Kansas agitator. [volume] (Garnett, Kan.) 1890-1905, 1893-02-09
SPREADING SUNSHINE
'BLlND. JENNIE'S PATHETIC STORY OF
WAYS OF DOING GOOD.

Where She Holds Sunday School Each
Saturday ana Sunday-She Has scattered
Sunshine In Many Homes.
In little east side tenement she lives,
woman .'sore afflicted unto God" yet
who knows net the nature of repining
All, no! If you ask any child of the
neighborhood to tell you the happiest,
sweetest, most tranquil person in it, ]
wager they'll shout with unanimity
blind Jennie!"
And it is true as true can be. The light
has gone forever from the eyes, blight
rests on the feeble body, but on the
peaceful soul and on the mind illumed
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, I suppose,
and much sentimentality. But what Is
the use of weeping if Jennie smiles? Is
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 she lives, is little Tightly 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 disfiguring disease attacked her face.
1t ate away her mouth and nose and
compelled her to wear thick veil when
ever she went out to the church or Sun
day school. Doctors said it was a can
GER and attempts were made by kind
friends to get Jennie admitted to the
Cancer hospital, but the physicians there
SdlO OustU ~ w 40 AiO SoANChs <AAANA oNs WAoii
that cruelty which sometimes marks the
conduct of our hospital attendants,
sworn to mercy and kindness, poor Jen-
ME was driven from one institution tG
another, and none would have her. None
would have her! Shame be it on the
name of every one!
And so sh retreated to the poor little
%ona
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-
lies Others did not know if they had
been born to any creed, unless it were
the creed of poverty and anguish.
How they crowded into that little
room! What comfort they found there
under the spell of the blind girl, who
seemed to them to talk with the tongue
of angels. How they awakened the
echoes of a region which usually re-
sounded TO the songs and curses of the
drunken and the vilei
Two Sundays in Jennies week-Sat-
urday for the Jews and Sunday for the
Gentiles.
One day little girl came up to the
room.
Il want to come to Sunday school,
she said.
But there is no Sunday school till
after dinner"