Bennington semi-weekly banner. (Bennington, Vt.) 1894-1902, 1895-12-20
HOME CHARITY.

Scene-A coffee palace in the east end.
Aminta-You herGl The very last per-
son should have thought of seeing. What
in the world brings you to these partsP
And what sweet little love of bonnet
and cloak
Marcia-You, Animal You can't think
how delioiously refreshing it is to see
somebody you used to know before you
had an object in life 1 wish 1 had known
before made up this costume for myself
that there was an order with such per-
feet dream Of a dress as yours. don't
think it interferes with ones moral inlu-
ence and-er-power over the masses to be
properly got up, do you? Come and have
some tea-a penny cup-and tell me where
you are staying and what you are doing
and everything
Aminta-Two Jumps? gave up sugar
last month, on principle you know--I
haven't an idea what principle-and now
quite dislike it, which is perfect bless
ing, because the self denial goes on all the
same, you see, and the unpleasantness
doesn't. Oh I'm living in Henrietta
street, and I'm elovating the people. I
must have been doing it almost three
weeks, | think, and papa said-fathers are
so unsympathetic-tha it was only
freak and wouldn't last. 1t is so horribly
clean and respectable that l assure you for
the first week was perfectly miserable.
Marcia-Ycs, know that feeling my
self, whore l am in Powers court. A
court sounds beautifully immoral, don't
you think? Bat assure you there hasn't
been a single h1awi - even a drunken
Irishman since i nave been there, while
some of the children actually have clean
pinaforo once a week and a bath every
fortnight. How do you elevate your
masses?
Aminta-Well, 1 don't know exactly.
A man from Oxford-such an exquisite,
intellectual face, only rather spoilt by the
most frightful boots-givcs tho sweetest
little classes on Swinburno and Rossetti
and that sort of thing. go to keep the
masses in order, only there never have
been any masses, quite fortunately for me,
except one mass, who was costermonger,
who came in because of the stove, he said,
and went to sleep all the time. And then
there are teas Sor feathers and fringes, and
you have to try to drop in few refining
words with the sugar. And what is your
order for, Marcia?
Marcia (readily)-Oh, it's called the
DutlblI IOr VIZ <AlltlbfitlOll VI lllt COn-
dition of the Poor In Their Own Homes"
and it means that you call on them and
tell them not to hang out their washing to
dry in the sitting room-thcy haven't
anywhere else to hang it, you know, but
that's not your fault-and how to bring
up IA children on 10 shillings week and
that kind of thing, which would be easy
enough, only it is so drcadfully discourage
ing when you find out, as you always do,
that the poor really seem to know more
about their own business than you do.
What-er-madc you go in for elevating,
Aminta?
Aminta with confusion and slight
blush)-Go in for it?
Marcia quitting down her cup and look
ing up with interest)-Yes.
Aminta--Oh, l don't know exactly.
Lots of things. The world seems always
rather hollow at the end of the season,
don't you think? And we were going to
be buried alive for the rest Of the year in
Hampshire, where, mamma said-mam-
ma is so etfetc, you know-I should find
lots Of duties awaiting me, which was
enough to discourage any girl. And |
looked over somebody's articles-I forget
whose-in u magazine-I forget which,
all about woman's work, Woman with q
capital, you know, and
Marcia with sigh)-How odd 1t
was just the same with me.
Aminta (sympathetically)-W you?
Marcia-Almost exactly. I'd tried ev-
erything, you know. l had been in for
golf and skirt dancing and literature and
rational dress and new womanhood and
recitingan cooking and novel writing and
bicycling and everything, but it was-all-
Amnta (sentimentally)-B and saw
dust
Marcia wasn't bit hasty, 1 assure
you. So when | found out that in the So
ciety For the Amelioration, etc, you know,
you could choose your own dress and only
had to do with the refuse of thu popula-
tion l had the sweetest selection of caps
and bonncts and decided finally.
Amnta with tender admiration) -How
brave of you!
Marcia-Wel, it was rather My people
prosecuted me dreadfully. And Tom would
say, when people remarked to him GLOW
sweet of your sister, " "Oh, she's been
crossed in love, l suppose. They all do it,"
Aminta with start and blushj-
Tom! And that's just what Charlio-you
used to know Charlie when you were in
the world, didn't you?-says about me.
Marcia with BLUSH -Charlie?
(There is a long pauso.)
Aminta-Was it Charlie Marcia?
Marcia-Was it Tom, Aminta2
(There is the longest pause of all.)
Aminta-Because if it should have been
Charlie it wasn't that he did not care for
you, but that until Uncle Julian most
thoughtfully died last week he hadn't
enough money to say he cared for you.
Marcia-Was it that? And if it should
have been Tom, Aminta, until he got his
commission, you know, a sense of honor
such an inconyenient thing, isn't it,
prevented him from telling you his real
feelings
"a pause.)
Marcia-Can you come to tea with me
tomorrow? Five, Powers court, you know.
Tom might be there too.
Aminta-I shall be delighted, if you
don't mind my bringing Charlie, who is
coming to see me in Henrietta street.
Marcia (as they part)-Shall you much
mind coming down from your elevation,
Aminta?
Aminta-Shall you dreadfully miss your
society for ameliorating Marcia?-Black
and White.
The Industrious Man.
There was very Woodworking and
SteadfaSt man. And he arose at daybreak