The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1898-03-31

sional Committee. FRANK HARLOW,
L. NJ. AXLINE, Chairman.
Secretary.
spelled ruin. In lieu of millions there was
misery. In place of wealth there was
want. To the hardest such a thing was
hard. To women unprepared such thing
is terrific.
But Mrs. Wilson was not without funds.
Her husband had not been without them
either Mr.. Chase, president of the First
National bank; Mr. A. VI. Blakesley, the
cashier, came Immediately to her aid. In
the wreck of a fortune there is always
some jetsam. A small bundle of the stock
Of the Wheeler and Wilson company had
floated clear. Il had shrunk in value,
through competition it had deprecated,
but it looked like an asset, and on it a
Mrs. Wilson presently removed to Milford
where. aided by her daughter, she opened
boarding house.
The first lOdger was a country clerk. His
name was Henry Merwin. He was young
good looking and lazy. The combination
If common, must have beentoo much for
Ethel. He began to represent to her that
equally common but infinitely mysterious
thing which is love. Apart from youth
good looks and laziness, he had nothing
What he had, supersuficed for her. She
became his wife, bore him a child, saw
such affection as-he had displayed dwin-
die and diminish, saw him go from her,
saw her mother die, saw herself homeless,
penniless, friendless, alone IN the world.
One might fancy fate had done it's
worst. This was three years ago. Ethyl
then was twenty three. Her health was
good, and in health and youth there is
hope. Hope has many an outpost. IL is
not until the last sentry is shot that Fate's
worst can be accomplished.
Hope guiding. she went TO Bridgeport.
There the factory of the Wheeler & Will
son factory is located, and from the man
agement sh esucceded in obtaining aid.
Meanwhile a divorce from Merwin had
been obtained, and he in spite of his lazi-
ness, had been active enough TO mary
again. The girl was utterly without a tie
But the aid which she had received en-
abied her to look about, 10 hook even into
the future. She fancied that the aid
would be repeated, that it would take the
form Of a pension and on it she could sub
sist. In that. however, she was disap-
pointed. D uring the Milford days the
company had assisted Mrs. Wilson, but,
when she died, it was felt that obligation
to the inventor ceased. The term felt is
used for the lack of better one. A COM
pany has no heart, no soul, no bowels of
compassion. 1t is a machine itself.
Matters then began 10 appear, if posi-
bic, blacker than before The girl was
helpless. Among the accomplishments OF
her opulent days she had been taught to
embroider, an dit occurred to her that she
might set up as a seamstress. 1t is one
of the curiosties of this curious history
that she was unable 20 obtain, even at
second hand one of the machines which
her father had invented
Hope, then, indeed, began It's retreat
Her health failed. Worry was gnawing at
her brain. There seemed to her bu tone
thing TO be done. Returning to Water
bury, she applied at the Scoviu House for
a place as maid. 1t was refused. She
knocked at a door. then another. Finally
one opened. Il was that Of little white
cottage, in which Mrs. Carroll, her old
nurse lived. There was a welcome. and
there. for a few weeks, she remained. The
relief, she knew, however. could be but
temporary, and recently, as an ultimate
and supreme recourse, she applied TO Mr..
Morris. one of the selectmen Of the town.
implorIng him, in the name Of her father.
who. IN taxes. had paid thousands 10 the
city, 20 gain her admission to the poor
house that she might have shelter there
1t was another curiosity of this story that
it was refused.
Then was the last sentry shot. Then had
Fate totally done her worst. From de-
spondent the girl grew desperate: from
nervous. hysterical. Il was not an aims
house she needed. twas an asylum. That
Or. Benedict. the former physician of the
family managed to supply. He issued a
certificate, addressed to the Waterbury
hospital stating that she was suffering
from neurasthenia, and directing her adj
m Ssion there.
Il Is the climax and eliminating cur
iosity of this story that the Waterbury
Hospital I sher old home on the bIuT.
which the town had bought and inter
na,ly transformed
Il was an heiress, IN a smart victoria,
that she LEFT 1t ten years aEo.
Il was as a pauqer, in a hack hired by a
stranger. that las; week she returned.
In the interim. she had run the gaun; %
misery. Many another has also. Many
viii again.
But never before. In history or fiction.
has a lady gone back as a charity patlen.
10 The manor which was once ner home.
Had TO Criminal Intent.