Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1906-08-29
Darkest Just Before Daun
By Matt Heating

Her father was dead-had been
killed in the railroad yards while cou-
ping cars at $50 per month. Her
mother also was dead-having spent
the small life insurance money in a
Misunderstanding dressmaking venture
for which she was eminently untitled,
and then succumbed to pneumonia.
So Nina was left alone to work out
the problem of life-and in it's work.
ing out she had finally landed in de-
partment store as 'saleslady." True,
the salary was not much-only four
dollars per week-but to her it was
untold riches, especially when she re-
Elected upon the status of the other
girls-Jessie, Maud and Ethel and
countless others who were getting only
three dollars for work much more alb
horrent. For be it known Nina was
in the stationery department on the
first floor, which was comparatively
we'll ventilated, and she served people
who bad some sort of an idea as to
what they wanted, while Jennie and
Maud were in the bargain notion de-
partment in the stuffy, ill-smelling
basement, where women shoppers
knowing not what they wanted, ell
bowed and fought for a vantage
ground from which to paw over the
stock; and Ethel was under the side
walk in sort of tunnel which the
store had stolen from under the street
where she mechanically handed out
tacks and nails to people who had pur-
sued them to this grewsome lair.
In the meantime Nina was living
with half-sister whose husband re-
ceived $50 per month for mailing COW
ers on boxes in the shipping depart
ment OF great wholesale house. On
this income he supported his wife and
four rallid children, who never had
seen green things grow nor smelled
fresh country air.
They charged Nina two dollars a
week for her board and cot under the
stairway-and thought it was great
luck to get it. Then she paid 60 cents
week car fare, ten cents a week for
her dues to the Salesladies' Union and
ten cents per week to the Medical Aid
and Burial association as a sort of in
surance against sickness or death She
was driven to this latter extravagance
by the gloomy forebodings of her half
sister and her husband regarding her
possible, indeed probable impending
sickness and death, the query being
Where's the money coming from tC
take care of you and bury your"
The astute mathematician can easily
with which to clothe herself and buy
ice cream sodas and chewing gum. II
was rot hilarious life
In the meantime she was growing
thinner and paler and more tired every
week. 1t would have been plain to any
intelligent person, were such interest
ed in her, that she would not last LONG
in such environments. About this
time there was another addition to her
sisters family, and her brother-in-law
being pressed to extremities, informed
Nina that he would have to raise the
price of her board to three dollars pei
week. This was staggering blow to
the girl, already carrying far more
than her fair share of burdens.
All day long in the hot, sitting store
she brooded over it, wondering vaguely
how in the world she was to get alone
at all if she handed three precious dol
lars TO her brother-in-law each week
And then there was that muslin dress
she had been coveting so fiercely for sc
many ronths-and nearly attained, too
or course that must be given up, and
all the other nice things of life. She
must hereafter toll on enduringly with
only the hone of paying her brother
in-law for her board and lodging and
money enough over to pay car fare.
Communing thus, heart-broken anG
sick with fear, she staggered forth
from the store to catch her car home
home, oh! what a travesty on the WORD
"a dismal, sQualid cottage, filled with
the walls of neglected children, the
complainings of an overworked wife
and the sordid demands of an incom-
petelt master. Her cup indeed was
full.
The gong of street car changed
hercely just before her. and awakened
her from her reverie. She stepped
quickly back and found herself directly
in the path of an approaching spirited
team of blacks, the control of whom
the driver seemed to have lost To &C
forward was to meet certain death un-
der the iron wheels of the street car;
to remain was to fall beneath the hoofs
Of tia horses. On top of all her siren.
ucf. mental strain Nina collapsed ant
sank 10 the ground in swoon.
A cry OF horror went up from ths
passengers on the electric car anc