El Paso daily herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1881-1901, 1901-03-02
A Nineteenth Century
Fairy Tale.


life had known what it was to be hard
up. Pretty? Well. passably. If she
vas not strictly so, she did her best to
hide it aud went half way to meet nature
aud assist her, or at least make up for
her want OF finish, by spending more
than she could really afford on her
clothes. which were always well made
and becoming even if sometimes they
were Just a little shabby.
Her one power and greatest attribute
vas fascination.
Not the passing kind, but that which
fingered after she had left and made one
want to improve and prolong the ac-
craftsmanship and endeavor to learn
something more about her.
Her history began by giving n friend
the address of her special dressmaker,
and the latter. disregarding the recon-
mendation in the most improvident man
ner and regardless of future fnvors yet
to come, greedily jumped at what the
present offered and made the friends
dress in time for the dance, leaving the
girl i'm the lurch. But this did not dis
concert her as much as it would have
done the average woman.
She simply sighed over the frailty OF
her pet filter and, selecting the best Of
her rags" took such extra pains with
the other details of her toilet that after
all she arrived looking the better of the
dressmaker.
1t was at this dance she came to the
crisis in her life and was introduced to
King Cophetua- She called it a crisis.
Other people who merely looked on
watching her play her game of chance.
using ambition and fascination as the
dice. simply called it an opportunity and
wondered if she would take advantage of
1t.
King COphetuu was like fairy prince.
He was young, handsome, influential, the
heir to n title. and fell headlong in love
with the maid despite the fact that to all
intent and purpose she was practically
beggar. although she had once been
known to write herself down as IAN indie
pendent woman" but then she explained
the slip afterward, saying, with a laugh.
that 1.-THE adjective should have been indi-
gent, but she was proverbially n bad
speller. and both words began with the
letter IL
1t ought to have been plain sailing for
them and. like the fairy tales. continue
until it ended correctly by marrying and
living happily ever afterward-
But modern men and maids cannot
overcome obstacles as easily as the
princes and Processes. The shepherd
lads and geese maidens who lived hun
dreds and hundreds OF years ago. and
kings (even il circumstances do call them
Cophetua). have rela tions who sometimes,
as in this case. object to q beggar maiden
being introduced into their highly re-
spectacle and royal circle. especially II
she has relations to back her up and
only a stern old dragon called Mrs. Grdn-
dy to watch her every movement and
call ont in horror at uncbaperoned meet
ings and such goings On All this neces-
sariiy prolonged the crisis. which was
aonc the less sharp because It was not as
short the fairy godmother Good Fate
had intended it should be- Malignant Ill
Fate stepped in
She was in cruelty excellent form. She
made the royal relatives more stiff and
uubending than before and even selected
an extraordinarily unattractive lady OF
high birth for them to introduce to the
king She made Mrs. Grundy so extreme
~ Objectionable that she harried the
maiden so that the latter completely lost
her usual calmness. and when the time
came for her to have a throw with the
royal relatives pride injured her principal
Observation-Disclosures that It fell down a
blank. while ambition turned up Mt the
full number and lay where it had drop
ped, the observed of all observers.
The crisis was was over The epoch of
failure had now begun
Even King Cophetua was disappointing
now He went abroad. ostensibly to
shoot lions
ish thing. for she gave Mrs. Grundy the
crt direct and went and lived alone mean
Will. fn most imprudent way for 30
young maid to treat the good lady.
who. II -h" was rather trying at times.
still wss ..r,inently respected and much
older and wiser than the GRID.
Tw" such foolish people deserved no
better fate than was offered to them
ono to he killed by the beasts he went
forth to Slay and the other to marry a
mere nobody who had only one attraction
in her eyes-viz. no royal relatives to In
terfere-
But q special providence watches over
lovers and the king. coming under this
head. escaped. while the maid remem
berad Just in time that IL fascination had
fallen fat she still>had ambition, which
had tnrued up trumps. even If it was at
an inopportnue moment So she Rugged
ambition and dismissed the country
ewain (which was quite as it should be.
FOR in fairy tales it would never do for
people in the same position in life to mar
~ each other).
She was rewarded for it by her fairy
godmotber. for one day she and the king
met in the most opportune place in the
whole world church
There were a parson there and a clerk,
so it would have been missing an oppor-
tunity. which this time was more than
an ordinary crisis. If they bad not taken
advantage Of it.
This time The king did what he should
have done in the first place. He took
her and introduced her to his royal rela-
lives afresh-this time a queen. And
what could they raise an objection
now? Nothing: Cor is not a queen oext
to a king even IL she has been a beggar
maid in former daysf-Black and White.