Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1906-10-13
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penwoman through bit of what She called
harmless white taxing.
Il was asked by the editor of a maya
zine,'' she said. Ito write an srtcle about
the shop girls Of New York. 1 didn't know
much about the shop girls of New York.
except that they wore very large, one
sided pompadours and that they lad a
great way of being keenly interested in
their conversations with each other when
l wished to have them wait upon me. But
l did not tell the magazine editor that. /
was not then throwing chances to write
ordered articles over my shoulder, and If
1 mad been ordered to write a treatise on
the fourth dimension l certainly should
have undertaken 1t at that time, albeit
L never gained much of a mastery even over
common fractions.
We'll. l sat down and wrote the article
about the New York shop girls II was an
extremely sympathetic article 1t mentioned
the hard, Squalfd life of the girls behind
the counters, depicted how they were bull
lied by the cruel floor wa kers pictured the
bare hall rooms in the wretched boarding
houses in which they lived called atten-
ton to the pitiable pay they received FOR
their work, dweit impressively upon the
temptations to which they were subjected,
and al that sort Of thing
But, when l read it over. it seemed to
be lacking, it occurred to me- in specific
pathetic instances.
SOL grove to confess It'll decided to
employ a BIT of poetic license, as it were,
and 20 draw a tritle upon my Imagination
l added in tie purely fictitious account of
one OF the shop girls, the soc support of
her widowed mother, who fell ill with ty-
phoid fever. l pictured the shop girl daugh-
ter and her invalid mother living in two
miserable rooms in a tenement house on the
East Side of New York. told of the terrible
eXtremities to which they were reduced
during the girls illness, described low the
mother was OBJ ised TO carry out and pawn
all of the scanty furniture except the one
red in order to buy medicines: how the
shop girls beautiful hair all fell out, so
that, when she recovered, she found it i'm
possible to obtain employment because she
was quite bald and lacked the money
Wherewith to buy wig, and so on Oh
it was one of the most touching stories
you ever read and | dec that as
wrote 1t | felt honestly and truly sorry for
the girl myself
The story was printed with ilustra tiens,
and one of the illustrations, drawn by an
artist with positive genius for making
dreary and heart-breaking pictures. showed
the sick girl in the bare ROOM her patient
mother bending over her and miniStering
unto her
About two months after the article was
published l received letter from gen
tleman living on the Crow Indian reserva-
ton He wrote that he had just got hold
of a copy Of the magazine containing my
story about the New York shop girls, and
ne stated that my account of the girl who
had fallen ill touched him to the quick He
Illuminated against a state Of society that
would permit such things to be. But he
didn stop at Illuminating. He inclosed
so Dill. and begged me to turn it over to the
poor girl in order that she and her mother
might not suffer fer the necessities of
life for a little while. at least.
Il leave you to imagine the sort of guam
scorched my fingers. 1 thought and thought
about what | should do, but for the life of
me I couldn't think of any way out Of it.
FINALLY. after tossing all night over it.
1 had an inspiration. l had told one white
one in my story. why not wrggle out Of
the scrape by telling another one?
SO sat down and wrote a letter to the
gentleman living on the Crow Indian res
ervauon. l told him that since the article
had gone to press noble hearted young
fellow, well able to provide for the girl
mad come along and made her an offer of
marriage and that they We're then about
to be married. | thanked him for the
generous spirit which had actuated him in
sending the money, but I stated that in
view OF the approac ching marriage. the girl
| would not need it, and so l returned the
$50 bill to him.
Il thought that would settle the matter,
and | rather preened myself over the in
genulty of my idea. l was, of course. rather
consclence-stricken over the business but
nevertheless. | couldn't help but f1atter my
self just a little bit over the clever way
had wriggled out of the mess.
dill iOpe ABOUT a week later |
ceived another letter from the gentleman
living on the Crow Indian reservation. He
reincoSed the $50 bill, saying that he had
read with delight my letter announcing the
unfortunate glrfs approaching marriage,
and requesting me to purchase some suit
able present with the $40 and bestow it
upon the young woman at her marriage
with his best wishes.
There was another hard fence to take,
But was in the muddle over my ears and
there was nothing else to do but to scra M
bic out the best way 1 knew how. l de-
voted two or three days of miserable
thought TO hndlng way out of the new
complication before 1 had another inspira-
ton.
Then 1 wrote another letter to the
Crow Indian reservation gentleman told
him that the girl and her iance had been
compelled to elope in order to get married
owing to the opposition of his folks to the
union with the shop girl, and that l had
been unable to find out where they went
although 1 had ascertained that they had
left New York for good. 1 returned the $40
again. prais:ng the sender of it for the
kindliness which prompted him in sending
it,
Ten days later that $40 returned to me-
Inc gentleman living on the Crow Indian
reservation sent me a very long letter in
which he told me all of his circumstances
he SAID that there wasn't much to do on
Inc reservation except to read but set
forth the fact that he lived SO far from
any any city that he couldn't get hold of the
ni4iN VI DoohS ne WdHteU. therefore he
returned the so to me, saying that he
knew that, in the goodness of my heart
l would be willing to devote the money
to purchasing $40 worth Of books for him
and having them shipped to him at the
Crow Indian reservation. He didn't saw
whether he wanted novels or works of biog
raphy or travel history. Just books There
was no other way. l had to go out and
spend an afternoon buying books for the
Crow indian reservation gentleman.
Immediately upon receipt of the books
ne sat down and sent me an enthusiastic
letter. saying that 1 had picked out lust
the kind of books he wanted. Then he
went on to say that he had a number of
little nieces living down in Arkansas The
town in which they lived in Arkansas
didn't have much in the way of stores, he
wrote, and as Christfas was coming on.
ne would be enormously obliged if l would
take the $50 which he inclosed and buy a
number of little gifts in the New York
stores for the nieces. He told me the names
and ages of the nieces and requested me to
use my own judgment as to what l should
purchase for them in the way of gifts
Il had to execute that commission of
course, and take valuable time to execute
1t, too For more than two years-after that
l was obliged to act as q sort of New York
agent for the gentleman living on the Crow
Indian reservation. Any time he wanted
anything in New York for himself or for
his relatives he just sat down and wrote
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