Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1902-07-07
ROSARY OF A RAMBLER

IROSARY OF A RAMBLER !.
t I
We are always hearing about And
it shall be visited upon the children,
even unto the third and fourth gener-
ations.' And it is always supposed to
mean something very disagreeable,
Which might we'll bring forth the state
ment that most Scripture which is
quoted is done so with the air that it is
something which we human beings do
not care for, breaking in on our peas
ures and our good natures from some
censorous heart and unsmiing lips. as
the cross nurse did in youthful days,
who was wont to remind us of the
probable chastisement when we went
home and the unsavory nostrums which
we would be compelled to swallow to
atone for present gastronomic delights.
Yes. most people who quote the Bible,
and the cruel passages or even to con-
vert the passvely good into the ac-
lively bad That is why the quotation
about the third and fourth generations
is not generally reckoned as Il pleasing
verse. But the other day. n little story
came to the attention of the Rambler.
which those words seem to fit aud IT
was such a sweet, such n pure little
story that it really should be told. 1t
is a simple story, 1t is Il simple story
but really don't you think it has a power
of good in it. if it a can take away from
those words the stigma of harshness
and injustice? The story begins years
ago in New York. A young and beau
tiful woman. thru no fault of her own
but rather thru the beauty of her ma
ture and it's loyalty. was an exile from
her country and her home. She was Il
widow with tiny daughter, and deli
cately reared and educated for the life
of luxury to which she had been born
and to which it was supposed her life
would be given, she had many hard
ships to care for herself and the baby
daughter. Thru some means, she met
with a great-hearted woman, who was
kindness itself to her. Perhaps it was
her own baby daughter that drew her
love to the other young mother; per-
haps it was the pitiful sight of the exile
scarcely more than a girl, trying so
cheerily to be brave; perhaps it was the
simple goodness of her heart which
recognized in all the needy of the earth,
her kindred whatever it was, her home
VAS open to the woman whom she had
taken for her friend. True aristocracy
was that OF the foreigners. the aristoc
racy of brains and spirit, which do not
always go with that of wealth and
blood. She worked and the recognition
of her work came at last. Was she
happy? Well, if she was not, he made
the lips which might have complained,
say bright words and smile rare sun
shine, and she reared that baby daugh-
ter in the one way which she thought q
girdl should be reared She has been
dead these many years. and so has the
woman who was her friend. but to the
last their friendship was one of beauti-
full simplicity. Many years of their life
We're spent apart. for the one moved to
The west, while the other lived and died
in her native city. The sequel to the
story has just come about. Into an
Iowa town there moved few years ago,
a young married couple. They had no
friends, but the bride was anxious to
find one family in the town. a family of
whom she had heard her mother talk
all her life. On their meeting there was
and family legends, for
the bride was the granddaughter of the
woman of the east, and the
woman whom she so longed to see, was
once the baby who had played with her
mother. The friendship of the two
families was extended into the third
genertions. for a young daughter lived
in the western home, and bewteen her
and the young stranger to the Town,
there existed from the first a hearty af-
lection. The poor little eastern girl
who had come west, had need of friend
ship and help, and she found it right
royalty, when not long ago her husband,
debauched by self-indulgence and dissi-
patton, deserted her and her child. 1t
was crushing blow to her. for she was
left absolutely alone in the world and
without home, without money! The
Young girl was to have spent the sum-
rler in Europe. She had dreamed of the
trip all her life, and she had worked
three years without a vacation and
saved every penny she could, to make
the trip possible. Everyone knew she
had intended to take the trip, and of
course everyone in the town knew of
her friendship for the poor deserted
wife and mother. Still they wondered,
when she said that after all, she did not
believe she would go abroad this sum-
mer Even her father and sisters Won
dered at the sudden abandonment of
her plans. Only her mother, and the
heartbroken Wife and the rambler have
known why it was that Il sweetfaced
girl will spend her fortnight's vacation
visiting an old college chum in another
Iowa town. She doesn't think there is
wonderful in it, at all. She
could scarcely keep from crying when
her friend sobbed out her gratitude and
she felt her mother WAS making almost
too much ado about it, when she called
her, "mother's brave girl, and III she
sees that the rambler has told the story
to so large an audience, she will prob
ably be very angry. why 1T is only
paying back in part my grandmother's
and my mothers debt" she says. That
is the best part of it all-that she her.
self, thinks 1t only what she could not
help but do. 1t is a long way for kind
ness TO travel, but perhaps God is more
reioiced when good news to "the third
generation" than when bitterness and