Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1894-05-19

taker is all the servant you need. You re-
member the poet says:
We may live without poetry, music and art.
we may live without conscience, and live
We may live without friends. we may live
without books:
But civilized man cannot live without
cooks.
He may live without books-what is knowl-
edge but grieving?
He may live without hope-what 10 hope
but deceiving?
He may live without love-what Is passion
But where is the man who can live with
out dining?
So. after sll, may not the cook play a far
larger part in the plan Of life than she is
given credit for? And II she does her work
well and feeds your bodies on wholesome,
well-cooked food is she not accomplishing
quite as much as the one who labors to
buy the food? One produces the raw ma
terial, the other serves up the finished
product.
The Social Slight.
Last night I was resting on q couch back
of the library curtains, when the girls
came in from a riding party. and as they
sat around in various attitudes Of comfort
known to girls. they began to talk about
Ellen. Some of them, notably those who
had been reared in a more conservative
manner than Dorothy and Elaine, doubted
the wisdom of the step she had taken.
was pleased to see. however, that they
talked in a sensible way about 1t, and that
they were not disposed to cut her acquaint-
ance, though they were positive that $50
ciety" would close to her the doors that
were once open That is true, but 1t will
be small loss Society is q great big &C.
topus that swallows up good many more
| souls than II saves, after all
Society Is sometimes sorry for its at
tempts at ostracism," said Elaine, as she
| smoothed her gloves out on her lap. And
| 1 have known instances when 1t all but
went down on its knees to coax back peo-
| pie of note whom it had sighted. unwit-
| tingly Of course. Society is dull generally
] speaking and likes to have presidents. like
I the Senate. 1 know a woman in Chicago
that society would like to get possession of.
but II never will"
OF course there was chorus Of 20, tell
US about her." and she smilingly complied.
| for Elaine Is right clever She saw that 1t
would show the more conservative girls
that her ideas OF ennobling labor were not
chimerical, as they had been practically
demonstrated.
A Brave Farmers Girl.
THE woman speak Of has been a model
for me for a good many years; her mother
| was my mothers friend. Her struggle for
| a competence was a long and serious one,
but there is much in it that may cheer
other girls who have the same hard hill to
| climb. She began her battle with the world
when she was just fifteen. She was then
on q homestead in Nebraska. One morning
| in June twenty-five years ago, she stood on
| the steps of her prairie home and with Won
| dering eyes gazed upon the devastation
made by the grasshoppers in a single night.
The little brown pests had swept the earth
clean of every vestige of vegetation and had
set the labor of a whole year at naught
Kate-that isn't her name, but 1t will do
knew what that meant for herself and par
ents. and there was a little baby sister be-
Sides They were pioneers of a years stand
ing. and had exhausted their means in
preparation for their first crop. To save the
expense of man. Kate had helped put the
| corn and wheat in, and the money thus
| saved had been promised her for the univer-
sity course which she craved.
Instead of that however, pinching pow
erty and privation stared them N the face
until another crop could be raised. / sup
pose you have heard your parents talk Of
the aid that was sent to the grasshopper
sufferers Of the west? But Kate was too
proud to accept such aid. She said that peo-
pie who were in poor health and had help
less children dependent upon them were the
ones who should be aided. and not able
bodied women like herself. I am young
and strong. and can work., she said Her
mother was one of the responding kind
She asked disconsolately what she would
DO. as the school was supplied with a teach
er. and Kate had no plano upon which to
teach music. even If there were pupils, and
everybody in the country was not as poor
as themselves: neither was there any sew
ing to do.
Started . Laundry.
Kate laughed merrily at her mothers no.
ton Of work for her. for. as she declared.
she didn't know enough Of music to desc
crate the divine art by mentioning Il, and
couldn't sew a straight seam to save her
SOUL Then she almost psralyzed her moth
er by announcing her intention of starting a
laundry! She explained that the wife Of the
man who owned the big Cottonwood ranch
adjoining, sent her fine clothes to the city
to have them done. and was paying five dol
ing to pay Kate four dollars, II she wished
to take the work There is one thing
can do said Kate. I can wash and clear
starch and iron with the best Of them I'm
going to take Mrs. Johnsons washing, and
/ can get enough from town people to pay
me at least five dollars more week. 1 can
study nights. and I'll be ready to go to
school next winter. in spite Of grasshop-
pers.' And she was.
"She had quite a surplus over and above
the family expenses when the winter storms
began to sweep over the plains. The list
| school fell i'll, and Kate was asked to finish
out the year, at thirty dollars a month.
She took 1t and tramped two miles through
all the SHOWS and billiards of a terrible
spring She said that the laundry paid her
| better. for she did not wear out SO many
| clothes. or 30 much shoe leather, but she
felt that she was getting rusty, and needed
| trying to keep ahead Of some Of the young
men, who were almost as good scholars as
| herself. After her school was out the O.
| man for whom she had washed offered her
| five dollars a week to do her cooking. She
took that till the harvest began, then she
| went home to help in the house, and more
often out, for her father was not strong.
| Pluck and Misfortune.
| "She drove the harvester most Of the time
and helped sack the grain for market The
harvest was a good one, and that winter
| she went to the university. She worked for
her board. to save for the second year.
which she saw would be a greater strain on
her mental forces, and she might not be
| able to stand 1t. That summer everything
| failed. Everything but the sunflowers
Kate said. They looked so CHEEKY and
happy all the time that I imagined that
they were trying to tell me that brighter
| times were coming They were a long
time about IT, though. That summer her
| father died and her mothers health failed
| and she was ordered to q milder climate for
the winter. Kate mortgaged the farm and
took the baby sister and her dying mother
! south. Six months later she and the little
sister were alone in the world and homeless,
| for Kate could not pay even the second in
| stallment Of interest on the mortgaged
| farm.
| Finally. in desperation, and for the sake
of the child, Kate came to Chicago and ap-
piled to friends there for assistance till she
| could started a earning a living II Is