216
ON THE BOTTOMS.
Clay banks ragged and weed grown, rise in an irregular line a quarter of a mile west of the Missouri river from Pierce street south and form a section known as ‘ the Bottoms “ shutting in a community of squatters and renters. Probably there are more renters than squatters in the little cottages that cluster together there with their tiny yards, their rustle palings and the wee gardens The people who live there are very poor So poor, in fact that last year hunger was a frequent thing One who lived there could sometimes heat children crying for bread—which is one of the most frightful sounds in the world. This year things are not quite so bad For one thing the distillery is open It employs many men And if the men do not spend all they earn for drinks at the distillery then the children have something to cat but there are men, who after a weeks hard work, have only a quarter coming to them, because the rest has been spent for drinks And any mathematician will a limit that a quarter will not keep a child fed very long And as for feeding eight or nine children and a wife with a babe at breast—but the mathematicians will t[?] the force of the argument without more words
Moreover times are better In places such as the Bottoms it is possible to discover the exact truth about such matters More men are hired for odd jobs More porters have required More people have their lawns cared for More housekeepers desire washerwomen The women of small means are hiring their sewing done and the women on the bottoms sew for such It is incontestibly a fact that the children of the Bottoms are seldom hungry this year
But it cannot be denied that they are [?] This is because it is almost three years since their parents have been able to buy them clothes
You ask why I do not send all of my children to Sunday School said one mother to Miss Country of the Tabe[?] Col [?] settlement Well there are right of them, and if I barely cover then
RS WILLIAM M MCKINLEY
CALVIN BRICE’
Nakedness I must have thirty-two clear pieces I have not that many It is impossible for me to send more than part of my children at a time The rest must stay at home where they cannot be seen
The Taber College settlement had an existence last year through the three months of summer vacation It came as the result of Mr Alexander Irvine’s work down there He put a passion of sympathy into his labors and broke the distrust and bitterness with which the people of that district regard those not of themselves But in breaking down that cold wall of prejudice and hate he broke his health, too And, as will be remembered it was the labor of certain persons in this community to destroy his influence so far as they might They resented disinterestedness they could not understand made public, with many misrepresentations the story of an unhappy domestic life and bowed in the dust a tender and manly heart The result was an illness of a nervous nature which prostrated a very strong young man and has made him almost an inv[ali?] He left Omaha, where he received little support and appreciation, and has gone to Des Moines to reside over a large church, which like his Chapel of the Carpenter here, is among the poor and the miserable But he left behind him an impulse for work in the hearts of a few and a sweet memory which some broken men there in the settlement of the poor and some miserable wives and lonely little children keep treasured in their hearts The college settlement was formed at his suggestion or at heart is a result of his talks at Tabel college and a number of young women succeeded one another last year in living at the settlement college under the chaperonage of Miss Coudry, who had been Mr Irvine’s assistant Miss Condry has had much experience in benevolent work, and is peculiarly fitted for it insomuch as she prefers it to all the things in the world, and also because she is a gentlewoman with all the fine instincts, the tact knowledge and loveliness of character which that word used in its best sense implies Three young ladies from Taber college are now at the cottage, which is on Poppleton avenue, near the corner of Fourth street, under the shadow of the big day out Next week one of these young ladies will leave, and her place will be taken by another and go on during the summer months
Had Mt Irvine never done his work then It would be impossible for these young school girls to enjoy immunity from insult which they now have and to be encouraged by the respect and sympathy which now surrounds them But the Bottoms have been different since Mr Irvine was there Not but there were always some families on the Bottoms who were law abiding citizens industrious workers and happy fathers or mothers There are, for example a number of frugal German families there who have, in course of years made bowers of the bits of ground around their painted cots Seats are placed out under the trees, old fashioned flowers not about the front yard, in which not an inch of ground is unoccupied vegetables grow in the back yard Within, the floor is snow white with scrubbing The curtains clean The bed quilts are wonders to see An air of sweet and homely comfort seems to invite one to simplicity of life But such are the exception Idleness has cursed the place and fastened its death-like grip upon many There are women who sit all day on the steps of their houses Neither sun nor li[?] seem to disturb them The children squail in the dirt the dishes stand unwashed the picnic ground of 10 000 files The beds lie open exposing dirty sheets No water is brought to refresh the facts of cross babies But at intervals they feed as animals feed anywhere anyhow to stop the cravings of hunger The men often beat these wives Sometimes the midnight [?] is pierced with shrieks of injured
Highest of all in Leavening Po
Royal
ABSOLUT
Children Whisky is a common beverage But why go on? Squalor is easy to imagine It is so sadly similar in all places
The worst and the best down at the Bottoms have come to respect the College settlement and the Chapel of the Carpenter, and all the people associated with these places It was Mr Irvine who won their hearts and his influence still lives there, though he has gone He would have liked to have staid But he was really too disinterested Everyone suspected him Disinterestedness looks so suspicious to some persons
