Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1917-05-30
II
Dear Kate.

Dear Kate.
told you didn't I, Of sending for Jenny
Kerns's mother Well, she come and she
was just the kind you read about in story
books The moment l opened the door ]
knew who she was and / took her In my
room and had her take her hat of and
smooth her hair and tried TO make It easy
about Jenny. I told her she had been work
ing too hard, and had caught cold and that
II che was took home where she had the
right kind Of things to eat and real nurs-
ing, not just us girls going in when we had
the time. that she would soon get all right.
The mother could hardly wait until had
finished and she sort OF trembled all over.
When / took her into Jenny's room Jenny
was laying with her eyes shut. not asleep,
but Just like she lays most of the time. and
she looked so white and little and her lashes
were so black against her white face that
I could see II went right into that mothers
heart She went up to the bed and put her
arms around Jenny, and her face against
hers, and said. MY little girl, mothers own
little girl" and then left, cause I am
kinda soft and could see It was the hose
in TO see II they was hungry. and Jenny
was laying there with her mothers hand in
hers looking as II she had found peace. l
just wanted to put my arms around that
little old-fashioned woman and cry. You
know. style don't seem to count when II is
your mother. The old lady is going to stay
until Jenny is better, then they are going
home, and I hope we will never see Jenny
again Being a chorus girl amt her place
She belongs In a little town playing the
church organ.
But say, you would laugh to see the old
lady She don't At in a rooming house in
Twenty-eighth street She has a nice. sweet
old face and she combs her hair back from
II, parted in the middle, and she smiles at
all OF us In loving way, cause she thinks
we have been good to Jenny And the girls I!
II Is funny to see them when they first blow
into the room and run into her They look
as II they saw a ghost and then they set
back quiet, and let her talk. She tells them
all about Iowa or wherever IL is she is
from, and about Jenny when she was a
little girl, and her father and her two
brothers, and how sorry they were when
| Jenny come to New York to study music,
but they didn't want to stand in her way.
| All the girls come In whenever they have
a chance and bring Jenny some little thing
! from the dellcatessen or some plants or
| flowers. Her room is awful pretty, cause
they keep II just filled with flowers. Mary
! Callahan took the mother out the other
| afternoon to moving picture show She
| didn't want TO leave Jenny, but we told her
she must get out little or she would get
| sick, too. Mary said that every one stared
| at herdand some of the crowd al the corner
were going to guy her, but she gave them
one look and they said nothing. I stayed
| with Jenny and she talked about her mother
| all the time that she was gone and about
the home and the little berg where she
comes from She is crazy to get back cause
| think she knows II won't be for long and
she wants to pass in her checks with the
folks around her. She said to me, "Oh, Nan
l have had my lesson, and II has cost me
dear, but won't kick, as I wouldn't have
been satisfied till had tried IT," But