The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1904-04-09
BLOOMING LILY


The new teacher in the East Side pub
lie school, looking out of the window at
an endless waste of irty, unkempt roofs,
with the gaunt steel tower of the new
Williamsburgh bridge for a background,
bit her lips in desperate attempt to keep
hack the tears from her eyes. But
they would come, and at last. surrender
ing herself unreservedly to her feelings,
she rested her head on the desk before her
and sobbed convulsively, needless of the
open-eyed establishment of the more than
half a hundred alert little ones facing
,sstsaer.
Miss Mary Saltonstall was the name she
gave to the principal when reporting for
duty that morning. and though rather di-
minutive for the size of the name, there
was a determination written in the depths
of the clear gray eyes that animated a
successful career in her chosen profession.
and the superintendent was much sur
prised to find one he had summed up in
his own mind as an acquisition to his
staff almost in Mysteries on her first day
''Why, Miss Saltonstan," he exclaimed
weeks to Thanksgiving
NO, Mr. Price" said the little teacher
a ghost of smile shining through the
tears Il am not weary. But it is so diff
ferent from home. II fancy am home
sick
And indeed it was different from home
AS she spoke she could see Gt had been
in her thoughts all day. the little one
story schoolhouse, with its green blinds
at the windows. standing in the corner
of the road. the limits OF the school yard
bounded by low stone walls, over which
nodded tho~heads of fragrant clover bios
SONS, and where she had taught the chill
dren of her own rural community for five
years; where she knew every child from
lcag personal acquaintance with all the
family, and where John and Frank and
Willie, and Mary and Belle and Kate
were the ruling names. and every face
and expression were familiar to her.
But Miss Saltonstau was ambitious TO
climb higher on the pedagogical ladder
and her desire furnished the zeal for the
hard study that finally enabled her TO
secure the coveted position in New York.
To be sure, the salary was low at the
start but each year of service would add
to it.
But this first day in the new school.
with its sordid surroundings. was so dis
appointing that she could not resist the
feeling of great loneliness that always
comes to one unaccustomed to the swarm
S.ng of countless human beings. intent
only on their own affairs. and needless
of the stranger within their gates
This country girl. accustomed only TO
green fields about her. and TO the com
partnership OF her kind going from a
cherries breakfast table in a boarding
house to her new school, was taken TO
the fourth cor of what seemed 10 her a
veritable anthiI of small humanity and
given charge Of sixty or seventy children.
between the ages Of nine and twelve
years. who. from her past experience.
seemed TO her might almost belong to
another wor.~.
Niney-nine per cent Of them were of
lavish parentage. almost as large a per
certage We're foreign born; their little
bodies were clothed in 3 manner strange
to her country bred eyes; their eager.
questioning eyes were of a fathomiess
blackneSs to her; their uakempt, raven
locks seemed 70 menace her: their names
sounded so strange TO her ears that she
despaired Of ever learning To pronounce
them And over the whole scene hung an
understandable odor that was sufTocatiug
TO nostrils trained only TO pure country
air. The Yiddish- English patois spoken
by the children was bewildering; and ii
- small wonder the new teach IN Public