Whether the men beat their wives more gently when the young college girls are there or not it is not possible to say But there seems to be less noise The places under the Pierce street viaduct are no longer infected with the pool, deprived children who, unguided by parental care frequented them at night for the most vicious purposes The young Indies may pass through there at any time, and ou f fear and respect combined moral order reigns The men never think of annoying the young ladies They are not ungrateful for all the instruction and care given their children Even when they are drunk, they do not forget these services, and would be apt to be merely too elaborately protective when under the influence of liquor
The day at the Settlement cottage begins with an early breakfast Every one turns into the tidy house which is as plain as that of any of its neighbors, but which is, of course kept immaculately clean After that an informal prayer meeting is held to which any of the women of any neighborhood – are welcome A number usually come in After that comes kindergarten which is held in the reading room above the Chapel of the Carpenter Thirty little ones attend This lasts from 9 till 11 After that comes the midday meal and a little time for the young ladies to attend to their own sewing, correspondence or recuperation In the afternoon there is either prayer meeting for the women, an afternoon with books at the reading room for the girls, or a similar one for boys, or games or sewing school The young ladies prepare garments for the sewing school providing the cloth The girls are taught to make these, and are given what they make. It has not been possible to supply enough material for the demands The children are wild to learn how to sew and eager to procure the garments, of which they stand in the greatest need Any lady who, in doing her summer shopping, will buy a few yards of dark dress calico, or some cotton cloth, or gingham or even flannel to be made up against the coming winter will assist this work The package can be sent to Miss Coudry, Poppleton avenue, near Fourth street, care Taber College settlement
Wednesday evening there is general prayer meeting, usually conducted by some clergyman, Sunday afternoon Sunday school is held, Sunday evening there are services Boys’ prayer meetings and girls’ prayer meetings occur through the week They are all surprisingly well attended—much better on the whole than similar meetings in other parts of the city.
The chapel room is decorated with flags and pictures A chromo of the Madonna of the Chair hangs where all may see its beauty Some other cheap copies of great pictures hang about A roll of honor is conspicuously placed on which appears the names of those who have done best at lessons and in deportment A small library is in existence in the reading room Any appropriate additions to this would be gratefully received Games are played there, too, but [er?] games could well be added One cannot help thinking what a delight a good tennis court would be Tennis would be well played by these vigorous young people, who have strong muscles and regular pulses
It is with the little children that the settlement sensibly expects to do its best work These dear little creatures who squat about in groups in the dust of the road like so many sociable chickens are very lovable and affectionate They respond to love as a tuning fork does to vibration They are easily trained They want to do right No violet springs up more [?ly] at the breath of spring than aspiration leaps into the heart of a child We were all made in the image of our Maker’ Goodness is natural Love comes as the smoke flea upward t is only when goodness and love have been destroyed that human nature becomes the disgusting thing which it frequently is Decidedly it is with the children that the young ladies can do the most good
Of course there are, too, down there plenty of men and women who have done wrong only through a sort of ignorance who have sinned because they were environed with evil, but to whom goodness would be as sweet as water is to lips that have been defiled wit heating and corrupted liquors Moreover there are services which can be performed for the women of that community which will never be forgotten by those for whom they are performed
A number of ladies in the city have long interested themselves in the work Mrs William Heming has made the women of the bottoms her close and affectionate friends Miss Tukey has [worn?] the hearts of the children Miss Durvea used to work there There are a number of others, mostly members of the First Congregational church That church has contributed something to the support of the college settlement and Taber college has also contributed something The rent of the cottage is paid by the Congregational Extension society President Hughes of Taber college makes frequent visits to the settlement to assist and encourage his students
It is a labor which should receive assistance By that one does not mean money alone It is a noble and brave impulse of altruism which carries these young ladies into this district and their sacrifice should appeal to the young ladies of this city, who could give them much assistance In New York, Chicago and the other great cities of this country the best people of the town, the most influential and the richest are proud to assist the people who make the college settlements It is counted a great privilege to know Miss Jane Adams of Hull house at Chicago It should be counted a privilege to know Miss Coudry of Omaha and to assist her And there are many who do consider it so But there are others who have not felt, in this busy and commercial town, the full beauty nor the full necessity of such benevolences as the Taber college settlement offers
ELIA W PEATTIE. -- CASPIAN SEA
The Caspian sea is 650 feet below the level of the ocean -- DOMESTIC BREEZES
I wonder if that is the cause Of all that keeps us now asunder— If so—then married life has flaws! I wonder
No doubt it was a silly blunder, And contrary to all the laws of etiquette—but why in thunder
Could she not hear me out and praise, And try to get her temper under —Will it be long before she thaws F wonder —Pall Mall Gazette
217
HARRIET BEECHER STOWE
Elia W. Peattie Writes of This Famous Woman and Author.
How the Quiet New England Wife and Mother Write "Uncle Tom's Cabin."
Some of the Characteristics of the Enthusiastic Friend of the Slave. Whose Book Stirred the World.
