The morning call., 1894-11-04
The Sad Story of a Fair
Young Girl.
AN UNSELFISH SACRIFICE,
One Whose Devotion Gave Health to
a Friend, Only to Fall Victim
to Disease Herself.


Santa Barbara. and while the wbite-robed
clergyman intoned the stately Episcopal
burial service, one sentence. not in the
htany, repeated itself over anG over in my
mind, and l W shed that he had chosen it
instead as his text:
Greater love hath no man than this-that a
man lay down his life for mis- friends.
Beneath the oaks on the hillside thew
we're laying all that was mortal of q girl.
young and beautiful, a fair stranger.
who came to California from New Zea-
land couple of years ago to recruit her
falling health, who had for a year pas
mace Santa Barbara her home and had
here found large circle of friends, only to
be taken tragicaliy from them, in "A
way that will ever make her name and
memory sacred 10 those who knew and
loved her. Bowed over tombstone in the
lot where she was laid stood her manly
brother, her only kindred on this side of
the ocean. overcome with grief
Alice Towgood was born ia New Zealand,
and came of an old and aristocratic English
family, which settled in the island many
years since. Her father, S. Herbert Tow
good has great farm at Wanganui, W here
the family resides. An uncle. Arthur
TOwgoOd, is the archdeacon of the Church
of England at Marion, New Zealand
Few families rank higher than the Tow
goods in education. refinement and culture,
IN all that powerful and progressive island
colony.
In the year 1884 Mr.. Towgood spent
three months in California and was so
charmed with the country and climate
that lie made extensive purchases of real
estate in and about Fresno, buying among
other tracts an S0-acre raisin vineyard al
Oleander, near Fresno. This he proceeded
10 iso d van
iage at which the nonresident owner is
placed, and four years ago sent out his
eldest son, AZ hur S. TowgOOd, TO take
charge of the ranch. Two years ago Alice
T0wg0Od was threatened with lung trouble.
and after consultation with the best
specialists on the island it was decided
best for the young girl to join her brother
IN California. She therefore came to
Fresno and took up her residence with her
brother, but lateU tiHdiug that the Fresno
climate did not seem the best adapted to
her, made several trips to the southern
portion OF the State, dividing her time be-
tween II and the warm interior valley. Ia
San Diego, having considerable literary
talent and remembering the quaint legends
Of her island home, Of which she had ma e
study, sne wrote and published in a local
magazine several Maori legends which al
traced considerable attention.
Last November she came to Santa Bar
bara and made her home with estim BILE
citizens, who became greatly attached to
her and who are among those who mos,
deeply mourn her early death.
Tall, graceful, with dark hair, luminous
brown eyes and delicate pink flush in
her cheeks. bright cOnversationalIst, and
with mental powers above the average,
Allce IOTgOOd was a girl of a CAV and
happy temperament. She enjoyed life TO
the sltnOSg and entered with great Zast
into the pleasures of the fair southern
oar min Ill
manner Of social pleasures-She enjoyed
win the vigur Of unspoiled youth. To
some she seemed to live only on the sur
face of things ana fer the transient pleas
ure OF tie moment, ana, although those
who knew her best realized that beneath
the careless laugh and livelx manner there
existed a sweet wOman's I0rsthOught, and
gay young men who sought her society
often Unexpectedly received words of gen.
tie womanly counsel, the general impress
sion that she gave WAS that of thought
less. merry girl, jOyfully accepting tho
attention that her beauty and her charm
ing manners commanded, and few sus-
pected the unselflsh capacities for self
sacr fee and devotion that she afterward
developed
Among the acquaintances that she mad e
in Santa Barbara was that of young girl
nf 10, Margaret kincaid. Miss Kincaid's
mother had died IN her infancy, and her
father, man who has held important
public office In Santa Barbara. aud who
was universally respected, was killed in a
shocking manner last April by a runaway
on State street. The orphaned girl con-
tinued TO reside with brother alone in a
romantic spot on the commanding heights
back Of the Mission and in the rear oil Ar
llngtnn Heights, where they had lived for
many YEAR, half mile from any neigh
Dor. Late in the summer she fell sick
with typhoid fever. Alice TOwgOod, who
for cF 2 ha ri hi.
lonely anu Isolated position and the diff.
Guilty OF procurlag proper care for her,
volunteered to nurse her. Ii was nothing
more than she had been doing all her life,
for IN her New Zealand home. wherever
there was sickness, she had always been
ready to offer her services. She even had
her peculiar IDEAS as to the manner one
should carry into a sickrOcm. She had
often said tn her brother:
People have no. right to go into a sick
room 18th solemn faces. There is no
Christianity in that. When go near the
sick l Away think of those ScripIurai
words: Rejoice! oh, rejoicep"
Her patient care and unSeiflsh devotion
ana above all her cheering presence
helped the sick girl TO conquer the disease
and she became convalescent. Then the
fever seized her unselEsh nurse. For
many weeks she lay between life and
death and at last the glad news went
abroad that she was on the highroad to re-
cOvery. Her brother. who had been sum.
mODed from Fresno, went back, assured
that all danger was past. But even while
her friends were rejoicing over her rec0y-
cry, there came one of those unexpected
Telapses that SO often attend upon this
dread disease. Before lie could be sum
moned, before any but those nearest kaew
that she was in danger, she had passed
away.
They laid her to rest in the Kincaid lot
beside the dead mother and near the father
OF the orphaned girl for whom she had
laid down her life. 1t will be month be-
lore the sad tidings will reach the distant
New Z-aiand nome, where a young sister.
whose nearest friend and counselor Alice
has always been. has been for many weeks
eagerly watching for the ship that should
bring her back, for Alice was to have
started for home on the 18th of last month.
ana ner return was only deferred by her
illness. Sad as the event is, tragicallv as
the blow will fall upon waiting friends
there, one cannot but recall the favorite
text Of the dying glrl Rejoice! oh, re-
J0lce! For IN putting If the carmen of
earth and In putting on immortality, Alice
Towgood has gone to her maker crowned
with the glory of noble deed.
IL Il