| Show THE SEAMSTRESS r BY MRS ninniEr BEECHER STOWE This Interesting sketch was written more than fifty years asjo and has never been published pub-lished in any collection of Mrs Stowes works Few save the poor feel for the poor The rich know not how hard It is to be of needful food And needful rest debarred Their paths are paths of plenteousness They sleep on silk and down They never thmk how heavily The weary head lies divvn They never by the window sit And see thc cay pass by Yet tako their weary work again And with a mournful eye L E L However fine and elevated in a sentimental senti-mental point of view may have been the poetry which has emanated from this gifted writer we think we have never seen anything from this source that ought to 1 give a better opinion of her than tho little ballad from which the above verses arc taken They show that the accomplished lady possessed not merely a knowledge of the dreamy ideal wants of human beings but of those more pressing and homely ones which the fastidious and poetical aro often the last to appreciate The sufferings suffer-ings of poverty are not confined to those of the common squalid everyday poor inured in-ured to hardships and ready with open band to receive charity let it come to them ns it will There is another class on whom it presses with still heavier power The generous the decent the selfrespecting who have struggled with their lot in silence bearing all things hoping all things and willing to endure all things rather than breathe a word of complaint or to acknowledge even to themselves that their efforts will not be sufficient for their own necessities Pause with me a while at the door of yonder small room whose solitary window overlooks a little court below It is inhabited in-habited by a widow and her daughter dependent de-pendent entirely on the labors of the neeble nnd those other slight and precarious resources re-sources which are ALL THAT REMAIX TO WOMAN when left to struggle her way through this bleak world alone It contains all their small earthly store and there is I scarcely an article of its small stock of furniture fur-niture that has not been tlioueht of and toiled for and its price calculated over andover and-over again before everything could come square for its purchase Every article is arranged with the utmost neatnes and ca u nor is the most costly furniture of a fashionable parlor more sacredly protected rom dust more sedulously guarded from n scratch or rub than is that brightly varnished var-nished bureau and that cherry teatable nnd bedstead The floor too boasted once a carpet but old Time has been so busy I with it picking a hole bore and making a thin placo there and though the old fellow has been followed up by the most indefatigable indefati-gable zealot darning the marks of his mischievous lingers are too plain to bo mistaken It is true a kindly neighbor has given a faded piece of baiso whichjias been neatly clipped and bound and spread down over a I large and entirely unmanageable hole in front of the nreplecc and other places I have been repaired with pieces of different colors and yet after all it is evident that the poor carpet is not long for this world I But the best faso is pat upon cvervthing The little cupboard in the corner that containo a few China cups and ono or two I antiquated silver spoons relics of bettor days is arranged with Jealous neatness and the white muslin window curtains albeit the muslin be old has been carefully starched and ironed and put up with exact precision and on the bureau covered with a snowy cloth are arranged a few books and other memorials of a former time and a faded miniature which though it have little about it to interest a stranger is more precious to the poor widow than I everything besides Mrs A is seated I in her rockingchair supported by n pillow and busy cutting out work while her daughter a slender sicklylooking girl is sitting at tile widow at tho window intent on some lino stitching Mrs A was in former times tho wife of a prosporoun merchant the mistress of a genteel and commodious house and the mother of an affectionate family But evil fortune had followed her witn a steadiness steadi-ness which seemed more like the item decree I de-cree ot tome I ADVEUSE TATE than the ordinary dealings of a merciful I providence First came a heavy ruu of losses in business then long and expensive expen-sive sickness in the family and the death of children Then there was tho selling of the large house and elegant furniture to retire to a humbler style of living and tinally the sale of all tho property with a view to quitting the shores of a native country and commencing life again in anew a-new one But scarcely had the exiled family found themselves in the ports of a foreign land when the father was suddenly sud-denly smitten down by the hand of death and ills solitary grave made in the land of strangers The widow brokenhearted end discouraged had still a wearisome dis tanca before her ero she could find herself among friends With her two daughters entirely unattended and with her finances iinprovlshctl by the detention and expenses of sickness one performed the tedious remainder re-mainder of the journey Arrived at the place of her destination she found herself not only without Immediate Immedi-ate resources but considerably in debt ton relative who had advanced money for her traveling expenses With silent endurance endur-ance she met the necessities of her situation situa-tion Her daughter delicately reared and hitherto carefully educated were placed out at service and Mrs A her ielf sought employment as a nurse The younger child soon fell sick and the hard earning of a mother were all exhausted in VV V VV V V ilr nn tho care of her and though she recovered in part she was declared by the physician to be the victim of a disease which would never leave her till it terminated her life As soon however as her daughter was so far restored as not to need hor immediate care Mrs A resumed her laborious employment Scarcely had she been able in this way to discharge the debts of her journey and to furnish the small room we have described when the hand of disease was heavily laid upon herself Too resolute and persever Ins to give way to the first attacks of pam and weakness she still continued her I fatiguing labors till i nnn SYSTEM WAS ENTIRELY