Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1913-11-27
Copyright By a. c. Meclarg & Co.. 1917

his WdS the Gay MTS. wallace
asked us to help her at the mission"
Mrs. Hayes explained.
She did not say further that she
| had telephoned earlier in the morning
and had Mrs. Wallace, the matron,
make plans whereby the whole after
noon would be taken UP. She be-
/ lieyed Gloria's peace of mind would
! be all the greater were she engaged in
/ some work which would make her feel
/ that through her the pain Of the suf-
/ ferer was alleviated and the bruised
/ heart of the unhappy bound up.
| 1t was just two o'clock when they
/ reached the mission They had not been
/ there long before Mrs. Wallace sug-
| gested that they call on a poor girl
! who was i'll in a room over Mike Moo
mans saloon. The sick woman was
| known to her, but she told nothing Of
| her story. It wasn't much different
| from any one of half a hundred she
might have told.
| The two women felt not the slight
| est fear in walking through such a
/ tough quarter of the town. Mrs. Hayes
{ II
/ er, and knew many of the persons
whom they passed. They for their
| part knew her and respected her for
| the kindly charity she dispensed so
| unostentatiously. AS for Gloria, she
could fear nothing since she was al
most in total ignorance of what dan
| gers might beset their path. Then,
too, she was busy with her own
| thoughts.
Mrs. Hayes had been told III what
room the sick woman lay, and without
a word to anyone, in fact they saw no
one, they went in the door on the side
! street and climbed the dark, uncarpet-
ed stairs to the third door. At door
just at the foot of the flight of steps
which led to the fourth story, Mrs.
Hayes knocked gently. There was no
answer She decided that if there was
no response to the next knock she
would open the door to see if the girl
were asleep. A second and louder
knock, however, aroused her and she
called to them to enter.
Gloria and Mrs Hayes walked into
the room, and as the latter went to
the bedside to explain how they hap
pened to call, the daughter OF David
Kerr stood stock still and gazed about
her with undisguised curiosity.
The occupant of the room, a frail
little creature with uncertain, golden
hair, was known to her companions as
Little Ella. Upon the blotter at the
police station she was always booked
as Luella Windermere. She had found
the name in a novel and, liking it, had
| taken it for her own. In the unkindly
daylight, without the paint that
| Knocked the cheek that once had
bIoomed a healthier hue, the pallor of
her face was heightened by the dark
circles under her eyes. Yet the raw
ages of a life too harsh for one so
weak had not been so great as to blot
entirely from her face the traces of a
simpertng sweetness.
If Little Elias room could be
summed up in one word, that word
would be-sham. 1t was not a poverty
that honestly confessed itself to be
such, that room. Instead it was a
poverty that SUNK away into corners
and hid behind the rankest limitations
of better things. Everything seemed
to have been purchased at the cheap
est booths at Vanity Fair. There " ere
few things of substance, but many
things of vain and empty show. Had
Gloria been more skilled in reading
the world Alright, every bauble. every
useless ornament would have preached
a sermon AS it was, there was fol-
her in large part only the interest oil
novelty.
To the right of Gloria were two win
dows looking out over the roofs OF
neighboring houses. Between them
was a scared maple dresser 1t was
Uttered among other things with post
card photographs, business cards, q
calendar with a picture in many col
ors and a bottle of Florida water Di
rectly in front of her was the sick
girls bed, a cheap iron affair with
massive furnished brass trimmings
Beyond it was a frail-lOoking trunk
painted in imitation Of leather. The
only things which boldly confessed