'There is a ladder to heaven." once wrote Harriet Beecher Stowe "whose base God had placed in himan affections, tender instincts, symbloic feelings, sacraments of love through which the sould rises higher and higher refining as she goes, till she outgrows the human and changes, as she rises, into the image of the divine At the very top of this ladder, at the threshold of paradise, blazes dazzling and crystaline that celestial grade where the sould knows self no more, having learned, through a long experience of devotion, how blest it is to lose herself in the eternal Love and Beauty, of which all earthly fairness and grandure are bbut the dim type, the distant shadow
Mrs Stowe, by the exercise of the affections and instincts, by the use of the sacraments and symbols, has attained to the Love and Beauty of which she wrote, and has found agian, let us hope, the old sweet sanity of mind, the old serene peace of spirtit
She lived till she was 85, and from early youth to old ahe she was busied with many things She was not a genius exactly At least it is safe to infer that she would not have lived ot be so spoken of In "Queer Little People," she made Mrs Nutcracker says
"Depend upon it my dear, that fellow must be a genius"
"Fiddlesticks on his genius" said old Mr Nutcracker, 'What does he do?'
"Oh nothing, of course thats one of the first marks of genius Geniuses, you know, never come down to commone life'
By this definition, Mrs. Stowe could never have been a genius for she came down to common life uncommonly well When she wrote Unlce Toms Cabin" she was-so the story goes-doing all of her own house work and caring for seven children The passion of patriotism burned white in her breasts, and made her forget farigue, so that when the little ones were all in bed the cread set to rise, the clock wound, and the kindiling placed for the morning are she wrote the words which stirred the nation
'If 'Uncle Tom's Cabin' had not been written." Charles Sumner said "Abraham Lincoln could not have been elected president of the United States"
This may have been the exuberant enthusiasm of a friend and orator but certainlu, the writing of the book placed her in the company of liberators Her name is written first in the list made up of william Lloyd Garrison John Greenleafe Whittler, Wendell Phillips, Frederick Douglas Gamallel Bailey, Theodore Weld, James Birney, John Brown and those who helped them
It is very wonderful and beautiful that the idea of the book should have come to Mrs Stowe when she laid in bed after having given birth to her seventh child To have brought forth a dear child and a cast idea for freedom at once must surely have been a happiness past words Of course the preparation for the work had been long It was an unconscious preparation, but that was all the better and helps to account for the spontaneity which throbs in every page of the book
Klik Munroe says, concerning this preparation "At the time of lier marriage Mis Stowe was note an acknowledged aboltionist, nor had she given serious consideration to the subject of slavery in Cincinnati, however it was forced upon her at all times and all forms
The city was one of the most important and stations of the underground railway and I slaves were constantly escaping or being recaptured within its limits The Ohio river alone separated it form the slave state of Kentucky and Lane seminary, with which the fortunes of the Beecher family were so closely allied was the rankest holbed of aboition in the country One by one the incidents that afterwards appeared with such telling effect in 'Uncel Tom's Cabin were forced upon the attention of the young authoress Topay was an inmate of her own family She visited the Shelbys in Kentucky Senator Bird and the great hearted Can Tromp were well-known characters of her acquaintance Her husband and her brother Henry Ward, diving by night over almost impassable toads conveyed a fugitive slave girl who had been a servant in the Stowe family to a place of saftey from her pursucrs Mrs Stowe brothers, charles acted fro some months as collecting agent for a New Orleans commission house an 1 on one of his trips up the Red river discovered the Legree plantation of which he drew a faithful picture in his next home letter in another letter he told of the slave mother who sought the liberty of death for her babe by springling into the given with the clasped to her bossom from the deck of steamer on which he was traveling All these and many more similar things Mrs Stowe say or hard of until she gradually became filled with a sense of outrage and indignation
Dr Famelle Badley editor of the National Bra of Washington wrote to Mrs Stow, the last part of the year 1850, asking for a serial story Mrs Stowe, anxious to supply an order which she expected would bring her some much needed money, began "Uncle Tom's Cabin," whie she was recovering from her illness attendant upon the birth of her child, and during the months which followed, she completed it In may, 1801, the serial beagn in the National Era before it was ended the circulation of that paper had increased 1500 it was an inspored story It was as if it emanted from the passion and misery of a while nation I had no control over it" Mrs. Stowe used to say 'It insisted upon being written as it stands, and would suffer not abridgement
