Oxford Democrat. [volume] (Paris, Me.) 1833-1933, 1903-01-06
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81 Copyright, 1901, by P. N. Con0er IA
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I came across her one night when l
was Summing. No, was net 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 well 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
1t was 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
II you have penny more to give look
in on the old woman and girl upstairs.
l know they haven't had a fire or
mouthful of food for two days"
1t wasn't good manners to walk In on
the pair without knocking, and with a
lighted candle in my hand in addition,
but that was the way entered. They
were both awake. The girl fastened
her big blue eyes on me and uttered no
word while l deposited the packages
and lighted fire in the old stove.
When | had taken seat OH the corner
of the rickety old table, she quietly
observed:
81 hope the gentleman will excuse
me-"
1.-The gentleman will do so,' l 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. Then he
was informed with considerable digni-
ty that the ladies had finished their
toilet and were lat home" a few
minutes later we sat down to d feast.
the trio of us. l expected to hear a
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 woman or seventy.
She had a soft, gentle face and the dig
nifty of old age. 1t was hard to con
meet her with poverty, although one
saw the wolf Of starvation smiling 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 smile, and
yet there was dignity behind it. No
blessings were showered upon my head,
no exultation. If l was Il benefactor,
l was also guest.
81 thought some one would come"
said the girl as we stood around the
table, with its miserable showing OF
crockery.
"And why did you think sO?" asked.
Because / shall be 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 Il princess. The
idea had become firmly fixed in her
mind, and, even had l cared to combat
1t. 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 u
spirit Of levity. She accepted the title
with such dignity that ! bestowed 1t
upon her in earnest Grandma's mind
was not in its 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.
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 now and then, and young rs she
was the Princess earned few shillings