The Caldwell tribune. [volume] (Caldwell, Idaho Territory [Idaho]) 1883-1928, 1897-04-17
A LITTLE HEROINE. OF THE CITY
Sells Ribbon in n Store and Has Es
tnblished a Fresh Air Home.

Sells Ribbon in a Store and Has Es-
tnblished n Fresh Air Home.
There is a woman who sells ribbons in a
| downtown shop, says the New York Even
Ing Post. She went to work there 40
years ago, when the store that now COW
ors nearly block was only little, mar
row, passage-lilxe place with one window.
All these years she has known nothing
but ribbons-pink ribbons, blue ribbons,
| yellow ribbons. every colored ribbons She
| has seen mountains and mountains of
| scrap ribbons disappear-vanish into the
| tenements round about, and she has meas
ured off miles and miles of blocks of rib
bons to supply the weddings and the
funerals and the christenings and festa
days Of that dense neighborhood. Occas-
ionally she goes down to the wholesale
houses and buys fresh ribbons for her
counter. She knows just what to buy
because she sells the ribbon herself and
her employers know that she knows this
and from time to time they have raised
her wages a dollar or so a week.
She is a single woman, small and gray
haired and spinster-Iooking, and she has
looked at the world through spectacles
since she was a girl. She has looked so
long now that she has observed certain
things out Of joint, and has set about rem
.edying some of them with her savings
from ribbon selling. Selling ribbons brings
her in touch with young people, particul-
arly with the little cash and stock girls
In her own store who come to buy yard
or so for a nickel or a dime, and look
longtngly at the tempting display of
scarlet and orange and lemon coloreA SASH
ribbons that are far beyond their reach
Gorgeous dyes are most sought after in
that neighborhood. Many of the people
hail from the east, and respondent col
ors please them.
The small specialized ribbon seller no.
ticed that many of the little ribbon buy
ers did not look prosperous, or plentiful
ly fed or well clothed. Some looked pale
and dispirited, though scarcely old enough
to realize the reason. She bought a small
frame house on Long Island with her
bank savings a small house in a little
hamlet having an odd Indian name, and,
last summer, when it was stihingly hot
in the oven-lilze tenements, she sent little
tired out cash girls there to recruit. She
sent IL in turn. She paid their way down,
and each stayed the length of her vaca-
ton. The frame house is close to the
sea. Anyone who has walked through
A4SSLSAB Il OISy III, OF EGlVluSEOn street on
a summer morning will know what the
house being close to the sea" meant to
those Is and 16-year-old girls. They were
insists for the fresh air fund.
The little specialized woman does not
want anybody to know about it or to
speak of it to her. She does not dream
now that a newspaper writer bought a
yard of brown neck ribbon just so as to
look at her. Besides being small, she is
somewhat bent, and has wrinkles on her
brow because of the much concern about
ribbons. In outward appearance her life
is as colorless and monotonous as the.
everyday gray gown she wears in the
store with its rubbed edges and faded
luster. There is also a widow woman
whom she employs to cook ana care
for the cash girls while they stay at the
place with the queer Indian name, who
knows something of the real nature of
the ribbon seller. &,