Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1895-11-30
knows we do well If we look after our

selves. 80
This is about the logic on which have
been won't to rise superior to cold babies
and wretehed women. avowiEg missionary
work to be meddlesome. you disturb the
harmony of their wretchedness," l have
said, and, relieving one. want, only intro
cult to bear
NOW, however. saw sounder logic in red
name! than in any system Of philosophy
possible to be applied to the poor. saw not
only baby made comfortable but a mother
relieved of the necessity to sin. When her
child Is hungry. freezing, when those COM
mon, everyday animal wants that anybody
but the poor can supply are crying out in
woman's baby, and in her own body; when
work is not to be had without Character
that warrants its bestowal and the poor are
destitute even of the right to labor, does
not penny turned at vice become the sole
resource-a woman has, and with whom does
the sin rest-her, in too deliberate vice, or
us, in our deliberate ignorance of her needs?
please don't talk such dreadful things"
SAID good woman Of whom begged some
clothing for this baby. Il am so nervous, it
makes me fairly sick to hear about the
poor"
A Canal Romance.
Possibly you are no less nervous so I'll tell
you pretty romance of canal life. in which
the wealthy and respectable play the proni
nent part and the poor cut a very, very
small figure indeed.
following my picnic on the canal, and I was
full of the subject. which somehow failed to
l, .>roduce in my hostess any degree of the
enthusiasm it has aroused in me. Later
during the evening number of others had
dropped in and wandered from the draw
ing room into the library, with the son of
the family, man between thirty-five and
forty, whose state of single bessedness I
have often made the subject of jest. Your
canal "reminiscences were not awfully pepu-
lar as matter of conversation; did you
notice it?'' he said. Come with me, and I'll
show you the reason why"
He took me into small room, his bach
elors den, opening off the library, and.
Pointing to a skull grinning the wall
above his desk said That's the reason
there"
Then he told me his story. When he was
youngster attending Georgetown College
Re discovered one day pretty little girl ON
enc of the canal boats-a little girl with soft,
yellow curls, and big, brown eyes, that were
wistful with an Unborn longing for some
thing different from the life she knew. The
days that this girls boat was tied up near
the bridge grew to DE the best days of his
week. and gave color to all he did and hoped.
He pegged away at school for dear life, his
boyish dream being to get through college,
and go to work so that he could send this
girl to school, educate and marry her. Then
the report reached his mothers ears that he
was devoted attendant of a girl on the
canal.
You can fancy what followed" he said
we haven iHucll Oh anything IN our
family but blood, and didn't the bones of
my ancestors rattle in the awful war my
mother made upon ME! That 1 wanted to
marry the girl was infinitely worse to her
mind than il 1 had wanted anything else of
her. l was finally given my choice between
never seeing my mother again nor stepping
foot inside my home and never seeing the
girl again. / hadn't got it clear in my mind
Just which l had the heart to do-kill my
mother or tie girl, for quitting either meant
the same to each-and as much from habit
as anything. drifted down to the canal one
evening and of course, sought to know If
her boat was in. 1t was, and in that wretch
ed closet bed that you described with SO
much feeling this evening my little girl was
sick-half dead with fever. / arranged for
her to be carried to the hospital and went
home. to find my mother sick also-she
seemed to have some sort of crazy percep-
ton that the case had gone against her
and in every way that a clever and deter
mined woman can devise she managed to
keep me by her side the next day and the
next night. The next morning l told her
plainly that was going. why I was going
and where. l went to the hospital aud-they
do such things with dispatch, you know
when it's only little girl and nobody in
terested-she was dead. and could find no
trace of her. Two nights later found her
BON the dissecting table of medical school
and brought this skull home to my mother
She has never set foot in this room since
the skull has been hanging there. She
avoids the library for fear she will get a
glimpse of it. But she forgot it entirely
last winter, or else thought five years were
sufficient to make me forget it, and urged
my marriage with girl who was visiting
here l said nothing. but brought her to
this door Needlessly cruel of me? There's
a feeling in my heart that the worlds need
lessly cruel" the man finished, and who
will contradict him?
Certainly not PAULINE PRY