Cameron County press. [volume] (Emporium, Cameron County, Pa.) 1866-1922, 1911-02-16
"CI1ARLES KLEIN
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He was self-indulgent He made many
good resolutions and broke them. Bu-
he was not really vicious. He had Q
good heart. With some one to watct
him and keep him in the straight patti
he would still give a good account ot
himself to the world. She was con
fident of that. She recognized many
excellent qualities in him. They only
wanted fostering and bringing out
That was why she married him. She
was few years his senior; she felt
that she' was the stronger mentally
She considered it was her duty to
devote her life to him, to protect him
from himself and make a man of him
twas not her fault, she mused. il
she was not lady Literally brought
up in the gutter what advantages had
she had? Her mother died in child
birth and her father, a professional
gambler, abandoned the little girl to
the tender mercies of an Indifferent
neighbor. When she was about eight
years old her father was arrested. He
refused to pay police blackmail. was
indicted railroaded to prison and died
soon after in convict stripes. There
was no provision for Annie's main.
tenance, so at the age of nine she
found herself toiling in a factory. a
helpless victim of the brutalizing sys-
tenn of child slavery, which in spite
of prohibiting laws still disgraces the
United States. Ever since that time
she had earned her own living. The
road had often been hard, there were
times when she thought she would
have to give up the fight; other girls
she had met had limited at an easier
way of earning ones living. but she
had kept her courage, refused to listen
to evil counsel and always managed
to keep her name unsullied. She left
the factory to work behind the coun-
ter in New York dry goods store.
Then about year ago she drifted to
New Haven and took the position of
waitress at the restaurant which the
college boys patronized.
Robert Underwood was among the
students who came almost every day,
He made love to her from the start,
and one day attempted liberties which
she was prompt to resent in way
he did not relish. After that he let
her alone. She never liked the man.
She knew him to be unprincipled as
well as vicious. One night he brought
Howard Jeffries to the restaurant.
They seemed the closest of cronies
and she was sorry to see what bad
influence the elder sophomore had
over the young freshman, to whom
she was at once attracted. Every
time they came she watched them and
she noticed how under his mentor
Howard became more hardened. He
drank more and more and became a
reckless gambler. Underwood seemed
to exercise a baneful spell over him.
She saw that he would soon be ruined
with such a man as Underwood for a
constant companion. Her interest in
the young student grew. They be-
came acquainted and Howard, not
realizing that she was older than he,
was Immediately captivated by her
vivacious charm and her common
sense views. They saw each other
more frequently and their friendship
grew until one day Howard asked her
to marry him.
While she sometimes blamed her
self for having listened too willingly
to Howard's pleadings, she did not
altogether regret the step she had
taken. 1t was most unfortunate that