New Britain herald. [microfilm reel] (New Britain, Conn.) 1890-1976, 1926-09-04
Charlotte Describes Their
Ambitions and Disap-
pointments Because of
Lack of Money.

| Syndicate, Inc.)
Editors Note: In previous alb
sorbing chapters of My Story"
Charlotte Mills, daughter of the
slain woman in the Hall-Mills muir
! der mystery, has told of her early
/ life in her drab little home in New
/ Brunswick, n. ]. She had related
how her mother turned to the
church for consolation in her life of
! drudgery. Today she tells of the
growing bonds OF friendship be-
/ tween her mother and Rev. Edward
Hail, with whom she met her fate
on a lonely New Jersey farm).
GROWING UP
| ! used to have strange feelings
about my father. | don't blame
father for not making money. Peo-
pie have to be as they are, l sup
pose. But l used to wonder why he
had so little education. Schools were
free. You could always study and
read and find out things if you
/ WI iNIu az II. 4hOLiiSi ulu.
I remember once she came home
from a Ladies Aid meeting or some
! thing and said she had heard word
she didn't understand. 1t was "Miz-
pah," and she went right away to
| look it up in the dictionary. Then
she hunted for it in our encyclo-
pedia. She came back and told me
! twas the name of a holy place men
| toned in the Old Testament, and
that the word got to be used later
as sort of good bye sentence"
I meaning The Lord be with thee
and me while we are absent one
| from another"
| We both thought that was beau
tiful.
| AS l grew up. mother was more
and more my chum. She was only
| II years older than me anyhow, and
we had the same way of looking at
| things and the same likes and dis
| likes, only she was smarter. She
| had lively mind. She loved to read
! about people and countries and she
would always be imagining what
| Europe looked like. and even Japan
and China. She used to make up
me as If they were really true-and
| then laugh and say, "Oh, I'm just
making it up: | like to think about
| it."
| Things at our house got worse. or
I at least they seemed worse to ME.
! perhaps because ! was getting old
enough to realize how badly off we
We're and how hopeless everything
was.
/ My father was shoe-cuttor and
he had been working in a shoe fac
tory in New Brunswick. 1t moved to
! Brooklyn and they wanted father to
so along. lie would have gone, but
/ mother wouldn't leave New Bruns-
wick. 1t was her home, she said.
and her family was there and all
her friends.
But most Of all. she didn't want
! TO leave the church. AS ! look back
now, l know that the church was
her life. She had nothing else but
drudgery and disappointment, not a
thing. She told father he could go
to Brooklyn and she and l would
stay in New Brunswick and he could
come out and see US when he want
ed to.
Father wouldn't go without u.s.
| really think it was my brother Dan
I more than mother and me. He al
ways cared tremendously for Dan
and so have all the Mills family.
Perhaps Dan is more like them, and
mother and l are like the Rein
hardts. Anyhow, we never could get
along very well with the Millses. We
always felt somehow they thought
of us as German, and l know they
| think everything English is simply
perfection.
In these days l had more and
more understanding of mother and
how dreary her life was and how
lonely she was at heart. She never
had a chance to be happy, mother
didn't. Just homework and being
poor, and father having no ambition
or ideals or anything she cared for,
and us children to bring up, and no
future. and she wasn't strong.