After it was finished, John P Jewett, a young Boston publisher, made overtures for the publication of the story in book form Mrs Stowe had received but $100 for the storya s a serial and was glad to suffer its republication An edition of 1000 was issued-and sold the first day Ten thousand coples were then ordered from the peinter and binder, and were sold as fast as they appeared at the book shops The American people seized upon this book which they read with terrible emotion The story was as the core of the national hear From it throbbed the arteries of politics, partiotism, prejudice, love heroism and hate Mrs Stowe, at the end of six months was given $10000 in rovaties At the end of the year 300,000 copies of the book had been sold. The story was deamatized, and was everywhere listened to with feelings which it would, In the calm times, be hard to understand Since then the book has been put in twent languages It has reached a sale, approcimately, of 5000000 Only there other books in the history of the world have exveeded it in sale
Praise cames from the distinguished men and women of all countries Denuncitation came, too, and bitter at tacks upon the character of Mrs Stowe-that quiet woman, who had gorwn up a romping country girl, married a profession of the theological history, and tended her home whie she gave birth to and personally cared fro seven children
The hour, the cause and the woman were too great for her to stoop to a defense of herself, but she did wrtie a "Key to Uncle Toms Cabin," in which she pruduced the evidence which sustained her story It was inefutable They cavllers were silenced And in the legislative chambers, and in the hearts of the people, gathered hour by hour the storm which finally burst over this country, and flooded it for a time with vlood and tears
Mrs Stowe wrote much else Her "Dred Scott' almost rankes with "Uncle Tom's Cabin," and, like that book, served to preserve to a forgetfil people a great historical condition and a vital epoch
In the Minister's Wooing "Pink and White Tranny' The Peart of Orrs Island," "Anges of Sortento," "Oldtown Folks," Footsteps of the Master," "My wife and I,' "We and Our Neighbors" and 'Self-made Men there appears nothing that could be termed genius there is not even remarkable art The books come within the realm of literature They are noble, humorous, pure, intellectual They make exvellent reading But they are not great, and white they would have pinced Mrs. Stowe among the best wrtiers of her period in this country, they would not have won her the applause and affection of the work nor the right to be called the greates woman of her time. Far from it
The truth is, as now and then a man is born out of the heart of the people, with no reason for which mortals may account, and by stress of the cumulative power of that nation, sings the songs or fights the victorius batties of the pwople so Inle Tom's Cabin" took shape- a great masterpiece, painted high, where all the nations might read upon the impregnable wall of liberty, and the hand that drew the picture was guided by God, and moved as under Gods holy spell
Only to the pure in heart may such revelatins come As to Mary of Nazareth was born a Liberator, so to Mrs Stowe was born this book, also a liberator, and she, also, was blessed among women
Mrs Stowes life was one crowned with honor and praise The house in which she lived at Hartford was decorated to repietion with the costly and curious souvernirs sent her from every part of the world by those who read her message and wished to show their love When she travled abroad her progress was one continued ovation there were no kings but wished to honor her no peasant but might shake her kind hand unabashed
In the winter for many years she spent her time in her home at Mandarin on the St John's river where it is broadest and wehre its length of placed waters look most beautiful The house was built in the very heart of some great caks In fact, it was built of them and about them The grounds vets luxurious with semi-tropical foliage The place loted with beauty But after all rs Stowe loved her decorous New England home and garden [?] On one side of her at Hartford lived Mark Twain on the other Charles Dudley Warner and During the last few years, since her brain has been childish and weary Mrs. Stowe has wandered about these grounds at will with her attendant soothing herself with the quiet and orderly beauty about her
Nearly all our great emancipators of the stormy 50s and 60s are now dead the giants have passed This last of them was among the greatest She stands with Lincoln and Giant with Sheridan Sherman and I Chase, with Whitney Sumner and Carrison
She heard the cry "Prepare for war wake up the mightly men let all the men of war draw near, let them come up Beat your plowshares into swords, and your pruning hooks into spears Lat the weak say I am strong" And she rode froth to battle as bravely as any man of them all and stood firm while the rage of half a nation burst upon her
At her call men volunteered to die, at her encouragement women sacrificed the dearest thing in life At the sound of her trumpet wrong fell down, and in the day of victory she was crowned with the others
Elia W Peattie
218
CAUSE OF ARMENIAN WOE
Part of an Ancient Madness- The Fanatics of the Green Flag.
Islam Wins Salvation by the Slaughter of Unbelivers-Cry of the Holy War.
Resemblance to the Frenzy of the Early Cursaders- The Inherited Feud-The Duplicity of the Sultan.
Nothing in contemporary history is more interesting than the "holy war" which the Turk is waging against the Armenians.
