The San Francisco call., 1899-10-22

''It is fortunate that you can still i've
in the city of your old friends" chirped
thoughtfully.
my old friends? Where are theyr
might as well be on the other side OF the
earth. They are nearly all dead and the
few who are left are strangers to me now.
in the world and I have persistently shut
myself away from every one"
The pride of It! Oh, the pride Of I'll
Not whine about the worlds cruelty
and friendships f1ckleness and all the old
tale. II have shut myself away" You
notice?
There were four children. OF these one
is dead, another is barely supporting the
family the other two are imbeciles.
Those four people and the memories live
alone in the little brown house at No. /
She shuts up tight and proud when you
get near the subject of the imbeciIe chill
dren. She is a mother.
They are both mature in years. that
much I know, and they are younger in
mind than the youngest baby that won
ders They are too young even to won
der.
One of them was in all the hurry to live
Of his twenty-one years when he forgot
about life He lies helpless in bed now,
and his mother feeds him with her own
weary hands.
The other is woman, with a womans
strength Of body. She follows her mother
clumsily about the house.
The youngest son Is man of 80. He has
learned the carpenters trade. He cannot
find work now, and so the last resort has
come. Mrs Chambers is offering her en-
gagement ring for sale. It is the one
thing of great intrinsic value left. It is
the sapphire of her girlsh whim, chosen
when she was tired of diamonds It has
been clung to and cherished and guarded,
and now its day has come.
In all of Mrs. Chambers remarkable
history there was nothing which i'm
pressed me so much as the instructive
good taste and self-respect which have
led her to make her home what It !s.
The marvellous way in which the drear1-
ness of poverty has been transformed is
the strongest clew to her character that I
saw. The arrangement Of furniture, pic
lures, ornaments, is old-fashioned but ex-
quisite. The STOPPING corner of the white
washed back porch has been rooted with
cheap bits of glass by the carpenters
skill, and it opens from the living room
in the guise of a conservatory. where
Happy -eared begonias grow and where
ferns sprawl In lazy warmth. She herself
Is neatly threadbare. Her face is no less
than ugly with the scars of worry and
ease Of her language and the unconscious
ne6s Of her hands that tell tales.
The Presentation Convent is sleek and
gray outside, and inside the haircloth
chairs stand in sleek order. The sisters
tread softly and speak mildly. The
sweetest one of all those saw is gray,
fancy beneath the black, for she became
religious in 1861.
What are your earliest recollections
of Mrs Chambers" / said.
"As the lady who lived in the grand
house lust beyond the house in whose
yard a fountain was always playing and
at whose fence I always stopped as
little girl to peep through and admire
the fountain
And what do you know of her hus-
band?"
~ know that people said he ruined him
self by gambling
All 1t must be l was not listening
attentively when his widow told me that
"The Chambers helped the convent?"
ST know that they were always most
kind. About giving land 1 have heard
nothing, for the land was already the
church's before my time. But 1 remem-
Der well how the earliest sisters who
came from Ireland in So used to tell of
the great help that Mr.. and Mrs Cham
bers gave them in their struggles to be-
come established. 1 recollect their saying
that water was furnished them.
81 know that she is in great need. Tha
son is said to be deserving and in need
of work Her lot is certainly very hard
poor lady. 1 have seen her for vearu
always followed by that terribly az
! ficted daughter"
The convent stands sleekly. calmly
prosperous. In the cramped allev behind
it crouches little brown No. l.
KATHRYN MARCH.