The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1901-07-01

as much for Gracie's benefit as for
mine. Then began my respect for Cor
nelia-
Heaven save us from the people who
viii stab you to the heart with the
brutal truth to save themselves from
a single prick
The men and women who do the
big things of life are those who are
strong enough TO cell large and
beautiful untruth to save another from
shame and misery.
I had an instructive feeling that Cor
nelia was capable Of greater things
than fate had given her to do. Per-
haps her personal appearance had
something to do with this feeling, for
she was a big, handsome creature.
Those who had known her when she
was a girl declared that she was
sumner before she married Bill.
But since the hand of the Lord had
sometimes been heavy on her: Like
wise the heavier hand Of a brutal hus-
band
Heavy hands, whether they belong to
/ the Lord or to husbands, are apt to he
fatal 10 good looks
Oracle shared her mothers good
looks, but not to the abuse of Bill.
{ However low his luck might sink, and
/ it sometimes reached the depth of an
artesian well, he never vented his
anger upon the Kid
The hardest heart has its soft spot,
and Oracle occupied the soft spot in
Bits heart.
She was enough to soften any heart
Such a pretty thing, with eyes like
the meadow viOlets they had never
looked upon.
She had the gift OF childish inno-
cence. too, a gift cruelty rare in a
daughter of the tenements, where the
very babies are knowing and sharp
of wit.
why not2 Since they have been
born of parents and grandparents who
have been getting the worst of LIES
bargains for generations
I had come to know the mother OF
! Oracle through my settlement work. I
could probably have made the ac-
guaintauce of royalty with less diff
Guilty. for she was constitutiOnally op-
posed to settlement work
'sThey come" she said, and ask
fool questions and look at each other
and say How curious, and How in
teresting. as if we were twO-headed
snakes; now" and here she became
I understanding. you act like we poor
folks. which we most is, 'cept the
MalOney woman. and she's cat-like.'
I had seen the marks of a fine pair
] of claws on the face Of the Maloney
woman's husband 50 I was inclined
to think that COrnelia had classified
| her correctly.
One day when the conversation was
| bee ming somewhat strained and I
I began to be afraid of outStaying my
welcome in her three-stcry back
room, 1 asked COrnelia how she came
/ by her name
/ Though il had become corrupted to
! Conn and Nell, it still retained a flavor
/ foreign to her surroundings. well,
1 she answered, my mother took il out
/ of a story in the Fire Fly Sparkler,
/ The gal that made all the trouble had
/ the name Of COTnelia. and ma vowed
she'd tack it onto the next gal kid
! that come to make her trouble, and
/ was it."
/ had my doubts about ma having
/ been able to read even the Fire Fly
+ Sparkler. At least. she had not trans
United her knowledge to her offspring,
/ though Cornelia declared that she was
/ fonder Of poetry than of beer.
/ She certainly consumed more of the
/ latter.
! Then I told her the story of that
/ other Cornelia. who lived so long ago.
and whose name through all time has
/ stood a synonym for noble and self
| sacrificing motherhood. How she had
forgotten herself day by day sand
/ thought only o. tire good of her chill
dren. How, when she died, the
I Romans erected a statue to her with
the inscription, 'COrnelia, Mother of
| the Gracchi."
They must have been long on sta
/ toos in them days" was the modern
! Cornelia's only comment when l had
/ finished.
After a moment she asked. What
| was COrnelia's last name? And why
didn't they put il on the statue?'
Because she had earned the name
| OF Mother. and that was finer than any
! they could give her.
Oracle had fallen asleep on my lap
as / talked, her chubby hand warm
in mine. her round little cheek against
my breast. AS COrneIia took the child
from me her eyes met mine with q
long look of defiant despair. Maybe
! there's Others, she said sullenly, "as
/ would do as much for their kids as
she did for hers if they had the
chance"
The next Sine 7 visited her 1 told
! her quite casually about a home up
I town where 20 children had ever
/ come. A home rich in every comfort
| except that one, and a man and a
/ woman living in It, their hearts big