The apparent indifference of Europe does not indicate a deacy of humane feeling. It is merely a condition of that besotted commercialism in which not only Europe, but all Christendom, appears at present to be sunk. The truth is that maked under the term, "Higher politics," Is a profund apprehension which keeps every nation of Europe from drawing off its army from home territory, fearing the aggressions of rival power. Worse than this, Europe has lost its ability to fight for a sentiment. It can no longer die for its religion. It cannot summon sufficient conviction to pit itself aginast all Islam, drunk with religious passion. No flag which bears the Christian sign can inspire as does the green flutter of Moslem's rag Eurpose is too same, too selfish, too calm and scientific too commerical through and through to engage in any warfare which does not mean an accretion of national or private wealth It must fight for that which is palpable-that which affects bonds, notes, securities, investments. The cry of "The Holy Sepulcher" could once send Europeans to die on Paynim Plains to rot in Turkish dungeons or starve on straggling marches If it were shouted not it would mean not half so much as the doay's fluctuation in marker values Europe is commercial through and through
Not that America is different Not a bit If she knew how she was going to get the money back she would show her sympathy with those fierce patriots in the isle off Floridian shores today-and let Spain do her worst As for international law, that would go flimmering quick enough. International law is someting like the power of speech It is used to conceal our thoughts But this is a digression. To return to Armenia about which everyone knows all there is to be easily learned, geopgraphically, politically, etc. Over there is a condition which we of temperate zone and law abiding habit, in districts where piping peace pervades our droning days, find it hard to imagine. Towns laid in smoking ruins, men buried in shallow trenches in the blood stained clothes in which they were butchered, women dishonored and cruelly left live, childre honored and cruelly left to live, chidren disemboweled, the roads tracked by miserable refugees, honest men and made beggars, mothers made theives by hunger well, the words sound very trite. You can read them over in wards waged from heathen times till yesterday How can we who have not seen these sights guess what they mean? We who weep at one mimic death upon the stage, how shall we appreciate this tragedy of a while people? It is not to be done And what protest does Christendom make? Why, next to none Over here our local egotists bring out their rusty eloquence, polish it lovingly in presence of admiring beighbors, and send resolutions somewhere- no one knows just where-and that is all Meanwhile, the Rieks keep on with their butchering, just as Charlotte kept on spreading bread and butter
It is interesting to observe how the present madness of the Moslems resembles that the christian crusaders in the wars with Raymond of of Roulouse, Tancred Peter the Hermit and their associated As these men expected all sins to be forgiven then if they died upon the battlements of Jerusalem, so the believers in the korean expect all sins to be absolved and eternal salvation to the [as?ned] to him who slays the unbelieve in "holy war"
For what does the "perspicuous book" says?
"When ye encounter the unbelivers, strike off their heads, until ye have made a great slaughter among them, and bind them in bonds, and either give them a free dismission afterward or exact a ransom, intil the war shall have laid down his arms This shall ye do Verily if God pleased he could take vengeance on them, without your assistance, but the commandeth you to fight his batties, that he may prove the one of you by the other. And as to those who fight in defence of Gods true religion, God will not suffer their works to preish, he will guide them and dispose their hearts alright, and he will lead them into paradise, of which he hath told them O, true belivers if ye assist God by fighting for his religion, he weill assist you against your enemies, and will set your feet fast; but as for the infidels let them perish and their works shall God render vain This shall befall them because they have rejected with abhorrence that whic God hath revealed, wherefore their works shall be no svail Do they not ravel throught the carth, and see what hath been the end of those before them God utterly destroye the, and the casterphe awaiteth the unbelievers For this shall come to pastor that God is the pation of true believers and for that the infiedls have no protectors."
And what did Aliah say to his prphet in the step that came upon him O prohpet, sir up the faithful to what, if twenty of you perseves with constancy, they shall overcome 200 and if there be 100 of your they shall overcome 1000 of those who believe not And agian 'Fight therefore for the religion difficult save itself, hoewver, exact the faithful to war, perhaps God will restrain the courage of the ubelievers for God is strong than they and more able to punish Concerning those who are renegades from the religion of the true prophet, does the koran say
Take them and kill them wherever ye find them" and agian and agian
Take them and kill them wherever ye fund them: Such is the duty of the faithful And as for one reqired of those how obey, is there not a provision in Paradise namely, delicious fruits, and honor, frudens of pleasure where the faithful loan on couples opposite on anohter, and is not a cup carried round unto them filled from a limped fountain, for the dleight of those who drink, which neither oppresses the understanding nor [?] lying near, the virgins of paradise refraining their looks from beholding any save their spouses, and having large black eyes and skin the color of an ostrich egg when it hath been hidden form the dust by the tralling feathers with which the carefil bird hath covered them? Ah, what wonder them that the war camels runs swiftly to battle, even as the Batle of Bedr, making a panting noise as they go, striking fore from the stones by the dashing against them of their hurying hoofs? For doth not God knowall that is in mean a breasts, and on the day when those in the graves shall come forth, shall he not reward those who defend the flag ofthe prohet? There is no God but God"
Horrible, is it not, We couldn't care, we modern Christians, for anything like that We couldn't be so creduious We couldn't vare for a paradise purchased at such a sacrifice of self-respect But there was a time when it was different
When the passion for the holy sephulcher and the cave of the nativity was at its height men were envied, if they died fighting for Jurusalem and attached such sancity to all that had come in contact with the land where out Savior lived, that they believed the shirt which a pligrim wore on visitng the holy land, would carry him straight to heaven, if his corpse were wrapped in it, not mater what his sins What wonder then that they felts authorized to slay 10,000 of the heathen who had polluted the sacred city by their presence, or that they rode up streets glowing to their horses' knees bllod," or that the Christian knights, maddened with victory, seeing heaven's own sign in that event, dashed out the brains of infant heathens against the city walls, that they might not grow up to offend the Lord? Though Tancred, best of the Christian knights, might give his word of safety, yet all the prisoners of a capitulating city were hacked and hewn till men and women, babes and youths were one indistinguishiable mass of mutilated flesh Christ is the son of God And this was for his glory.