PROSTRATED Thus all possibility of her pursuing her business was cut off and nothing remained but what could be accomplished by her own and her daughters dexterity at the needle It was at such a time as this that we ask you to look in and see Mrs A was sitting up today the first time for a week and even today she is scarcely fit to do so but she has thought that the month is coming round and that her rent will soon be due and even in her feebleness she will stretch every nerve to meet her engagements wiuh punctious exactness i I I UN JJST F > I r FO tlV1 LL EO S11E Wearied at length with cutting out and measruing and drawing threads she leans back in her chair and her eyes rest on the pale face of her daughter who has been sitting for two hours past intent upon her stitching Ellen my child your head aches dont work so steady 0 no indeed it dont ache much says the poor girl too conscious of looking very much tired Poor Nelly Had she renamed re-named in the situation in which she born she would perhaps now be skipping about and enjoying life aft otber young girls of 15 do but now thfirn In nn nVinif nf nmnlrvtT n 1Ur merit for her no youthful companion no visiting no fresh walks in the outdoor air Evening or morning it is all the same headache or sideache tis all one She must hold on with her monotonous unvary ing task a wearisome thing for a girl of 15 But see the door opens and Mrs A s pale face brightens as her other daughter enters Mary is a domestic in a neighbor ing family where her faithfulness and kindness of heart have caused her to be regarded more as a daughter than as a servant Here mother is your rent money 1 I t she exclaimed so do put up your work and rest awhile I can get enough to pay it the next time before the month comes i round again Dear child I do wish you would over think to get any thing for yourself II replied Mss A I cant consent to use up all your earnings as I have done lately and nil Ellens too you must have a now dress this spring and that bonnet of yours Is not I decent any longer V 0 as to that mother I have fixed over my old blue calico sad youd be surprised to sea how well looks and to be sure my best frock Is thin but if I wash it and darn it lean make it hold togetner and as to my bonnet Mrs G has given me a ribbon and 1 can get it whitened up and twill look very well and so she added hI bought you some wine this afternoon you know the doctor says you must take wine Dear cbild I want to seo you take some comfort of your money yourself Wall I do take comfort of it mother Its more comfort to be able to help you than to wear all the French collars and silk dresses that other girls buy Two months from this dialogue found our little family still more straitened and perplexed per-plexed Mrs A had been confined aU I the time with sickness and the greater part Ellen time and strength were occupied II oc-cupied with attending to ber Very little sewing could the poorchilddoin the broken intervals that remained to her and the wages of Mary were not only used as fast as earned but she had anticipated two months in advance Mrs A had been better for a day or two and had been sitting up exerting ail her strength to finish a set of shirts which had been sent in to make This money for them will just pay our rent sighed she and If we can do n little more this week weekDear Dear mother you ara so tired II said Ellen do lie down and not worry anymore I any-more till I come back Ellen stopped at the door of an elegant house whose damask and muslin window curtains advertised n fashionable residence Mrs Elmoro was sitting in her splendidly splen-didly furnished parlor and around her lay various fancy articles which two young girls were busily unrolling Wat a i lovely pink scarf I said one throwing it over hor neck and skipping before the mlr ror and these pocket handkerchiefs with lace upon them mother 1 Well girls replied Mrs Elmore these pocket handkerchiefs are positively iWoi tcl l a shameful piece of oxtravance I wonder you will insist on having such things La Mamma everybody has such now Laura Seymour has half a dozen that coat more than these and her father is no richer than ours Well said Mrs Elmoro rich or no rich it seems to make very little odds we dont seem to have as much money to spare as we did when we lived in the little house on Spring street What with buying new furniture for the whole house and getting everything that you boys and girls say you must have we are rather poorer it anything any-thing than we were then Maam theres Mrs A s girl come home with some sewing said the servant Show her in said Mrs Elmore Ellen entered timidly and banded her bundle of work to Mrs Elmore who forthwith forth-with proceeded to a minute scrutiny of the articles for she prided herself on being very particular as to her sewing but though the work had been executed by feeble hands and achincr eves even Mrs Elmore could detect no fault vith it Well its very prettily done said she what does your mother charge Ellen handed a neatly folded bill which she had drawn for her mother I must say I think your mothers prices very high said Mrs Elmore rummaging in her nearly emptied purse everything is getting so dear that one hardly knows how to live Ellen looked at the fancy articles in the chair and glanced round the room with an air of innocent astonishment Ah said Mrs Elmore I dare say that it seems to you as if persons in our situation had no need of economy but for my part I feel the need of it more and more every day As she spoke she handed Ellen 3 which though it was not onetenth the price of the handkerchiefs was all the money that she and her SICIC MOTHER COULD CLAIM IN THE WORLD There said she tell your mother that I like her work very much but I dont know that I can afford to employ her if I can find anyone to work cheaper Now Mrs Elmore was not a kindhearted woman wo-man and if Ellen had come as a begger to solicit charity for her sick mother Mrs Elmore would have fitted out a basket of provisions and sent a bottle of wine and a bundle of old clothes and all the etcetera I of such occasions but the sight of a bill always aroused all the instinctive sharpness sharp-ness of her businesslike education She ever had the dawning of an idea that it was her duty to pay anybody more than she could possibly help nay she had an indistinct notion that it was