The Savannah morning news., 1900-07-17
Crushed By the Scandal.

smith was suspected. In tact 1t is said
that some malicious person even went so
far as to accuse the girl.
Crushed BY the scandal.
Then there came a change over Poly
Smith. She was no longer the light
hearted gill She had heard the scandal.
She vas helpless. She was innocent but
the blow aimed at her had crushed her
Invitations came in fewer numbers, and
those tdat did come were not accepted.
The girl got paler and paer. she was sch
dom seen outside her own home. Her
cheeks became shrunken; her eyes, so
bright and laughing formerly. were red
from constant weeping: she never smiled,
and her sensitive nature made Aher imag-
inc that the whole world suspected her of
a crime of which she was innocent
Miss Smiths brother-in-law is Gov.
Cen Wood. of Cuba. 1t was thought that
a change of scene and climate would
help the girl forget the cruel gossip that
had SO sorely wounded her. So Miss
Smith was sent to Cuba to be with her
sister Mrs. Wood. Cuban climate and
the change of scenes did not have the
beneficial effect expected.
The girl tried bravely to overcome the
constant fear that she was everywhere
pointed at as thief. She tried to meet
people as She had done before, but it
health and spirits that the every effort
was beyond her strength.
So she settled down to a life of misery,
literally eating her own heart. 1t was
seen by the Woods that the girl would
eventually die unless some plan could
be devised to take her mind from the
great wrong that had been done her.
Nearly a year passed before the mys-
terry was partially cleared up by finding
+fa7er s1f+
sylvania avenue shop in WASHINGTON,
where they had been taken undoubtedly
by the real thief. No one knows to this
day exactly how. when or by whom the
jewels We're pur,oined. The discovery of
them came too late. An irreparable in
jury had been done to the young girl.
without the slightest fault of her host,
hostess or the detectives.
So Washington accepted the finding of
the jewels in a disinterested sort of way.
Washington had almost forgotten the ac-
cusation made against Polly" Smith by
this time in the freshness of other gossip
on which Washington feeds, but Polly
Smith had not forgotten.
Could Net Forget.
She came home from Cuba Immediate
ly after the jewels had been found, and
no doubt could have taken her own place
in society had she been able to forget,
but she was not of the forgetting kind
She continued unhappy, never speaking
unless she was spoken to- growing thin
ner and less like her former self every
day. Society had all but Killed her by
its love of gossip
1t was when her family had almost
Gesr red of ever making her well and
happy again that the trip to China wa
proposed. The Congers were close to the
ConGit SmiI his They loved the Polly"
Smith they had known of old. The girl
left for China with the expressed pur-
pose of staying there always. In China
she could at least be among pe5p.e who
would not gossip. What if they were
heathens? What if they did kill her, as
they perhaps have done? They Won at
least make her misery shortlived.
So Polly Smith went TO China. She
was a pitiful-looking little thing when
she left Washington, the only home she
had ever known where she had done so
much TO make happy he lives of others.
1t Is said that it was Miss Smith s
purpose 20 eventually be a missionary in
China She could never return to Wash
i1gton. Ii was urged upon her that
Washington had al eady forgotten the
only too ready to T ght the wrong The
wrong, however, was too great 10 her
thinking to ever be righted anCLshe chose
TO go from her home forever.
How Polly Smith met death has not
been made known as yet, but, no matter
how she died. death was sweet to her
There may be those in Washington to-
day who suffer a pang for the girl whom
they sent to her death. None can deny
that the calumny they helped to give
br5 ath and life to made her a martyr,