The Republican journal. [volume] (Belfast, Me.) 1829-current, 1900-11-15

ONH Stll, dill Wudl ullueT lll6 sun an
moon an stars they'd do if l was to be
taken from them is something that
gives me the shivers ev'ry time think
OF it. But l must go, an stop takin'
your time and my own. I'm so thank
full to you for takin' the book. I'm
goin to give you my card, an it might
be that some O your friends would like
the book, an mebbe you'd be willin' to
send me their names if they should
It'd be great favor if you could send
F., me any such names"
She handed me bit of the cheapest
cardboard, on which was written with
a lead pencil, Mrs. S. H. Wight, Is
Spring street" l knew the locality to
be one in which there were only the
cheapest tenements, occupied by the
poorest of the poor
''It's a mighty poor neighborhood, as
you likely know; but what can l do?
You reckon I'd stay there if | could
help myself? guess not. An it near
ly drives me wild to think O bringin'
up my children in such place. just
must git away from there before the
children are much older. It's awful
what goes Oh there for children to see
and hear. There amt any woman that
would like more than | would to have
her children raised to be nice an good.
| do want 'em to be that, indeed do
| have EN- in a day nursery near by all
day, an although l amt really got fit
things for them OF me to wear, fix 'em
the best | can an take 'em to Sunday
School at mission Oh Sunday. | pro-
tect EN- from the evil around 'em, but,
my soul, the very air is rotten in that
place | just must GO
| watched her from nv window &C
she went down the street, driven before
strong. cold wind with her thin shawl
| drawn close around her slight form, her
thin skirts tapping: and the merciless
wind driving her on with force she
| was pOWerleSS to resist.
| Three weeks later was standing on
corner waiting for my car, at the close of
day of steady rain. \ cold wind had
come up. and the streets and pavements
were becoming glare of ice. While |
waited saw a small woman, without any
| umbrella, coming across the street in
| the now sleety rain. Her head was
| bowed to the storm, but she looked up
when within a few feet of me. and
saw that she was Mrs. Wight. She rec
o@nlZed me at once, and smiled brightly
as she said:
oh how do you do? Amt it been
an awful day: guess I'm wet through
and through traipsin' round all day"
How is your huSband:" | asked.
well, he fails. There amt 10 use
for me to Try to deceive myself about it:
he fails fast. He said to me this very
molnin'. says lie. sarah, You aim goin
to he burdened with me long La Joe. ;
says, / amt ever thought O. you as a
burden. 1t amt as if You could work
AN wouldn't. You done the best YOU
could when you was able to work, an
he did. | amt sellin' books now. Folks
didn't want the books. Why, bless
your soul. / walked the streets three
days two weeks ago. an | reckon rung
TWO hundred dOOrbellS. an | never took
single order. SO now I'm trying to
sell silver an furniture polish. but |
tell you ii is mighty up hill work |
amt made but sixty cents today. an
1t II take twenty-five o that fora basket
o coal when | git home, an I've got to
| buy a little meat to make Joe good
nourishin' soup, but we can all have
some o that so We won't 90 to bed
! hungry. | can 60 to bed hungry myself,
an I've done it many and many a time,
| but | can't see my children an sick
husband do it. SO | hustle all | can.
but I'm used to it, Then she added
with pathetic resignation: Il don't
expect anything else but to have to
| fight the wolf at my door ali the rest O.
my days. I've had to fight wolves o that
sort all my life, but amt ever had to
fight EN- so tiercely as since | have
had children to care for. but ! amt one
to give up. When the silver and furni-
thing else. But there amt much
| amt tried. | used to wash car
, windows at railroad stations for a dol
lar a day but hadn't the strength to
keep that up an | got discharged be
cause | didn't wash as many as the
other women. Then | tried scrubbin'
out offices an halls in an office buildin'
down town, but the doctor said I'd kill
! myself if | didn't stop that for it was
beyond my strength. SO | have been
| canvaSSin' for year ortWo. Its awful
work. Its awful to have doors slamm-
ed in your face. an one day a man cursed
me fearful because | rang his door bell.
Well, | must git on home an git the
children and my husband something to
eat"
1t was a month before | met Mrs.
Wight again. Then | CHANGED to sit
down beside her i'll a street car. [
noticed at once a strip of cheap Grape
dangling from her bonnet She saw me
glance at the Grape, and said.
"1 es, he's gone, poor Joe. He died
ten days ago. | been away out to the
cemetery to put some flowers that a
lady gave me yesterday ON his grave.
l felt terrible because l didn't have
single flower to put on his coffin when |
buried him, but l had just forty-nine
cents in the house the day he died. an
a charitable society in the neighbor-
hood buried him. 1t went awfully ag'in
the grain with me to have him buried
that way, an in the potter's field, too,
but what could do? If | am ever able
| intend to pay back ev'ry cent to that
society, an I'll take him out O. that
potter's field, just as soon as l can do
it, if it amt for twenty years yet The
sting O poverty amt ever so sharp as
when you can't give comforts to your
sick, or pay the respects you'd like to
pay to your dead It's terrible to be
under the paw O. that beast O poverty
when there's sickness and death in the
house. Don't you reckon the poor
would like to lay their dead away in
beautiful baskets, an put beautiful
flowers around 'em, an have their
graves kept green an with flowers over
them, like the rich? OF course they
would | never come so nigh bpin'