Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1894-12-01

society and a gay life. and imagine that
they will be able to enjoy the same privi-
leges here that they did at home. They
learn to their sorrow that the social lines
In this city are as closely drawn as ti.ey
are any place else in the world, and moro
closely so far as strangers are concerned,
for 1t Is desired to make it impossible for
questionable characters to get in.
1t Is true that most of those who come
begin to draw salaries at once, but even a
good salary does not salve heart that Is
sore for some one to talk to and make a
cOnfdant of. To condemn n convict to
solitary confinement is among the severest
punishments known, and how much more
terrible the quiet, lonely life of a common
place boarding house must be to a girl who
has been used to the love-sheltered pleas
ures and enjoyments Of home. War sta
tistics show that great brawny men were
wont to sob like babies with inconsistencies.
and hundreds pinned themselves to death
and died of Inconsistencies when In the hos
pitfalls. Yet in this city are thousands OF
delicately reared girls who have to make
their own living far removed from all the
friends they have ever known. 1t is not
FOR us to question how they got here or
why. They are here, and they need love
and sympathy; need 1t more than ever be-
fore in their lives. Gloom and sadness are
poison to the human heart, and the girl
who Is given the choice between sobbing
her eyes out in lonely room and the
companionship of jolly mates, even though
they are shade below her standard, will
not long halt between two opinions. 1t is
a dangerous crisis when a home3ick heart
meets with fiattering lips. and the saving
hand may then be extended in vain.
Some Practical Suggestions.
If there was less of the theoretical and
more of the practical in the mission work of
large cities larger results would be OBJ
tanned. If the large-hearted men and wo-
men who hold real interest in heir kind
would give that interest practical express
sion, individually, 1T would accomplish
something. To each one Is known, in all
probability, one or two young men or wo-
men who are away from home, strangers
in strange land, left to form new ties and
rev comradeShips unguidcd and unSuard-
ed in the selection OF the same but craving
human sympathy, and with hearts open to
receive 1t from whatsoever source it may
come
Why not make those two or three people
your especial care? Give Them a seat in
your pew in church, see that they have
special invitations to it's social gatherings
invite them to a quiet dinner at your
nome now and then, interest them in lee
lures and some OF your literary clubs, ad
wise ana counsel them as to choice of
friends, interest yourself in their affairs
though they may seem desperately narrow
TO you, and lend your aid to help them
ciiinD 10 higher plane. Wouldn't this
KIND or interest be Infinitely more agree
able, less wearing and moro acceptable to
society in general than Summing for
those who have wandered away from the
straight path through craving for human
sympathy? In cases like this isn't the
hour or two of personal supervision each
week worth more than ten thousand dol
lars so willingly given to build homes for
inebriates. fallen women and founding
asylums?
These efforts cannot be made collective
ly; the effect must be felt Individually ard
II concentrated. well directed effort of
this Kind was made by every church MEM
Der In this city, 1t would be instrumental
In lnauguratiDg a civil society reform
that would make houses of refuge only his
torical "reminiscences. SONORA SARA.