The independent., 1907-03-14

came to see me the last time she owed
a weeks rent and had nothing 20 DO.
She writes most unusual verse, has
tried cataloguing, literary work. cleri-
cal work. copying, addressing-but
everything has proved to be tempo
rary. and she has had one sickness on
top of another, until now she has lost
heart and is on the verge Of nervous
prostration This woman can't get up
of a morning before $3.50 O'Clock, yet
she is walking ten miles day, looking
for positions, waiting an hour here to
see some one, half an hour there to
present letter, and so on. ! hope l
have a clerical position for her at
club, but it will be only temporary. She
had a chance to go to home in The
country for month. i can't go.
can't take a rest she cried. I've got
to look for a job. What will become
of her?
FrauIein Drops Out.
1--WE had a woman of sixty come to
us last spring. She was one Of the
most brilliant conyersationalfsts | ever
met Her husband had had a good in
come, they had lived much in Europe.
had never put up a cent and-well,
when / saw her she was out of clothes
that her hips stood out of her old vel
vet gown, last remnant of her former
finery.
Now. any one hearing this would
naturally say: Why can't the Charity
Organization society cope with case
like that? We give the society money
year after year What is it doing for
women like this 2
;o+x
could do nothing for her A few people
got together, put up some money and
sent her back to Europe where she
had friends to help her. We shipped
her out of the country; it was the only
thing we could do for her.
Then there was Fraulein -, poor
old Fraulein, in her immaculate white
ties, her old velvet bonnet, speckless
and spotless, her only headgear winter,
and her shabby black. She had come
to America at fifty-five on the death of
the last Of her patrons among the til
tied families of France, where she had
taught her mother tongue The best
she could do was to get one temporary
position after another, and she sank,
sank, till she was stranded beyond
description Little, shrinking old gen.
tlewoman that she was, she had not
the necessary push to make her way
with private pupils. She was known
at all the settlaments all the relief or
ganizations, and everybody liked and
respected her and everybody helped
her. Kind hearted, charming women
listened to her story and sent her on
from one to the other.
Where is Fraulein now?' you ask.
j don't know. She's gone: nobody
knows where-vanished; dropped out.
That's happened oftener than you
would believe. These poor things will
come to you every few weeks, some-
times for periods of years then sud-
denly they will stop coming, and you
never see or hear anything more of
them.
''One more instance to show what
plucky fight some of these women put
up. Here is girl who has always
wanted to be a kindergArtner
Wherever she applied they turned her
down because she had had no training.
Now she has just completed a two
years course at the cost of most heroic
sacrifices While she was getting her
training she lived all alone in vacant
house in Elizabeth street infested with
rats-a horrible experience. She got
it rent free in return for keeping up
the insurance, and there she did her
own cooking and washing, handicapped
all the time by morphine fiend of a
father