The Meridian times. (Meridian, Idaho) 1909-1938, 1912-01-12
COPYRIGHT, 1909, BY CIV DlLLiHGHa1 COMPANY

He was self-indulgent. He made many
good resolutions and broke them. But
he was not really vicious. He had a
good heart. With some one to watch
him and keep him in the straight path
he would still give a good account of
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 man of him.
1t was not her fault, she unused, if
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 blackmafl, 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 a 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
SAS Was pIOlupI 10 IeSeAL. IN a way
he did not relish After that he lie
her alone. She never liked the man
She knew him to be unprincipIed al
| well as vicious. One night he brough
| Howard Jeffries to the restaurant
They seemed the closest of cronie:
and she was sorry to see what baG
| 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 man as Underwood for q
| 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 hel
| vivacious charm and her common
sense views. They saw each other
more frequently and their friendship
grew until one day Howard asked hel
to marry him. '
While she sometimes blamed her
self for having listened too willingly
to Towards pleadings, she did not
altogether regret the step she hcd
taken. 1t was most unfortunate that