The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1909-12-01
OBSERVATION-DISCLOSURES
At the immigration Station.
By ABBIE FRANKLIN RUST.
NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS.

of a whole family just one is de-
barred, a little child with an eye
trouble maybe, or an old man or wo-
man too helpless to risk receiving
lest he or she become a public charge.
After years of oppression and scrimp-
ing and saving some must give up the
hope of a new life in a new land.
Yes, there's lots of sad things hap
pen and plenty of happy ones as well.
Weddings? Yes, we have them
most every day. There was one the
other day, perhaps you'd like to hear
about it? 1t was out of the common.
Not the wedding but the circum-
stances. ..,.'
among the last load of immi-
grants was an English girl, fair
haired and blue-eyed, a very gentle,
modest girl who seemed too timid to
have ventured so far from home
alone. She told the officials that she
had come yer from a Lancashire
mill town in order to marry her
sweetheart who had been in this coun-
try for five years. He was expecting
her, she said, and would surely be at
the wharf to meet her, but when the
big liner was tied up at the dock
there was no sign of the young man,
and so she was given in my charge
until he came to claim her.
ut was a very sober face that she
turned away from the steamer, and
all she could see of the busy life
about her seemed to increase her evil
dent uneasiness. I found by cues
tioning her that her lover lived in an
inland city some miles away and that
it would take some hours to get word
to him.
"tHe will come on just as soon as
he learns you are here I said en-
couragingly.
Eyes, she answered eagerly, 7
know that. He will remember that
I am all alone in a strange country
with no n to turn to- and she made
a brave attempt to smile.
'In spite of her determination to
be cheerful, I was not surprised to be
awakened in the night by a sound of
sobbing from the English girls room.
It was a long time before I could find
out the reason. No, she was not sick,
No, she vas not worried for fear
Stephen would not come and so on,
but at last the real reason developed.
"She had started from home full of
hope and courage, but as the miles
that separated her from her sweet
heart diminished, a fear began to
creep into her heart in spite Of all
her efforts to Danish it. Stephen had
been living in the new world now for
dVe years; he was no longer the sim
pie English mill hand as ignorant as
herself Of the world and the worlds
ways. He had become an American,
accustomed to American ways; he
had been successful in his chosen
calling in the new country; had he
not sent her the money to pay for her
passage? But his thoughts and am
billions were different from those of
the mill hand she remembered and
perhaps his ideals had changed, too.
Cali during the long voyage she
had tortured herself with this
thought. Perhaps he did not love her
any more. After seeing the smart
American girls could he still have the
same feeling for his countryfcd
sweetheart? Would he not be
ashamed of her, of her dress, her un-
taught accents? Probably Stephen
felt all this himself, but had been too
honorable to break his word and had
sent her the money to come over, al
though he nc longer felt the same to-
ward her.
"The girl had argued the question
over and over in her mind until it had
become too much for her and she i'm
plored me to tell her what she ought
to do. Should she go back to Eng
land again or should she try to make
her way alone in the new country if
the officials should allow her to land?
Perhaps in a little while she could
grow nor like the American girls,
like those she had seen on the
steamer, and so nearer his new ideals,
and then she might let him know
where she was and he would come to
her and they might be happy again
together.
"She had worked herself into such
a state of mind that it was a long
time before I could convince her that
she had nothing to fear from her
sweetheart if he was still true to her.
"'He will not care for your clothes
or your accent I said, encouragingly.
He will look once into your eyes and
if he sees the same love shining there
that he saw when he looked into them
the last time in the little mill town in
England he will forget everything
else in the world. Take my word for
it. And now, look! The sun is com
ing up. Stephen may be here any
minute this morning. Try to sleep
a little so that when he sees you he
will find the same rosy cheeks and
bright eyes that 1 am sure he thinks
of every day of his life
"She obeyed me, comforted a lit
tie, and ! went out to begin a new
days duties, more than a little dis
turbed in my mind, for if the girl was
right and Stephen was the kind OF
man VINO was easily Influenced, the
new life in America might very well
have changed his ideas and feelings.
81 kept watch over the girl all the
morning, cheering her up with a word
| or two whenever a shadow a%DDeared