SO little good to
offer her?
She was struck by lightning many years
ago-at least, that is the cause her moth
er gives of her blindness. This mother,
with whom 81 lives, is little fighty at
times, and that Is one Of Jennie's crosses,
but it is her unfagging industry, going
about the streets peddling soap, matches
and jimcracks, which pays the rent and
brings bread to the poor tenement which
the two call home The bad boys often
chase the old woman, taking advantage
Of her feeble mind, and harass her
| greatly. There is no crueler beast in
the jungles Of Asia than the bad boy,
and he has not the beasts excuse for
cruelty
| After Jennie had been blind some time
the disfguring disease attacked her face.
It ate away her. mouth and nose and
compelled her to wear thick veil whom
ever she went out to the church or Sun.
day school Doctors said 1t was can
Ger, and attempts were made by kind
| friends to get Jennie admitted to the
Cancer hospital, but the physicians there
said that it was no cancer. And 20, with
that cruelty which sometimes marks the
conduct OF our hospital attendants,
sworn to mercy and kindness, poor Jen.
ME was. driven from one institution to
another, and nonewould have her. None
would have heri Shame be 1t on the
name Of every one!
And 30 she retreated to the poor little
tenement behind another tenement and
prepared to live out her life as best she
might.
And then began her Sunday school.
She did not seek for scholars. They
came to her as the sparrows did to look
for crumbs upon the window sill. They
were the children of the very poor.
Some of them were of Hebrew birth,
like Jennie, others were Roman Catho.
| lics. Others did not know III they had
been born to any creed, unless 1t were
the creed Of poverty and anguish.
| How they crowded into that little
rooml What comfort they found there
under the spell of the blind girl. who
seemed to them to talk with the tongue
of angelsl How they awakened the
echoes Of q region which usually re.
sounded to the songs and curses of the
| drunken and the yilel
Two Sundays in Jennie's week-Sat.
urday for the Jews and Sunday for the
Gentiles.
One day littlo girl came mp to the
room.
q; want to come to Sunday school, =
she said. .........a
"But there is no Sunday school tin
after dinner" 4, ID
well, amt going to have no dinner
today, SO guess I'll stay and wait"
Yon may be sure that she was made
welcome, and that she did have dinner
that day with Jennie and her mother.
And that is the kind Of child. who be
longs to Jennie's Sunday school. There
are fully 50>who belong to it, and who
attend either one day or the other.
Jennie's knowledge of the Scriptures
and Of the hymns sung in the mission
and at her home is marvellous. If the
1 WOIuS Oh y NY Kill WuOSo uublC dLbIdCGk
her are read to her several times, she re.
members them forever after. The sing
ing is one Of the great attractions to the
little ones.
The members of Jennie's class do moi
meet at stated hours, but run in when.
ever they desire.
All, what q glorious thing it was that
the hospitals turned Jennie from Their
inhospitable doorsl She would have
been so useless in those warm and cheer
full rooms--a recipient Of their aims and
nothing else, whereas she has turned hel
tenement into q temple and filed one
Of the darkest corners Of the city with
the light and the grace of God.
/ Hope Mission chapel keeps its eye on
Jennie and her mother and keeps thu
wolf from entering at the door, as Il
wonld do sometimes If they were lef
absolutely unaided. The good people
who are not overrich themselves, hell
them out with the rent and the coal man
A few days ago the missionary wen
shopping for Jennie, and this was wha