The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1912-05-25
The EVENING .STORY
The RECONSTRUCTED snob.
(By Annie HinrichsenO

DR.. George Mou1trie looked up from
his book at the maid who was dust
ing his study. Several times 1t had
occurred to him that she was unlike
! his mothers other maids.
| The tightly fitting black dress showed
| the lines of slender, erect young rlG-
ure. Her hair was brushed tightly IN
| tos a hard knot. Her head, with its
lunbecoming hair arrangement and the
white cap of service, was held wei
back on her shoulders as if the firm
round chin had all the girls life peer
tilted at a pronounced angie Her
hands were small, with long, taperine
fingers. They had the roughness or Ia
Dor, but not the distorted joints OF ex-
cessive hard work.
She turned and met his curious
scrutiny. Her face Redeemed ana a
look of apprehension flashed in her
eyes. She whirled around and resum-
ed the welding of her dustcloth.
That afternoon wild, frightened
screams rang suddenly through the
house. DIR. Moultrie bending down
the stairs saw in the drawing room a
cloud of smoke, through which he
could distinguish several figures. On
the floor near an overturned tea table,
whose alcohol lamp had started the
fire, lay a woman covered with rug,
Beside her knelt Jane, the housemaid,
pressing the rug closely about the wo-
man and beating with her hands the
flames that shot from under the rug.
Around them screamed his mother
and her friends.
In a moment the fire was extin-
guished. The injured woman was the
cook, who had been assisting the maid
in the drawing room when the table
had been overturned.
Portable in her own room DR.. Moultrie
went in search of Jane. He found
her in the kitchen rubbing oil on her
blistered hands and arms.
What does all this nean?'' he asked
abruptly.
what does what meanT'
"who are you and what are you do
ing here?"
ct am Jane White, a servant in
your mothers employ
you are servant only through
some whim of your own. I want an
explanation
For several minutes the maid did
not reply. Finally she dragged her re-
luctant eyes up to the mans keen, Won
dering ones.
Il am Coral Nielson-yes, the Coral
Nelson who inherited the great Nelson
estate. My parents died when was
baby. An aunt brought me UP. She
was a hard, selfish woman, imbued
with the belief that wealth makes 4
class which has no obligations to less
fortunate beings. did not realize that
I had grown up to be selfish, self
absorbed woman, utterly without SYM
pathy for the troubles of women in
other walks of life.
1.-The revelation came to me from a
housemaid. She was the daughter of a
farmer, a rosy-cheeked, happy girl,
with no knowledge of class distinctions.
One day, when by a particularly cut
ting remark tried to show her the diff
ference in our stations, she flared forth.
All her wholesome pride, her innate
se1f-respect, declared her Indignation
against my selfish insolence. She
spoke with a dignity and a grief that
awed me-and awakened me. 1 saw
myself as I was, a callous, heart1ess
snob. There was one chance of refor-
nation for me. I thought. That was
to rouse my heart to sympathy and
love for other women. I determined to
see life from the workers side, to know
their laborS and sorrows. The little
housemaid taught me her work.
shall be a factory girl and learn what
they have to suffer. I shall be clerk
in a great store where women as cruel
as I was shall treat ma as a soulless,
bloodless automaton. Through the ex-
perience of mutual hardships I shall
learn love and sympathy for other
women"
You have made q good beginning
1t was a working woman whose life
you saved at the risk of your own"
81 am glad it was the cook" she
said. simply. 1T is joy to me to
know that have been kind to at least
one working woman"
Several weeks later DR.. Moultrie, the
physician for the Merrivale Mills
found in the room of a patient an
amazing Transformation. The patient
was a young factory operator. For
days she had lain III her poor, bare. lit
tie room, ill, discouraged, without hope
to stimulate the feebly pickering vital
flame. But change had come to both
the room and the girl. There were
new white curtains at the windows,
rugs on the floor, pictures, flowers,
snowy linen. On table and overflow
ing on the bed were dresses, hats,
shoes and lingerie, dainty, inexpensive
clothes carefully chosen. The sick
girls cheeks were pink and her eyes
were like stars.
81 am well.' she announced joyfully.
'It is Miss White who has done it."
The girl. unused to a delineation of
her deeper feelings, struggled for
words to express the change in her in
ner being as well as in the externals.
"She brought me good things and good
cheer, and took away the horrid, dark
sad thoughts I've had all the time. |
I've been working hard had to help |
mother and my younger sister, who |
was not strong enough to work. All |
my money went for board and rent, |
never a new dress nor hat, and never |
to go anywhere. Then 1 got sick and |
was too discouraged to get well. Miss |
White worked in the same room with |
me at the factor.-. She came to see |
me and found out all my troubles, and |
then the sun of good fortune sure be- |
gan to shine in this poor hut She |
knows some rich women who don't /
like to mend their own clothes, and |