The Chanute times. [volume] (Chanute, Kan.) 1897-1913, 1904-07-08
The Girl and
Her Problem

A problem may be dealt witch in
two ways. First, you can ignore its
existence; secondly, you can summon
all your moral force and grapple with
| it to the best Of your ability. The
girl had not yet got to the
point of doing either. When one
is only eighteen one doesn't zig
more" anything, life is too tremendous
an affair, and the power of graphing
is not fully developed, She tossed
off the plain, black-ribboned hat, push
ed back the curly hair from a very
hot forehead and surveyed the Prob
lem with troubled eyes.
| 1t was late; the little slum congre-
cation had long gone their devious
ways, all but couple, who fingered
round the door to say goodnight"
The one evil-smelling, flaring oil lamp
| lit up the small room weirdly. At
| the foot of the ALTAR" to-wit, a rough
deal bench, squatted the girl and her
Problem The Problem wriggled and
grunted, and shifted, and wiped its
nose and its bleary eyes on the tail
end of a dirty cotton gown; incident
ally, too, it smelled horribly of dirt
and stale gin.
The girl, from whose round face
care had smoothed every dimple.
looked and sighed. Gran. dear" she
said, hesitatingly. "You know what 1t
means when you come out and kneel
down here?"
| There was no note of hesitation in
the Problems glib "Yis, me dear!"
1t was so very glib that the girl
sighed again.
Silence fell upon the little room.
broken only by the prolonged shifts of
the Observation-Disclosures Problem.
you have come to God with all your
| sin, and ask Him to wash 1t away,
and keep you doing his will?"
"Yis, me DEAR" answered the Prob
lem as glibly as before, hunting about
for dry spot on the gown end
| She was Problem, and one that
| would have puzzled wiser heads than
| the curly brown one of the little girl
| fresh from hCme and school, VINO by
| force of unforeseen contingencies haG
been left for week or so at the first
WORKER" in sole charge of the tiny
slum station.
Here it squatted, the Problem per-
sonified. More than half century of
evil living, with long Jail record to
boot, could be laid to the ProDlem's
account. They had been easy and
pleasant years, too; thieving-clever
thieving, that is-possesses certain en-
joyments and allurements unknown to
the prosaically honest citizen. If, as
wise and learned folks assure us, it
is difficult to change ones ways of
life after forty, what must it be at
seventy-siX? impossible? Some would
unhesitatingly answer "Yes!"
Il wonder how much she under
stands, the girl said to herself, look
ing into the crafty old face with its
shifty, bleared, blue eyes.
Gran. DEAR" she said, bravely tack
ling the Problem again, you have
fully made up your mind to give UP
your SIM" In spite of the fact that
"sin" meant livelihood" to the Prob
lem, she replied as glibly as hereto
fore, ''Yis, me dear, yis," adding, as
though conscious of the monotony of
the refrain, 81 feels a sight better al
ready, does"
Whatever shall l do?" thought the
poor little Christian worker to herself
Il wonder If she knows in the least
what conversion really means? Ten
to one she'll go straight out and get
drunk again"
To the Problem she said, laying
little soft hand on the wrinkled, grimy
one near by:
"But, Gran, do you quite understand
that getting converted means giving
UP sin and living an honest life?"
"Oh, yis, me dear" came the ready
answer, with it's addenda, 81 feels bet
ter"
And" pursued the ruthless little
tnquisitor, what are you going to do
when you leave here-to-morrow, say?
Will it be any different with you?"
For the first time glimmer of light
real nght-hlckered in the Prob
LENS old eyes. as she said, though in
the same glib old easy way, "Yis, me
dear; yis, I'll arm me livin'."
why. that's beautiful! Gran! God
will help you! What will you do?"
"Donno, me dear" grunted and puff.
ed the Problem, struggling to her
feet, assisted by the girl ut is not
so easy to squat on a hard floor at
seventy-six as it is at eighteen).
'Donno," she remarked again as she
totteringly and painfully sought for
her balance.
The girl kissed her some more. and
tucking her under her arm, proceeded
to see her safely to the damp, dirty
basement known for lack of a more
descriptive name as "home." Ali well
had little curly head learned the Sc
ductive and potent influence of a cor
ner saloonl
Had there been Women's Shelter in
those days, the girl woG.c cot have lain
awake half the night racking her
brains over a new aspect of the Prob
lem To our mind the weak mint IN