The San Francisco call., 1896-03-29
SOoiiS Nal
One
of
the
Best
of
the
Kind
I Have
Ever
Heard.

sergeant Carson is reason
ABLY young woman. She is Shandv
married, but as to her husband she says,
we are two" That is her affair and no
part OF the story. She became converted at
San Jose not SO very long ago and soon after
came up and applied for place in the
social wing" of the Salvation Army. At
the opening OF the Shelter last January
sne was appointed TO take charge. When
she looks at you, ana before she has spoken,
you know that she has had experience.
Her expression is not sad, for she has
not only her religion of "blood and fire."
but philosophy that is much cooler. She
will not fail to see what ever of grim humor
there may be in all the familiar horror of
the days and nights at the Shelter.
lone day clean woman came here
this little bit for instance. Her under
skirts were not much soiled, her nails were
cared for. l selected the best bed for her
and did not think of asking he- to take
bath-which with the others l insist on.
1 went about telling the sisters of what
had happened. They were as much
affected as / was. But the next morning
one of them expressed the fear that l had
made mistake. We went into the new
comer's room, which she had already put
in order, turned back the covers and there
were three large 'graybacks' snuggled up
so comfortably in one of the creases of the
sheet that it almost seemed a pity to dis
turb them"
She keeps "register" of her guests
with running comment that may serve the
purpose of a background against which
they may stand in relief should they some
time be saved. 1t runs like this:
MARY DAVIS - Intelligent girl. Knows
enough to come in out of the wet 1t was
raining. Three days from the County Jail.
Ras had great success in her rustic for drinks
JENNIE MCCARTHY-Bugs. Knows the loca-
tion OF the County Jail. Sober and much dis
heartened.
KATE DUNcAN-Clothes torn and large con-
fused lump on her head. Says her husband
disputed with her.
MARY MELVILLE - Young; pretty; very
dirty; physically unable to speak the truth.
Says she IS stranger in town.
AT first glance Mrs. Carson is not pretty.
Her mouth is large and is set out of cor
rect lines. Her eyes do not fill with tears
because OF the sins of the world nor do
they beam unduly in the conscious merit
OF her occasional Jest. They are large
and brown and full of know ledge An
old woman figures in the story as break
ing uniform silence at table by fit of
laughing and explaining it by saying, 81
was thinking of how fooled Judge Camp
bell" When the sergeant quotes herself
as SAYING, "Well, now, Mary, tell US how
you got to the Judge" it gives you no sur
prise. Not the sergeant alone, but all
these army people, have an exemplifica-
ton of all their methods in their manner
of speech. 1t is so much the practical
out-of-doors way of saying things that,
taken in connection with the business of
saving souls, it passeth all understanding.
Understand the sergeant does not get
into print willingly. In fact she only
came into the room after considerable per-
suasion on the part of her assistant, and
there was an interval of fully fifteen min
ules by the somewhat faulty clock on the
mantel that was filed with broken and
irregular approaches to this story.
AS she tells it she sits little awkwardIv
in her chair, her knees apart, and one large
shoe that appears from under her dress is
tipped over on its side She wears a
blue CLOTH stiff-rimmed hat, the rim
dropping little with time and
wear and the hat not sitting
squareIy on the head. Her dress is of
green cloth, with bit of velvet trimming
about the neck and the breast. Altogether
she is neat and slightly. There is no touch
of the red OF the army about her. Neither
is there IN the calico clad. stouter, older,
more voluble assistant that sits at the
other end of the table, leaning interes tedly
forward, eager with frequent interruption.
AS / shall not myself interfere with the
sergeant once she gets started, | shall not
allow the assistants very kindly old
woman-to do so.
She had been talking about the women
who seek the shelter, how some of them
came rolling in at all hours, how bathing
was a necessary incident to their recep-
ton and before they were given clean
nightdress and a clean bed, how they
fought against it generally, and how one
of them after having been persuaded.
against long and bitter protest, had passed
the ordeal, and had finally reached COM
fort between the white upper and neither
sheets, clad in a clean night robe, was
overcome in the silence OF the nights
brooding upon the insult, and, leaving the
bed rushed into the street crying for help
and heaping curses upon the place. The
policeman that responded she begged to
90 in and get her clothes, as she would
have no more Of it.
'.Jail, Jail, Jail, Jail, Jail, jail, Jail. That
is what 5 the matter with the women who
come here. They have been sent to jail so
much. They cannot be made to understand
that there is some one who really cares
for them They understand the jails. The
police they look upon as a uniformed or
ganization to get rid of them. 1t is their
one speculation-how many days they will
get next time. They come out OF the Jail
and 90 into hiding until perhaps about the
tblrd day when thew are drunk enough TO
be hold or careless. Then they 60 up again.
The police courts deem it their business to
free The cleaner public from contact with
these people; these people know it, and
that is ali they know of society-that it is
organized TO get rid Of them. Therefore
they find it difficult to associate any other
idea with our relationship TO them
and thew fret and fight when
they encounter rule which we require
them to observe. The police themselves
smile at our efforts in the case of the
wrecks familiar to them. They say, oh,
YES. YOU mean well, but we know this
one; we have been passing her along for
tiireen years.
But out of this ruck once in while
woman lifts up her head. There has I'll.
tered through her brain realization OF
the meaning of our care of her. 1t is not
All L.. in,