Disgusting, weary memories History passed them by with aversion, glad to remeber the best that sprung from those ineffectual wars, and to pass over these details Christendom has emerged, since then, from its excess of credulty. Certainly it has outgrown its frantic fanaticism. It takes its convivtions indifferently, regards the sifferings of fellow christians with [philosph??] calm is not convulsed by insults ot the cross, and, in fact, avails itself selfishly of the conveniences of Christians cilvilzation, without troubling itself much about the beliefs which lie at the root of Christian civilization Clara Barton, president of the United States branch of the International Red Cross society, had been the onl one to directly, unhesitatingly and uncompromisingly, offer assistance from abroad She had been rebuffed by the sultan. He is not willing that any of his subjects should be the recipients of charity collected at meetings where his administration has been willing that any of his subjects should be the recipients of charity collected at meetings where his administration has been villified, his religion despised and his [cru??ties] exposed At least, he doesn't put it quite that way, but that is what he means. We are all prone to think we have been slandered when the truth has been told about us In spite of the rebiff of the sultan Miss Barton will sail for Amenia Meanwhile comes this letter to an American citizen born in Armenia, living now at Cleveland, O
Your eldest brother, nag laser, after his house was plundered and learned, was killed Your second brother, Kinagos had his properly plundered house burned and he is near death a door Your younger brother, John, was killed and him woperly burned Their orphan children ate wan lering in the streets The families of your nearest relatives have been wiped out Your own children are wandering helpless in the streets For Gods sake, send us help
Over against this the sultan's fictive wrath appears like emptiest [bonbast]
"The sublime porte," he says, 'is mindful of the true inrests of its subjects, and distinguishing between the real state of tings and calmunies and wild exafferations of interested or fantical parties, will, as it had sone hitherto, under its own legitimate control alleviate the wants of all Turkish subjects living in certain provinces, irrespective of creed or race"
All of which reminds one how many resemblances there can be between words and soap bubbles
Well, thats the situation, as everybody knows, and it is certainly interesting. It must not be taken alone, as a detached incident It must be contemplated in the light of the last episode of a great inter-religious war, which, on both sides has been illuminated by heroism, defiled with treachery, made horrible with slaughter, mitigated by faith, and mocked with futile hopes
We, changing, have lifted with us the interpreation of our religion We could no longer slaugter babes for the honor of the blood red cross upon our banner. But we have grown selfish, too, and very indifferent, and would not discommode ourselves for anything but gain We believe in peace and plenty-especially plenty.
The Moslem, mad with fanaticism, secs in his crime the price he pays for salvation. And he, as keen for pelf as we, sees in the confiscated property of his murdered antagonist an earhly compensation for the revolting deeds his fevor urges him to the perfromance of
History is a terrible thing The pain of today in the diversion of tomorrow, and the next decade will see men reading of the Armenia massacre in the rages of some cuclipedia as calmly as we now read of the fall of Jerusalem, and the suicides of the pagans in the citadel.
Elia W. Peattie.
219
WITCH'S GOLD.
By Ellia W Peattie
A Story in Three Parts
Part II.
Mrs. Romeld was not particularly surprised when her husband reephoned that he would not be able to come home to dinner. She didn't even take the trouble to admit herself that it might be something else than business that kept him. What was the use? Sespicion makes such ugly lines in a woman's face!
It's a great comfort to have the latest novels at hand under such circumstance-curcimstances of the sort whose bitterness lies largely in the fact that you dare not even recoginze the existence of the trouble that harasses you. By getting drunk on mimic woes one manages to forget the actual ones. Mrs. Romeld, who, in her way, was something of a philosopher, selected her novel and read till dinner was served. Then she ate heartly and ordered her carriage for 7. She didn't know where she was going. She was acquainted with every inch of the bolevards. She could have told you where each tree stood along the drives of the parks.And it was preposterouse, anyway, for a woman to go out driving at 7, in midsummer, and alone. If the househad not been so intolerably quiet, she would never have done it. Sometimes, as this hour, she wondered who it would seem to have a aittle child to cary ip the stairs in one's arms, and put to bed. She thought of it this night, and paused, as she went out of her little upstairs sitting room, to imagine how that farthest corner would look with a cradle in it. But if the thought awoke a tenderness in her face, it was gone when she remebered her loneliness, and the business that so frequently kept her husband from spending an evening with her, and she walked down the states with the look of calm and seet hauteur which was habitual to her.
