Montour American. (Danville, Pa.) 1866-1920, 1903-01-01

LUZ oNhOldl ohip anu NOiiuuNI'
"She might teach" said Burnham,
"but | really don't see how she's going
to live till we can find her position"
After leaving Burnham's room | went
at once alone to the Eustis residence,
which must have been considered quite
a grand house in its day. A despOndent
old woman answered my ring and adj
mitted me into a chilling, gloomy at
mosphere and eventually into small
room at the rear of the hall. 1t had
the look of neglect, as if it had not been
used in some weeks. My eye was at
tracted by a small table unlike the
other furniture and awkwardly placed
near a window. 1t was Uttered with
loose sheets of writing paper, which
were dusty, and some of them were
covered with scrawls in pencil as if
child had played with them.
| thought that | knew why this table
was there. Clearly Miss Vaughn's psy-
chic messages were written with pen
Gil. | was displeased. This scrawling
hand looked like the usual counterfeit.
And yet | would have given my bond
upon the honesty of the face in the
photograph. Well we may all be de-
ceived by a face. began to regret
having sought an interview with Miss
Vaughn, and my mind was DETECTED
from her to the unknown man whom
DR.. Whiting had mentioned. A strong
inward conviction that that man was
the true psychic, worth thousand
Dorothy Vaughns to the cause of sci
ence, arose to prominence in my con
sciousness, and | was striving to think
of some means by which l could learn
his name when u very pleasant voice
spoke my own.
l turned and saw a slight, girlish fig
ure, all in black. There was the puZ-
zling, childish, wOmanly face that the
picture had shown, the perfectly OF !
innocence quantity combined with
rene wisdom such as l might imagine
in an angel. Yet this serenity was
wholly intellectual. | could see that
the poor girls body was racked with
nervousness and apprehension. Lone
liness in this old, deCaying house, from
which she could see no way out into
the brighter world, had told upon her.
/ cannot remember that my sympathy
ever went out so suddenly and SO
strongly toward any other human be-
ing.
She had seen that l was looking Curl
ously at the table, and l observed that
she shuddered at the sight of it. Yet,
as if the thing exerted some sort OF
fascination, the poor girl advanced di-
rectly toward it, and | heard the pen
ellis cucK III her nervous fingers as she
gathered them up.
Miss Vaughn" said |, ''it is in my
mind to offer you employment. | have
heard that you need it. With this pur-
pose in view, will you permit me to ask
you a few questions"
She sat down in the chair by the ta-
BILE as If she lacked the strength to
stand. In the few seconds that elapsed
before she answered me her nervous
ness increased. She began to mark
upon the sheets of paper with one Of
the pencils, though | am sure she had
no consciousness of doing so.
what is the nature of this employ
mentW she asked.
There was a longer pause than be-
fore. l could see clearly enough what
the poor little girl expected. Burnham
and others had suggested her peculiar
powers as a means Of earning her liy-
ing, and she felt that l bad come upon
the same errand. Seeing how she
shrank from that theme, had not the
heart to take it up.
"You have heard about me-" she
said. "You think l am some phenome-
nally gifted monstrcsity. Really | am
nothing Of the sort. l am just like any
other girl. | can guess things. So can
every woman. My aunt was interested
in-in that subject and so l did it.
am not interested and shall never do it
again"
1t was a pitiful protest, and it car
ried the day with me.
IL think you mistake my errand,"
said l as gently as possible. Have
you ever had any experience in teach
ingT"
She dropped the pencil and stared at
me.
1--WE are planning to open an evening
school in the town where l live"
continued. "a great part Of the popu-
lation consists Of people who work in
my factory, the Hackett Il Harrington
carpet mills. Some of these people
and l am thinking now of the young
women especially-have lacked educa-
tional training in their childhood. We
are going 70 give them Il chance to re-
cover the lost ground. They are obliged
to work in the daytime, but many Of
them will welcome the opportunity to
study and to acquire some simple ac-
complishments in the evening. We are
not slave drivers. Our people do not
have to drop exhausted into their beds
as soon as they have eaten their sup
pers."
At this point Miss Vaughn interrupt
ed me by suddenly falling forward,
with her head in her hands. | think 1t
must have been five minutes that she
wept and sobbed and | was both dis
tressed and alarmed, though she kept
assuring me that she was not i'll and
that she was very happy. When she
had recovered some share of self COM
mand, she begged me to give her a
trial in the school.
Il should so love that work." she
said over and over again. Il know
should succeed"
The idea seemed to enchant her. She
spoke of her own powers with conf
dence She became brilliant, enthusias
tic, splendid-in fact, precisely the sort
of girl to inspire the right feeling in our
young women of Tunbridge who must
take up too late in life the heavy men
tai tasks Of childhood.
was greatly embarrassed and a vic
tim of that nervous dissatisfaction
which comes to rational, practical
man when he blunders into a good and
judicious action. 1t is species of i'm
posture. | perceived that it was a
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