The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1902-11-12
A WAGE GARNER AT EIGHT.
With Her Crochet Needle IA Tiny Girl
BraveIy Fights Poverty.


From the San Francisco Chronicle.
A tiny breadwinner! She is years
old and she has known the meaning of
wage-getting every day of the time
since she was four years in this strug-
Cling, busy competing world, where a
quarter of dollar means bread and a
bit of meat and its absence carries
with it want
Labor came into Linda Aliens child
environment just as French dolls, me-
chanical toys and costly nothings be-
come part of the childhood of those
Graded in fine linen and Valenciennes
lace and tended by a white cambria
capped and aproned bonnie. The little
maiden of wealth takes all her pretty
surroundings for granted, and in the
same matter-of- fact way this particu-
lar little girl thinks she must labor.
There is with her no fretting or frown-
ing with resentment. Her work is a
part of her nature, and she rather likes
Ii as her pampered sisters up on the
nights and along the avenues are rath-
er pleased with some diversion which
prevents time hanging heavy in their
young lives.
1t all came about so naturally, this
regular work of Linda for her daily
noticed that her mother was crocheting
for her livelihood. The woman made
shawls by the dozen of pretty woods
and she fashioned boudoir slippers by
the score. The quiet, thoughtful little
girl, her heart overlooking with fiial
love, stood by her mothers knee ara
watched the white bone needle fly back
and forth through the strands of wor-
sted until shawl or pair of slippers
grew into recognizable shape.
By and by the staid little daughter
took the long. slim needle herself and
tried with a bit of yarn. The long
piece of bone was too big and clumsy
for the tiny hands and became I'M
manageable. 1T would careen and top
pie over, and 1t was quite impossible
to properly direct a strand through a
prepared loop. The worsted and the
needle, too, went askew between the
tiny fingers, which were not strong
enough to direct their course.
The time came, and in a short while,
too, when Linda could control that
slender piece of bone, and it went out
and In through the bits of bright
woods, gaining speed with every day.
The child, in gentle, determined lit
tie way, tried, and tried very hard,
too. Soon she could crochet with
evenness and dispatch, and soon wool
slipped through her dainty fingers,
woven into soft, fmy textures, which
the careful inspector in the large fancy
goods house that accepted her mothers
shawls and slippers would pass in aft
er the same scrutiny and approval as
fell to the lot of the work coming from
the hands of the experienced woman.
Then ii was that the daughter of
years of age and the struggling. over
worked mother commenced to supple
meTt each others labor.
Linda slipped away from her moth
er's knee and nestled up i'm a corner OF
a lounge or curled up on rug at her
crocheted-the friend, the companion,
the helpmeet Of her mother, adding to
the family income and assisting in sup
porting the dear old grandmother,
whose days of toll and struggle have
now brought a weak, bent spine and
tottering gait. When the aged wo-
man can manage to drag herself out
of her bed she makes all comfortable
in the little home for the crocheting
daughter and crocheting grand-daugh-
ter, who run the needles back and forth
through the soft. white wool that must
be kept Immediately clean and fresh,
and the bright worsteds that must be
worked up into soft and fieecy things
with never a stitch awry
Linda goes to school at the Cooper
primary, and she is good at figures,
too for she learned long ago TO count
her stitches with the crochet needle
and the woods. She Is much like all
the little people attending the school.
anxious TO be off on time I'm the morn
ing, rushing home to luncheon at noon
with a quick, anxious way. In which
is all the grave responsibility to be
back in time so that her teacher viii
not find II necessary to check her for
tardiness. The little breadwinner is
IN the high first grade.
At 2:30 O'Clock the child Is back
home al the humble quarters. 1918
Mason street; no lettering for her on
the way, no chatting or playing with