The carriage seemed unusually luxrious. She sank back in it, and rested her hands in her lap, letting the cool evening air soothe her body. But after they had ridden a few blocks along the avenue, she gave the coachman an order that made him froget himself so far as to stare at her for a moment. It was only for a moment or less. Then he turned his horses' heads in another direction, and in twenty minutes they were driving along North Market stree.
It's an odd thing, but LaSalle street, on the north side of Chicago, divdes the proietariet from the aristocrat, as sharply as the mandate of a [c?ar] had put a wall around the ghetto. Claribel looked at the houses tht lined the street with intense curiosity. They were comforable, in a way and moder, and perhaps even convenient. They seemed generally to be clean. But there was something about the aspect of them, and of the way the somen sat on the steps, and the children swarmed, and the men sat about in their shirt sleeves, that suggested tool, and its environment in a way that it had never been suggested before to this woman. The night was growing very sultry, and evil smells came up from the sewers, and from the garbage boxes, and the green grocery stoire. The flies buxzed tumutusly about the meat makers- the cries of the children rent the air- and the dinon the street was incessant. All the [es???] stood open, and a hot flare of light came out from them. There was a dog fight on the block , and some boys playing at flaticuffs in another an calling each other indecent names.
The women looked hot and irritable-except the young ones who walked up and down the city street as if it were a shady lane, with their arms locked, making much ado with their conversation, and laughing a great deal. Their dresses were apt to be too short in the skirt, or a trifle too low in the neck. There was a sort of innocent suggestiveness about them-a passionate aspiration toward beauty, checked and defeated in the very nature but the men who sat on the door steps and the girls took these remarks as their natural right, and seemed pleased, and passed on still laughing and embracing each other.
Among these groups of lounging girls Mrs. Romeld saw one woman walking with a quick and nervouse step. The poise of the head looked familiar. And a moment later as the woman walked under the elctric glove, her white hair showed her to be "86" She turned into a drug store, and Claribel Romeld signaled the driver of her carriage to let her out. A sense of impending pain choked her, but she went bravely forward though perhaps it was one of the most disafreeable things she had ever forced herself to do in her life- and laid her hand on team of " 86"
" Is some member of your family [??]?" she asked. Your remember me, of course"
"Yes I remember you, Mrs. Romeld. My sister is ill, thank you."
"Not seriously so, I"
"She is dying."
"86" looked at the woman before her as she had done once before that day.
"Then," said Mrs. Romeld gently, "you must let me go home with you."
" You cannot do any good. It would worry my sister. We have only one room. She would be excited if she saw you. The pleasure it would give you would not make up for the harm it would do to her.
"The pleasure it would give me"
"Yes, It gives a womn like pleasure to think that she is being kind-that she is visiting the slume and putting her white hand on the forehead of a dying woman."
"That is a very strage thing to say to me!"
"Oh, I don't know. I don't feel like apologizing. You have so many pleasures, that you can fet slong without this one. It is very pretty to place at being a benefactor, but I should have to pay too high a price for your pleasure that time. You see, we-sister and I- have paid for so many of your plesures."
The prescription had been filled, and the druggeist handed "86" her bottle of medicine. She paid for it an dnodded good night to Mrs. Romeid. Claribel stepped before her iwth an air of positiveness which astonished "86."
"I am going to drive you home," she said in a commanding way, "I am going to see your sister. I am going to knowjust what you mean. If I am to be accused of wrong doing I will find out the nature of it. I do not propse to be robbed of my slef-respect at your mere say so. You ought to let me defend myself.
"86" stopped and smiled, a slow and beautiful smile. A light came into her gray eyes.
"Well" she exclaimed, "I never expected this. Come on then. I will ride in your carriage, and you shall have the pleasure of being benevoient may sister. You shall know why I accuse you, and what I accuse you of."
They seated themselves in the carriage and the directions were given- there was not far to go.
"First, what is your name?"
"86." "Do you think that is being fair? i never called your "86" I am not responsible for a sustem I never heard of till today."
"My name is Cecillia O'Grady."
"How long have you worked for my husband?"
"Ten years. My sister has worked six. She has consumption, She worked in the snuff room.. Her wages barely enagbled her to l ive. The say she was taken sick her wages stopped. I hace been trying to earn enough for two. I have not succeeded. If I Have been beautiful I would have got enough some way. But I am not beauriful, and so I am still decent as women say. Besides, Elizabeth, believes in heavenly rewards. She didn't want me to do anything that would keep us apart in the future. I have sold what few things we had to see. But the worst of it is there is nothing left to get money on."
The carriage made a frightfil clatter over the pavement, but "86" made herself heard wasly above it all. Her gray eyes never left Mrs. Romeld's face. They were accusing eyes, but Claribel did not shirnk under them. She looked back with a candid friendly glance.
The carrige stopped at a red brick tenerment.
