Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1908-03-15
SINNER AND SAINT,
WHO REJECT FORTUNES
Special Correspondence of The Star.

| Special Correspondence of The Star
LONDON, March f. 1908.
IT UMAN nature abounds in startling
/" contrasts. but seldom are its con-
L l. trasts so strikingly revealed as in
two cases which have just come to light
simultaneously. In each of them the per
son concerned has rejected considerable
| fortune, but for reasons which are as
| wide apart as the poles. In the one in
stance a young woman of gentle birth
and breeding and good education has re-
fused to accept a legacy of Ss0,Ooo. In
the other a young man who enjoyed
equal advantages in his youth has turned
his back on $150OOO.
The young woman has rejected her leg
acy because the condition attached to it
is that she shall abandon her dissolute
life and return to her father. The wages
of sin have not brought her ease and
Injuries She lives in sordid poverty
| amid the viest of her sex. But the pros
poets of aff1uence do not tempt her. be-
cause she has stronger motive to graf
ify-reVenge Il have been driven to
what l am, she says in effect through
the faults of others. If my relatives
grieve for me they deserve to grieve.
! That my dishonor may also be their dis
honor / shall remain an impenitent and
unreformed Magdalene. In no other way
| can / be avenged on them"
The young man has rejected his legacy
because the condition attached to it is
| that within ten years he shall return to
the religious faith in which he was
brought up He says he prefers the sat
isfaction of being true to his conscience
of following the inward lght'-to all
the good things that riches might buy
for him. He refuses to abandon his prin-
ciples to escape poverty. What a sermon
moralsts might preach on the difference
between the sacrifice made by the sinner
and that made by the saint!
Four years ago the young woman whose
case presents such a curious psychological
puzzle was one of the bellies of her ma
tive Welsh county. lowered with rare
beauty, tall. graceful and accomplished
she had scores of admirers The sutton
whom she preferred turned out to be a
scoundrel. He won her heart, only to
play her false. Her family did what re-
spectacle families usually do in such cir
cumstances. They made things just as
hard for her as they could. The man is
probably still one of the pets of society.
If he isn't it isn't because of the episode
which has wrecked a woman's life. En-
Filtered and rebellious. the girl left her
home and plunged into the depths Too
late her relatives relented The helping
hand which they then held out to her
she rejected. A little while ago her
mother died, and in her will bequeathed
her $50 900, subject to the conditions
which l have stated. Her broken-hearted
father, a retired colonel in the British
army, was more than willing to take her
back. Time and sorrow that have whit
ened his hair had softened his stubborn
pride
1t took some time to find the girl 1t
was discovered that she was living in
Cardiff, in Mary Ann street, a loathsome
thoroughfare of moral laZar houses. De-
spite the life she has led, disgrace's eff
facing fingers have not wholly swept
away 1.-The lines where beauty fingers"
Her slum woman associates speak of her
with frank admiration as Lii the Lady"
The police. too say that even in her most
abandoned hours, when she is giving them
the most trouble, it is easy to see that
she is not like the rest.
How different was shown by her re-
ception of the message which told her of
the fortune which was hers to- claim of
the home where she would be gladly well
coined back! II don't want the money;
it comes too late to do me any good.
Ny heart was broken: let theirs break
too. Money cannot compensate me: let
them keep it. / shall drink my cup of
bitterness to the dregs; SO shall they. Re-
venge is all have left to live for
Surely. not even in the pages of fiction.
did a woman ever adopt a stranger