News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1901-03-06
ILLITERACY QUESTION.
The Experience of One Woman and Hell
Remedy.

Remedy.
Illiteracy and Its Remedy" was the
subject assigned at woman's club for
@ paper to be written by one of the
most active clubwomen in Brooklyn.
She insisted on having it changed to
"Illiteracy and it's blessings" giving
her reasons for the modification about
as follows:
ooh, yes, know what am talking
about. Within the past six months ]
have had two successive domestics, and
comparison of the two has thrown a
great light on this illiteracy question.
1.-THE first, whom may call Mrs. Nc
Monigal, had come from distance and
commended herself to me because she
wrote such pretty letter. She was, l
afterward discovered a great reader.
Her mind was forever full of The
Dread Spectre of the Lake and The
Wife Who Never Came Back and The
Strange Fate of Mrs. Squeers No. e.
Her trunk was half full of paper backed
novels, and our gas bill ran up to tre-
mendous proportions, all justified by
the condition of the meter.
with three jets burning, she would
be porting over Miss Jinks of Jinks-
town at two o'clock in the morning.
When breakfast time came she was, OF
course, sleepy and weary and tagged
out. Her dishes were always standing
about the kitchen unwashed, and those
that came to the table were never real
ly clean. Her floors were always dusty,
her room always in disorder, her sink
sink of iniquity and herself pattern
of slovenliness, if slovenliness has any
pattern.
"Of course this couldn't last forever.
| confess it wouldn't have lasted as
long as it did but for my many club
duties. | gave her notice, paid her for
the last week and she went off Tuesday
without doing the washing. Then set
my wits at work. / wanted girl as
different from this one as possible. She
had been literary and tall and fair and
! middle aged. What l wanted was evil
| IDENTIFY a short young colored woman
who could neither read nor write. We
were taking our meals out for week
before l discovered what / was looking
! for,
Marjorie Mason filled the bill She
was only eighteen, and her coal black
| white trimmed eyes shone like stars in
LllC hail LWlllSAL VI uCl lIdhOSuhJ AoNN'
| Her cheeks were round, her form was
plump and her fingers were always
busy at something. But above all other
| qualifications | rated her inability to
read. She developed first mania for
cleaning the silver, until all that was
only quadruple plated seemed in dan
ger of being forever disgraced.
Then she swept the house every day
and rearranged things to her hearts
content Her dishes were clean. She
made a pretty figure in neat cap and
| gown when she answered the door bell.
| So we only laughed when we found that
she had relocated every book in the Ii
| brary, turning each upside down, and
separating every volume from its COM
panion."
But you are away lot" interrupted
a friend, land how could you send a
telegram to this girl if she couldn't
| read?"
mo trouble at all. Majorie would
| find out what was in the telegram, and
| she wouldn't let the messenger boy
| know that she couldn't read, either.
| He would read it for her, because the
writing was blind or because she had
| trouble with her eyes, or for some other
reason-a new one every time.
"And Marjorie spent her time at her
work, not knowing the delight of loaf
| ing over book. l never had to COM
plain of anything. l tell you that
opened my mind about this illteracy
question. l can tell you ali about the
Blessings of Illiteracy' and welcome"
you are indeed lucky to have such
! a treasure in your house." sighed a
weary faced woman. 1--WE have been
doing our own work for ten days"
ooh, Marjorie has disappeared" con-
fessed the active club woman, with a
smile 1--WE are boarding now Mar
| jorie eloped with our cream colored
grocery boy and l suppose she is do
ing his cooking just now over on
Thompson street, in the Borough of
Manhattan. X"