Capital journal. (Salem, Or.) 1919-1980, 1922-12-26
The Regeneration of
Malcolm Starn1OlInt
BY IDAH McGL0NE GIBSON
A chorus Girl from the Revue

A Chorus Girl from the Revue
"Tell me all that Mary knows
Pat" Starmount impatiently COM
manded.
"Well, she knows everything that
| | know" Pat answered grimly. "She
wouldn't be easy until l told it al
to her.
/ Il am sorry if you do not ap-
prove, but if you do not want me
to tell anything to Mary Devlin
when she asks me, you must not tel
| it to me. That little girl, Mr.. Star
mount, has always twisted me
around her little finger. You re-
member how she did it, the first day
you saw her. l think we should
have told her the whole story in
the first place for she has some
very decided ideas about the Ten
nant affair. You remember she was
there when he was struck down.
| "She also told me that that wom-
an Van Eisen had been around try
ing to pump her after the newspaper
incident.
"She thinks that Nadia Courte-
ney sent her up there, hoping to get
some clue about Tenant. She is
sure that Courteney is as much in
the dark as we are about Ten
nant.
"For some reason Courteney sus-
poets that that telegram she got is
fake"
"Did Mary get this all from
Mrs. Van Eisen2 l did not think that
she had seen her"
| "Well, perhaps she had not when
you talked to her over the phone,
but she has seen her since. Mary
told me that she had and you can
believe Mary Devlin for she never
lied in all her life"
but, Mulcahy, what can a child
like Mary do or think in a case
of this kind. She is the most in
nocent girl of her age that l ever
knew and / have known girls who
were protected and cared for and
kept unspotted from the world in
the strictest sense, but even a girl
of this kind is sophisticated beside
this child that I picked out of the
street. l really do not quite under
stand how she has worked among
the people as she has done without
touching some Of the filth that was
all about her. Her innocence is al
most unbelievable"
mo, Mr., Starmount, you have got
Mary Devlin wrong. She is not in
nocent in that she knows nothing
of evil. Mary, bless her, has beer
brought up in q hot bed of sin a'
all girls are who are thrown out
on their own very early in life. She
has seen it around her on all sides
She has had to live with it stalk
ing beside her with hands out
stretched to snatch her from the
straight forward way if she turned
her eyes for one moment in tn, 4
direction.
tMsry Devlin, Mr.. Starmount, il
not innocent. Poor child l do moi
think she ever was innocent for that
means only ignorance of sin, but
Mary Devlin is pure; as far as she
is concerned, sin has been unable to
touch her.
Sometimes L think Mr.. Star
mount that the saints have always
had her in their keeping"
What did Mary tell you about
Mrs. Van Eisen, Mulcahyi" Star
mount asked to cover up the emotion
occasioned by Mulcahy's analysis OF
Mary's character given with all the
vision Of the Celtic nature.
| With characteristic adaptabihty
Mulcahy came back to the subject in
hand.
'She told me that common gossip
Ihad it that Mrs. Van Eisen was not
the mother of that child"
How did Mary know that, Null
lcahyi"
'The little girl told it herself. She
said Mrs. Van Eisen had told her
real mother that she would take
her up to the camp and have her
made all well if she would call Mrs,
Van Eisen mother all the time she
was there"
'well, what had that to do with
litp"
MARY found out that Mrs. Van
Eisen was one of the chorus girls in
the Little Revue company, One who
had joined recently and had struck
up a great friendship with Nalda
Courteney."
But / don't understand what she
expeeted to get out of it," exelaim-
ed Starmount.
"Neither do l. answered Mul-