"86" smiled almost trumphantly as she led the way up the dirsty stairs and the odors of many different dinners came our of the apartment to dismay their nostrills. Her room was at the vack of the third floor- a large, not untidy room, with a bed standing in the middley where it could get all the air in circulation. A tall iron lamp of a beautiful shape stoond near the bed with a light burning dimly in it. Its gleam showed a face most frightfully pinched, lying back on the pillow, and two emanciated hands clapsed above the cropped hair.
Had the picture been arranged fro her coming, it could not have been more spectacular, Claribel thought. Cevlia went softly to the bed, and took the girl's hands.
"I am not alone," she said caresingly- it seemed almost impossible that she was the same woman who had been shrieking out about the roar of the street a few moments before- "I have a woman with me-Mrs. Romeld, the wife of the man you worked for. She wanted to come and so I let her."
Mrs. Romeld moved forward in her gracious way.
"It is a very warm night for you, lying there in bed," she said gently. "I hopw you are not feeling very uncomfrable."
The dying girl did not answer at all, but stared at Mrs. Romeld with her terrible eyes. There was a silence that becarne distressing last. The girl's eyes were so fatally fixed!
"Do you think she is conscious?" whispered Mrs. Romeld to "86."
Suddenly the two women spranf forward together. A swift gray shadow had spread from brow to cin on the dying girl. Her horribly thin arms shot out once conyulsivelyand were still.
"My God!" cried Claibel, rushing to the window and trying to force the sash open wide. But it was open so far as it would go. She reached back to the bed and lifted the miserable little form in her arms. The breath had goen from it. So she laid her down and straightened out the limbs instinctively-not that she had ever done it before, or meen it done. But it seemed the respectful things to do. "86" stood molloniess, starting at the figure of her sister. Then suddenly she threw up her hands and a cry burst from her throat.
"Now!" she cried, "now, Mrs, Romaid! You can see for yourself! And you didn't have a chance to be kind to her afterall. You cannot remember that!! You can only remember that you came here in time to see her die-the woman who made your money for you. She WAS your money, She was the material out of which it was made. Don't you know it is our of human labor that fortunes are made? Your husband will tell you so, anyday. Well, she made the dress on your back, and the rings on your fingers, and those silk stockings on your feet! She, whose poor feet have been so rired, and gone with such poor shoes! She had brains as good as yuor own, very likely. She was just as good to look at in the face, once. She was just as well worth loving. She was just as well born. There was nothing that matter with her in anyway, except that she became one of the emplayed. She was born to be hired. She gave up school for it first, to help her mother. And now she has given up life for it. She might have been the mistress of a dozen men, who would have taken care of her for a little while. And once we actaully talked it over. But she couldn't do it. So there she is dead! And YOU have her body-Mrs. Romeld. That strength and youth wich you think are are yours are rally bers. They were taken form her-sucked from her. You don't look like a vampirem you are one. The vacations she earned you had. The buletness and rest the good victuals and fine clothed the books and travel that you had, she earned for you-she and others like her. And I'm very glad that she died just when she did, and that you didn't have the chance to be kind to her. It would have been so hateful if some little cheap kindness on your part would have scamed to make up for all that you have cheated her out of."
Claribel stood listening with her head up a little smile on her lips. This was the most terrible experience of her life. She had never before been in a situation that required courage. She needed courage now of a physical as well as a moral sort for the women who was haranguing her was losing control of herself. Her breath was coming between herself. Her breath was coming between her teth in gusty sobs; her white hair had been torn down when she wrenched her had from her head, and it hung about her young, avenging face: her hands were working with hate or nervousness. But Claribel stood arid amiled with her head up. Suddenly she tuned and walked toward the door.
"Well" cried "86" tauntingly, "now do you know of what you are accused." Claribel turned once more and said softly:
"Yes, I know. But I do not know whether or not I am guilty. I would like to ask a favor of you-I would like to ask a facor of you-I would like to give your slater a fitting burial. May I?
"She will have a fitting burial, medam. I prefer that she should be buried in the potter's field. It is fitting as you say."
Claribel suddenly felt her pride and antagonism desrt her. She wanted to rush forward and snatch the miserable girl to her breast. She watned to show tenderness toward the dead girl. "86" read her inention in her eyes.
"No, thank you" sje said meeringly, "Do not think a few tears can bring back your good opinion of yourself. It is too late for tears. I am not going to let you cry on my neck, Mrs. Romeld. But I must say before you go, that you're braver than I thought any woman of your sort would ever be. You're much too fine a woman to be a vampire. I guess you know now what I have accused you of. And perhaps you'd better fo home and thnk it over. Never mind stopping to cry over me and my poor, dear"
Her voice broke, and the storm of tears could no longer be kept in check. But for one second longer she shit her teeth on her grief, and pushed her visitor gently but imperativley from the room. Then Claribel, standing outside, heard such groans of anguish as she did not knwo a moral could make except in access of physical pain. SHe listened for a moment, and then ran swiftly down the steps to her carriage.
220
ELIA W. PEATTIE-
This favorite author contributes the first installment of an intensely human story in the Sunday's World-Herald.