St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1899-12-06
IN HIS STEPS.
"WHAT WOULD JESUS Do
by CHARLES NJ. SHELDON.

Don't you think father looks very
much disturbed lately2' asked Felicia
little while after he had gone out
"Oh, don t know | hadn t noticed
anything unusual replied Rose After
a silence she said Are you going to
the play tonight Felicia9 Mrs Delano
will be here at half past z think you
ought to go. She will feel hurt if you
refuse
"I'll go don't care about it. | can
see shadows enough without going to
the play
That's a doleful remark for girl
10 years old to make, replied Rose
'but then you re queer in your ideas
anyhow, Felicia If you re going up to
see mother, tell her I'll run in after the
play if she is still awake
Felicia went up to see her mother
and remain with her until the Delano
carriage came Mrs Sterling was wor-
ried about her husband She talked in
cessantly and was irritated by every re-
mark Felicia made She would not list
EN- to Felicia's attempts to read even a
part Of Rachel's letter, and when Fe-
licia offered to stay with her for the
evening she refused the offer with a
good deal of positive sharpness
So Felicia started off to the play not
very happy, but she was familiar with
that feeling, only sometimes she was
more unhappy than at other times Her
reeIrng expressed itself tonight by q
withdrawal into herself When the
company was seated in the box and the
curtain was up, Felicia was back Of
the Others and remained for the even.
ing by herself. Mrs. Delano as chaperon
for half dozen young ladies under
stood Felicia well enough to know that
she was queer, as Rose so often said,
and she made no attempt to draw her
out of the corner, and SO Felicia really
experienced that night by herself one
of the feelings that added to the mo-
mentum that was increasing the coming
on of her great crisis
The play was an English melodrama
full of startling situations, realistic
scenery and unexpected climaxes. There
was one scene in the third act that i'm
pressed even Rose Sterling
1t was midnight on Blackfriars
bridge. The Thames flowed dark and
forbidding below St Paul's rose
through the dim light, imposing, its
dome seeming to float above the build
ings surrounding it, The figure of
child came upon the bridge and stood
there for moment, peering about as
if looking for some one Several persons
were crossing the bridge, but in one Of
the recessed about midway of the river
woman stood, leaning out over the
parapet with strained agony of face
and figure that told plainly of her in
tentions Just as she was stealthily
mounting the parapet to throw herself
into the river the child caught sight Of
her, ran forward with shrill cry more
animal than human, and. selling the
woman's dress, dragged back upon it
with all her little strength Then there
came suddenly upon the scene two other
characters who had already figured in
the play, tall, handsome athletic gen
tleman dressed in the fashion. attended
by slim figured lad. who was as re-
fined in dress and appearance as the lit
tie girl clinging to her mother was
mournfully hideous in her rags and re-
pulsive poverty These two, the gentle
man and the lad, prevented the at
tempted suicide, and after a tableau on
the bridge where the audience learned
that the man and woman were brother
and sister the scene was transferred to
the interior of one of the Stun tene-
ments in the east side of London. Here
the scene painter and carpenter had
done their utmost to produce an exact
copy OF famous court and alley well
known to the poor creatures who make
up part of the outcast London hui
mainly The rags, the crowding, the
vileness, the broken furniture, the hor-
rible animal existence forced upon
creatures made in Gods image, were so
skillfully shown in this scene that more
than one elegant woman in the theater,
seated, like Rose Sterling, in a sump-
tuous box surrounded with silk hang
ings and velvet covered railing, caught
herself shrinking back a little, as if
contamination were possible from the
nearness of this piece of painted canvas.
1t was almost too realistic, and yet it
had horrible fascination for Felicia
as she sat there alone, buried back in
cushioned seat absorbed in thoughts that
went far beyond the dialogue on the
stage
From the tenement scene the play
shifted to the interior Of nobleman's
palace, and almost a sigh of relief went
up all over the house at the sight of the
accustomed luxury of the upper classes
The contrast was startling 1t was
brought about by a clever piece of stag
ing that allowed only few minutes to
elapse between the slum and the palace
scenes The dialogue continued, the
actors came and went in their various
roles. but upon Felicia the play made
but one distinct impression In reality
the scenes on the bridge and in the
slum were only incidents in the story
of the play, but Felicia found herself
living those scenes over and over She
had never philosophical about the
causes of human misery, She was not
old enough She had not the tempera-
ment that philosophers But she felt
intensely. and this was not the first