Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1894-04-21

help one of the decayed gentry. Sara, the
exasperating She did everything exactly
as she was required, and was unvarylngly
kind to Erminie. but she had habit of
signing that was as depressing as an cast
wind, and she RECALLED US with her family
pedigree, in season and out. She was in a
mild way a kind of anarchist, but as she
was really q gentle creature and not often
slve, l put up with her vagaries, until
caught my small daughter prom algating
anarchistic doctrines to her doll.
Now, dolly 1 heard her say, YOU be
Mrs c. and I'll be nurse. Then in her
mimic way 1 heard her say: 'Yes'm, I'm
pity well ISIS NORM, and then with a sniff
and one of the well-known sighs-'but it's a
mos, awful come down in the worP for me-
you know. / has blood, and my totes are
the very best an it cuts, deed it does, to
be slav1n' for others when 1 ought to order!
INK the worrs all upside down wifi money
on top mos Of the time, though / amt
namin' no names!' and then another long
drawn sigh.
The power Of mimicry and the strength
OF memory actually startled me. 1 saw
more plainly than ever that my child must
De In careful hands. and l did not choose
that she should imbibe such ideas as that
SO the new nurse had to go. Brown the
housekeeper, and myself have taken turns
at standing guard over Erminie until
could hnd some one who would be a suitable
companion for her. / am q crank about
whom l trust my children to, some of my
friends have told me, but habits are so cas-
lily formed, and their force so hard to break
and child's mind is so pliable that 1 dare
not give into careless keeping the training
or soul that came to me stainless and
pure. II in after years my little girl should
go astray, shall always be haunted by the
fear that maybe 1 failed TO care for her a G
tenderly I ought. IT, when her mind be-
gins to expand. 1 find that her tastes are not
as refined as they should be, / shall know
surely that mine is the fault, because
have not guarded and counseled her as ca re-
fully as ] should have done. A mothers
responsibility is fearful thing 1 have
varied and absorbing duties, in which both
church and society demand much of me. hut
consider a mothers duties paramount.
Society can find another recruit and the
church another devotee, but my laughter
will have but one youth and but one mother.
Now, think that Lulu will make low
able companion for Erminie. She has pref
ty ways. and, IL she is not eaten up with
false pride, can't see why may not keep
her. On Marian's account / mean to make
an extra effort. She will think me unkind,
however. for she must learn first OF all that
one can be servant and yet not be
mental, and that 1t Is mental and moral
worth that make the difference between the
two. Brown tells me that when she came
this morning she had on a new spring hat
and perfectly new white kid gloves! Yet
Marian told me that they were behind
week with their board bill! There is a trait
Of character that must be suppressed at
once. My daughter must learn first of all
the great maxims, that costly thy habit as
they purse can buy is one of the greatest"
Just at this juncture slender girl came
flying through the portieres of the morning
room where we sat, and with a melodra
matte cry and a really fine Delsarte sweep
dropped on the floor and hid her face IN the
lap of my astonshed friend. She pushed
the girl aside almost rudely and jumped up.
What is the matter?" she cried. rs
Ermipie-"
'Erminier' said the young lady. wonder
ingly, turning a flushed. tear-stained face
toward my friend. "Erminie, oh, she is the
Ettle girl whom l am TO amuse! There is
nothing the matter with her. / believe,
though ] was too agitated to ascertain.
Then she swooped down on my friend,
who had fallen back in her chair and
poured forth her tale of woe. surely you
forgot to tell the housekeeper who | am
she demonstrated, and | saw my friends
eyes begin to twinkle.
''She actually brought me nurses cap
and apron! Why. l am lady and could
no more condescend to put on such a badge
of servitude than 1 could fly, and I think
Il was most unkind that you forgot to ex
plain to her that l am not one of the COM
mon nurses. l am sure that you would not
put such an indignity upon me If you had
thought how II would hurt me. Oh. it is
Just a-a-wful," and she broke down in
torrent OF tears. My friends kind eyes
feeling of humiliation that was sweeping
over the girl, but back of the pity was
laugh. to which she gave hearty vent
after she had rung for the houSekeeper to
take Lulu to her room until she was III
calmer frame of mind.
Il will talk to you in the course of the
day" she said gently, as the sobbing girl
departed. Things Will look brighter for
you after a while" Then she turned to
me with shrug of her shoulders.
Now, what am l to do. Sara? Does
civilization refine all the common sense out
of us? Must l submit to having my child
contaminated by familiar intercourse with
menials of a low grade of moral ethics. or
on the other hand shall l subject her to
the influence of a girl like that who will
give her false ideas of the worth of wealth?
/ am puzzled beyond measure Then, with
n sorry laugh, she added, Il don't doubt
that Miss Lulu would discharge me as her
employer if she knew that it was in
nurses cap and apron that l first met
ErminieS father"
Callers came in just then and put an end
to our talk and | have not learned wheth-
er Miss Lulu has succeeded in impresstng
her self Importance upon her benefactress
or not
And now am back to my first question,
what is a lady?" May not servant be a
lady as well as her mistress? And why
does the act of serving duh the edge OF
womanliness-which is the stamp of the
true lady-any more than does the idleness
of being served? This age Is too enlightened
to hold longer to a false standard of merit
A woman is what she makes of herself
If her moral perceptions are not blunted;
If her heart beats in unison with the
strides OF woman's progression If she Keeps
her mind free of Communicating heresieS
and open for the seeds of knowledge to
grow; il she seizeS every opportunity for
Advancement, and makes them when none
present themselves, and If, over ana above
all she has an abiding faith in her own
kind and q firm determination to succeed
she will succeed, and no power en- earth
can hold her back. Such woman is II
true lady--or l would rather put it, such
a lady is true woman, for like the good
old saxon term, which means far E.cre
than the royal derivative.
once lady always a lady, unless the
moral nature undergoes severe and de-
grading transformation. NO physical or
financial conditions can phase the spiritual
or intellectual condition of a woman I'M
less she lets down the bars herself, and
that being seif-eVident truth, why all
this moan about the degradation of man
ual labor? All honest labor is honorable
and all labor is honest that does not have
for its contamination the defrauding, in
fact or in sembiance, of another. The silly
and utterly absurd notions that some wo-
men hold about the degradation" Of GER
tain kinds of labor always makes me mad,
and, as Dick would say, Il fly the track and
wreck the whole business" in my unseen
ly wrath. l went few days ago with
Dorothy to see a friend of hers, who has
been stranded without means, and must
needs work at once or accept charity in
the shape of a home with friends, who
cannot afford to keep her in idleness. She
said she was willing to do anything" to
help herself.
Would Not Cook.
/ found her capacity limited. She could
cook till the viands she prepared would
make you dream poetry; outside Of that