The Birmingham age-herald., 1924-12-31
She Found God Was Always
 Present
By BETH MILvAINE

stood or the story or ner mlsfortunes will be unintelligible, or at least, un- distinguished. Notwithstanding her troubles of the usual sort-drunken { husband, large family, sickness, sudden death--there is something epic in the heroically religious way in which she accepted them.
 She kept on saying Its Gods will" 1" without making you doubt His inherent goodness and wonder just what kind of God this was she worshipped. Even then you couldn't help speculatins on what His plans for her was. Certain Iy she was being tried as Job was--by sorrow piled on sorrow. Those who knew her well soon discarded their associations as sacrilegious and un- worthv. being caught up in the glow ns her own faith that Gods great, un- understandable Will was being done.
 Ry the time she was thirty vears old Mrs. Devine had ten children, nine boys and one girl. She was mar Tied at the age of seventeen to roar inc Irish truck driver, soft-tongued Tn his sober. sentimental moments, CUTS ing, foul-mouthed brute every Satur- day night.
 Tn the early days of their marriage vonnp Mira. Devine learned that Sunday waa dedicated to an aftermath or Sr,,nken rage which would do bodily h.rr like as not. So for the sixteen years of their life together she departed, with her children in tow, early Sunoay incoming to return late Sunday night.
 On two occasions she returned 10 find the house in flames. Enraged at NrS;rg her gone, her husband had inuad over a kerosene lamp and then flune it from the house, wailing Dltter- fy at his hard life.
 Saturday night debauches spread over to the next week, making no tune sate' not to mention comfortable. The nelgn- hors cor,ldn't see for the life of them srhv she remained loyal in the face or snch deliberate cruelty. She would shake her head decisively when they put
 q could ha' chosen Mike Hennessy, vou know, if something hadn't guided me to Baldy. I can't think l was bein a fool. The good Lordn take cure of me if Baldy won't" That was her last public word on the matter.
 Six months before the last paDy was horn and just one week after her rus, band had broken her arm in Drutal attempt to force the money Lox rom her hand, he ran his trucE over tne ssda of bridge and fell 100 feet to an swf,i death beneath 2,000 pounds of twisted steel. Mrs. Devine didn't mourn his loss. although she was left pennl- Iaaa with the eldest of nine children onIy fifteen years old and one unborn.
 Her. brain was resourceful, and her eaith in Gods foresight boundless. Per hans the enc was the result of the other. At any rate, the Deity figured largely in these dark days and through His heIn. no doubt, Mrs. Devine was able To make A snug living by her needle. V, qhen tha war came. The boys, rang sng from fifteen up to twenty-six, clam ored to 20. The least bit reluctant, she rave her consent. One by one they en- listed. the second and third youngest lying about their age. Walter, the youngest, saw each one off on the train and then went home to weep few secret tears at the hard lot or youngster. b,a brothers told him. He felt the sa- credness of the trust and ceased to chafe at being left behind.
 Two years passed. Mrs. Devine's hair became streaked with white, but her face remained as placid as ever. The good God was watching and no harm could come to her eight sons at inc front. Her heart listened one day as. one by one, they began to come home again. Her eight sons, all alive after that European butchery; Heaven hadn't failed her.
 The day after Bill, the laggard, ar rived home, he took young Walter, the stay-at-home, into the back yard to give him a realistic idea of quick gun play. At the height of the fun, the gun exploded and Walter lay white and lifeless on the grass-Mrs. Devine's first war causalty. The accident was hard to reconcile with Gods goodness, but she felt her faith was being tested to the full.
 Three months later Frank, aged 21, was run over by loaded truck and died two hours later in the hospital. The next month, George, who had won the Croix de Guerre and the Distin- guished Service Medal, developed pneu- monia and died within the week. To- ward the end of the year the eldest son wac shot in the back by an escap- ing gangster and died instantly.
 Mrs. Deyine, for all her miraculous faith in the Heavenly plan, was human. These swift tragedies seemed to flatten her out. After the death of the third son, she went every night to the front door and peered out expectantly. She left his overcoat and hat hanging on the rack and always set place for him at the table. Her God seemed far away, very exacting and impersonal. Perhaps He had forgotten her. Then came Bills death.
 The others had kept from telling her as long as possible for fear of the ter rife shock. Unfortunate she read the lurid newspaper account the next morning at breakfast. The four re- maining children (Martha, the one girl, had married) held their breaths: She read on quietly until the very end, then looked up over her glasses.
 ''That's Bill what was killed, wasn't it?" she asked slowly. ''Well, he's happy all right, but 1 guess it's a punishment on me for feelin' about the others the way I did. Them dyin' was Gods will same as this, but 1 most for got it. For months I've been tryin' to figure what His idea is in lettin' my children die; it looks now as if done wrong in tryin' to find out. What He does, it's not for me to criticise."
 Leaving the boys still at the table dumb with uncomprehension, she slow ly rose and began piling up the dishes.