Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1902-11-13
ii ii ii 800 81 Il Il go 81 Z:
s THE PASSING {:
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:, OF A PRINCESS :;
81 BY PHIL NJ. C0NGER........ e!
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BY PHIL M. CONGER........
81 Copyright, 1901, by p. N. Conger
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l came across her one Hight W0oQ i
was Summing. No, was not exactly
Summing. AS a journalist the dives
and dens OF the tenement district had
been familiar to me for years. 1t was
on one of my tours, for now and then
when too we'll satisfied with life take
a trip amid crime and degradation and
poverty as an offset.
I found her in a little room on the
top story of a tenement, the Princess.
It was a winters night, and the fire
was out for want Of fuel, the cupboard
empty for want of money and the girl
and her grandmother huddled up to
each other on an old straw mattress to
keep warm. On the floor below them
a woman had said:
Thanks, sir, and God bless you, but
if you have a penny more to give look
in on the old woman and girl upstairs.
I know they haven't had fire or
mouthful Of food for two days."
It wasn't good manners to walk in on
the pair without knocking, and with
lighted candle in my hand in addition,
but that was the way I entered. They
were both awake. The girl fastened
her big blue eyes on me and uttered no
word while I deposited the packages
and lighted a fire in the old stove.
When I had taken a seat on the corner
Of the rickety old table, she\quietly
observed:
81 hope the gentleman will excuse
me-"
1.-THE gentleman will do So" I re-
piled.
"And will the gentleman withdraw
while me and grandma get up"
The gentleman passed out into the
ice cold hall and stamped up and down
for three or four minutes. Their he
was informed with considerable digni-
ty that the ladies had finished their
toilet and were "at home" A few
minutes later we sat down to feast,
the trio of us. l expected to hear
tale of want and woe, but none was
told There was no inveighing against
the rich; no criticism Of the world at
large; not one single complaint that
they were there in poverty's clutch.
Grandma was a woman of seventy.
She had soft, gentle face and the dig
nifty Of old age. It was hard to con-
meet her with poverty, although one
saw the wolf Of starvation shifting at
the door. The girl was not over ten,
but she had the face of one double
that age. Her clothes were ragged,
but clean; her hands had been used to
toll, but they were shapely and clear
| Of dirt. Her face wore a smile, and
yet there was dignity behind it. No
blessings were showered upon my head,
no exultation. If I was benefactor,
was also a guest.
II thought some one would come,
said the girl as we stood around the
table, with it's miserable showing Of
crockery.
"And why did you think SOP" l asked
Because | shall be a princess some
day"
''And how will that come about"
In quiet tones and with an earnest
ness which made me wonder she told
me that over and over again she had
dreamed that she was princess. The
idea had become firmly fixed in her
mind, and, even had l cared to combat
it, arguments would have been useless
She had read story books, too; she had
read of princes and princesses and
knights and chevaliers, and to dispel
her illusions would have been almost
wicked. I called her Princess in a
spirit of levity. She accepted the title
with such dignity that 1 bestowed it
upon her in earnest Grandma's mind
was not in it's second childhood, yet
she had fully accepted the situation
that is, she firmly believed that it
would come to pass some day that her
granddaughter would wear the purple
and ride behind proud stepping horses.
l encouraged her to think so, and en-
couraged the Princess. This was de-
ceit on my part, but God help those
men and women and children Of the
tenements who sit in cold, darkness
and hunger and have no visions to
keep back their walls or curses.
| Old as she was granny had little
WOrk HOW anu IucIl, duu yOullS ShC
was the Princess earned a few shillings
per week. I should have been glad to
do more for them, for 1 had become
knight to a princess, but they drew a
line and entered a protest. To go be-
yond that line was to hurt their feel
lngs and offend their dignity.
Sometimes in my knocking about
found the Princess ON the street, and /
had no cause to wonder that the half
drunken women and rude boys treated
her with respect. 1t had somehow got
about the street that she was a real
princess who would come into her own
some day, and she must be treated diff
ferent from the other girls. There were
weeks and weeks at a time when the
faith of the Princess in her future would
not let a doubt creep in. Then there
would come a blue day, and after sit
ting with her chin on her hands for
long hour while 1 talked with grandma
she would earnestly inquire:
do you think shall ever be real
..;oooce Won't cOmn Otbnr CyirI ont