Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1896-04-04


of the lake shore, and the old red church,
by the river side, above Carrollton, are
several miles apart. People know this as
well they know that the latanier is the
palmetto palm Of the southern wood, with
It's comhlike many-toothed leaves, and that
the old Basin is great pool of scum-cov-
cred, murky water, lying in thickly set
tied part of the French town, where num-
ters of small sailbcats, coming in through
the bayou with their cargoes of lumber
from the coast of the sound, lie against
one another as they discharge and receive
their freight
If all the good people who knew her In
her grotesQue and pitiful street charac-
ter had been asked suddenly to name the
New Orleans they would almost without a
doub- have Immediately replied, why,
old Aunt Easter, the candy woman. Who
could be poorer than she?"
To be old and black and withered and
beggar, with nothing to recommend her but
herself, her poor. insignificant, ragged self,
who knew nobody and whom nobody knew,
that that was to be poor, indeed.
OF course, old Easter was not a profess
sional begsar, but 1t was well known that
before she disappeared from the streets
basket was generally pretty well filled with
loose paper parcels of cold victuals, which
she was always sure to get at certain
kitchen doors from kindly people who
There had been days in the past when
Easter had peddled light porous sticks of
snow-whfte taffy, cakes of dainty sugar
candy filled with fresh orange blossoms
and dainty pralines of pecans or cocoanut,
but one cannot do everything
One cannot be expected to remember
Gen jackson. spin long, imaginative yarns
OF forgotten days and make up-to-date pra-
lines at the same time. If the people who
had ears to listen had known the thing 20
value. this old, old woman could have sold
her memories, her wit and even her imagi-
nation better than she had ever sold her
old-fashfoned sweets
But the world likes molasses CANDY. and
SO old Easter. whose meager CONNECTIONS
grew poorer as hel stories waxed in rich
ness, walked the streets in rags and dirt
and absolute obscurity
An old lame dog, seeming instinctivelv In
Know her as his companion in misery ono
DAY was seen to crouch beside her. and.
seeing him, she took down her basket and
entertained him from her loose PAPER mar
GELS. Hp poi
And once. but this was MANY wears AGO
and the incident was quite forgotten nov
when a crowd of street fellows began pe,t
ing Crazy Jake, foolish, half paralyzed
E 9,ack BOY, VINO begged along the streets.
RECEIVING few Of their cIods in her face
mad struck out into the gang of his tor
mentors. grabbed two Of it's principal lead
ers by the seats of their trousers. spanked
them until they begged for mercy. ard Let
them CO. ~ 1o'
Nobody knew what had become of crazv
lake after that Nobody cared. The poor
human creature who is not due at any par
tlcu!ar place at any particular time can
hardly be missed. even when the time
comes when he himself misses the here and
there where he spent his miserable DAYS
even, perhaps, having no one else misses
his tormentors.
It was a little school girl who saw the
olo woman lower her basket to share her
scraps with a street dog 1t seemed to her
pretty act, and SO she told it when she
went home. And she told it again at the
next meeting Of the particular "ten' of the
30
Der. ~ " iAAeni-
And this was how the name Of Easter.
the old black candy womant came to no
written upon their little book as their
chosen object of charity for the conoin,
year. Ne
The name was not written, however
without some opposition. some discussion
and considerable argument There Voc
several OF the ten who could not easily
consent to give up the idea of sending Their
little moneys to an Indian or q Chinaman
Africa "'''e
There is something attractive in the sav-
age who sticks bright feathers in his hair.
carries tomahawk and wears moccasins
upon ms nmoie Feet Most young people
take readily to the idea Of educating a PIC
turesque savage and teaching him that the
CASTOR clothes they send him are better
than his beads and feathers
People at a distance may see how very
much more Interesting and picturesque the
old black woman Easter was than any of
these but she did not seem SO to the ten
good little maidens who finally agreed to
take her for their own, to find her out in
her home life and to help her.
With them It was an act Of simple pity.
an act SO pure in its. motive that It was in
itself beautiful.
Perhaps the idea gained q little following
from the fact that Easter Sunday was ap-
preaching. ana there was a pleasing Mt
ness in the old womans name, 40 it was
proposed a. an object for their Easter Of
ferings But this 10 slight consideration.
Certainly when three little maidens
started out on the following Saturday
morning to ind the old woman Easter thew
were full Of interest In their new object.
gether, about the beautiful things thew
were going to do for her.
Somehow. 1t never occurred to them that
they might not dnd her either at the Jack