The aegis & intelligencer. [volume] (Bel Air, Md.) 1864-1923, 1893-02-17
miscellaneous.
SPREADING SUNSHINE
BLIND JENNlE'S PATHETIC STORY OF
WAYS OF DOING GOOD.

She Has Built a Temple In a Tenement,
Where She Holds Sunday School Each
Saturday ans Sunday-She Has Scattered
Sunshine In Many Homes.
In little east side tenement she lives,
q woman ''sore afflicted unto God," yet
who knows not 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, 'EBlind
Jennie" everybody's friend in Lewis
street, basks in eternal sunshine.
A simple little story is Jennie's, a story
that I might fill full of tears, 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 unfiaggine industry, going
about the streets peddlmg soap, matches
and iimeracks, 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.
It ate away her mouth and nose and
compelled her to wear a 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
said that it was no cancer. And SO. 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 none would have her. None
would have her! Shame be it ON the
name of every onel
And SO she reiterated 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-
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 o region which usually re-
sounded to the songs and curses of the
drunken and the vile
Two Sundays in Jennie's week-Sat.
urday for the Jews and Sunday for the
Gentiles.
One day little girl came up to the
room.
81 want to come to Sunday school,
she said.
''But there is no Sunday school till
after dinner"
"Well, l amt going to have no dinner
today, so guess FL stay and wait"
You 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 so 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
words of hymn whose music attracts
her are read to he's several times, she re-
members them forever after. The sing
ing is enc of the great attractions to the
little ones.
The members of Jennie's class do not
meet at stated hours, but run in when
ever they desire.
All, what glorious thing it was that
the hospitals turned Jennie from thei1
inhospitable doors! She would have
been so useless in those warm and cheer
full roosns-a recipient of their aims and
nothing else, whereas she has turned her
tenement into temple and filled 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 the
wolf from entering at the door, as it
would do sometimes If they were left
absolutely unaided. The good people,
who are not overrich themselves, help
them out with the rent and the coal man.
A few days ago the missionary went
shopping for Jennie, and this was what
he bought after paying out So for the
rent: Quilt, $1.50; cot, $1.25; under
clothing, $1.75; pillow, IA cents; sheets,
So cents; two cups and saucers and two
knives and forks, "a cents, and wash
board, 10 cents.
'The fund from which we drew these
little purchases" said Pastor John B.
Devins to me, twas Only 1877, but we
found that Jennie absolutely needed
them, and that settled the matter with
u.s."
There was a great time when Jennie's
Sunday school celebrated Christmas.
Such songs, such games, such recita-
tons! And then there was a collection
taken up to build a Presbyterian church
in Pratt, Mimi, and when Jennie count
ed out the largess of her little ones there
was one whole dollar to go to that
worthy fund.-
1 wonder if any millionaire in New
York gave SO largely of his store as did
"Blfnd Jenuie's" children!-New York