The Washington herald., 1916-01-31


whom to bestow favors-that
is deserving of the greatest
consideration. To give too freely is
as great social sin as to give too
little, and for our mistakes some one
else must always suffer.
Those who have written to me ask
ing me to aid them financially do not
know how deeply l feel for them, al
though l am helplessly unable to give
to all. Then, out of the countless
thousands OF letters l receive, | have
had the misfortune to find too many
flaws in the diamond. To be frank,
like all people in the professional
limelight, l have been spotted as an
easy mark by those clever tricksters
who make business of stealing from
our pocketbooks all we would willing
ly give to the deserving
My heart has been wrung by ap-
pealing letters and | have turned them
over to my manager, telling him to
send immediate help.
Are you sure they deserve it, Miss
Pickford?" he has asked me in the
past.
Deserve it" l would repeat after
him Indignantly. DO you suppose
any one would ever do such thing !?
OF course, believe it, and l am
anxious to help them, too. Here is a
letter from little girl which almost
broke my heart. We must send her
warm clothes Immediately and some
money to buy food for her father and
herself" He picked up the letter
critically and read it aloud
Albany, New York.
Dear Friend Mary Pickford: You
were once poor girl yourself, so you
will know what | am suffering when
| tell you my papa and myself haven't
had anything to eat for two whole
days and we have been sleeping in a
barn after being turned out of our
house because we didn't have the
money to pay the rent. You would
cry if you could see my papa, be-
cause his eyes are all filmy and he
can only see a little bit when the
sun shines. He, does not complain
because | have TO work and he does
not want to make me unhappy. Poor
papa! We had a nice home before
mamma died, but papa's eyes got bad
and the doctor said he had awful
cataracts, and l was only twelve
years old at the time. am sixteen
now, but look old for my age. | have
not been getting much work lately, so
we are starving. You are so lucky
to be we'll off now and can't you help
us? God would bless you if you did,
and if you don't my father and l will
die. If you send to the General
Postoffice, Albany, we will watch for
your letter. will pray to God that
you will be kind to US.
Jennie Pierceson."
Revealed by Fate.
By fate's coincidence that evening
there came to visit us another profess
sional woman, stage star. And be
cause my mind was ebbing to chari-
ties and what we owed the world, our
conversation drifted toward the letters
we receive from unfortunates.
Here is one that touched me
deeply" l said, handing her Jennie's
letter. at has made me unhappy all
day"
As she was reading it, puzzled
frown deepened between her eye
brows, and then she laughed quite
merrily. with the exception of a
few changes in phrasingy this is a
duplicate of the letter | responded to
rot only with money. but with
clothes"
"Poor child" interrupted my moth
er, whose heart is always bursting
with sympathy for others. MARY is
going to help her, too"
Ny manager said nothing, but a
week later he brought me full re-
port from the police department of
Albany. Jennie Pierceson was one of
the cleverest crooks in the country