her duty as an economist to make everybody take as little as she possibly could Then she find her daughters lived in the little house in Spring street to which she had alluded they used to spend the greater part of their time at home and the family sewing was commonly done among themselves But since they had I moved Into a large house and set up a car riage anJ addressed themselves to being genteel the girls found that they had altogether I alto-gether too much to do to attend to their own sewlnir much less to nerform any for their father and brothers and their mother found her hands abundantly full in overlooking over-looking her large house in taking care of her expensive furniture and superIntend log her increased accession of servants The sewing therefore was to be put out and Mrs Elmore felt it a duty she said to get it done the cheapest way she could Nevertheless Mrs Elmore was too notable not-able a lady and her sons and daughters were altogether too fastidious as to make and quality of their clothing to admit of the idea of its being done in any but the most complete and perfect manner Mrs Elmore never accused herself of WANT OF CHARITY FOR THE POOR but she never considered that the best class of tho poor are those who never asK ch arity She did not consider that by paying liberally liber-ally those who wore honestly and indo dendently struggling for themselves she was really doing a greater charity than by giving indiscriminately to a dozen applicants appli-cants I n Jtr fF J J V t V f I fl I f I If ni1 I a BtlJ IiVhL r b N l Jv df dAAitL Dont you think mother she savs wo charge too high for our work said Ellen when she roturned Im sure she cant havo thought how much work we put in those shirts she sayn she cant give us anymore any-more she must look out for somebody to do it cheaper I dont ace how it is that 1 I people who live in such houses and have so many beautiful things can fool that they cannot afford to pay for sewing Well child they are moro apt to feel so than people who live plainer Well Im sure said Ellen we cant afford to spend as much of our time as Ve have over those shirts for less money Never mind child replied her mother soothingly Here is a bundle of work that another lady has sent in and if we got it done we shall have enough for our rent and something over to buy bread with It is needless to carry our readers overall over-all the process of gathering and stitching necessary for making up six shirts suffice it to say that on Saturday evening all but one were finished and Ellen proceeded to carry them home promising to bring the remaining one on Tuesday The lady examined i ex-amined the work and gave Ellen the money for it but on Tuesday when the child returned with the remaining work she found her in high illhumor Upon the reconsideration of the shirts she had discovered dis-covered that in several respects they differed from the directions that she meant to have given and accordingly she vented her displeasure upon Ellen Why didnt you make the shirts by the pattern I sent you said she sharply We did replied Ellen mildly mother I measured by the pattern every part and cut them herself Your mother must be a fool then to make such apiece of work I wish youd just take them all back and alter them over and the lady nroceededwith various minute directions of which neither Ellen nor her mother had till then any intimation intima-tion Unused to such language the frightened fright-ened Ellen took up her work and slowly walked homeward 0 dear me how my head does ache she thought to herself and poor mother she said this morning she was afraid that one of her sick spells was coming on and we have all this to rip out V 1 t1 f 1 lI r t > fli I I See here mother said she as with a dIscouraged air she entered their little room Mrs R says we must take out all these bosoms and take off these collars and fix them quite another way She says they are not like the pattern she sent but she must have forgotten for here it is look mother exactly as wo have made them aemWell Well then child go and carry back the pattern and show her that it is so Indeed mother she was so cross tome to-me and looked at me so and spoke so about you that I really dont feel as if I could go backI I will go for you then said the kind Maria Stephens who had been sitting with Mrs A while Ellen was out I will take the pattern and the shirts both back and tell her the exact truth about it Im not afraid of her5 Maria Stephens was a L taiioress who rented a room on the same floor with Mrs A a cheerful resolute reso-lute goforward little body and ready always al-ways to give a helping hank to a neighbor in trouble and she took the shirts and the pattern and sot out resolutely on her mission mis-sion But poor Mrs A though she professed fessed to take a right view of the matter and was very urgent in showing Ellen why she ought not to distress herself about it still felt a shivering sense of the hardness and unkindness of the world coming over her The bitter tears would spring to her eyes in spite of every effort to suppress them as she stood mournfully gazing on the little faded miniature which wo have joforonoticod WHEN HE WAS ALIVE 1 never knew what trouble or poverty was was the thought that constantly passed throuch her mind and how many a poor > forlorn one has thought the samn I Poor Mrs A was confined to her bed for the most of that week The doctor gave absolute directions that she should do nothing and keep entirely quiet A direction very sensible indeed in the chamber cham-ber of ease and competence but hard to bo observed in poverty and want Poor Ellen 1 What pains she took that week to make her mother easy How often did sho reply to her anxious questions that she felt quite well that her head did not ache much and various other things in which the child tried to persuade herself she was almost speaking the truth and during the short snatches of time when her I mother was aleep in the day or evening she accomplished one or two pieces of plain work with the price of which she expected to surprise her mother It was towards evening when Ellen took her finished work to the elegant dwelling of Mrs I shall get a dollar for this she said enough to buy mothers wine and medicine The work Is done very neatly said Mrs P and hero is some more I should like to have finished in the same wayEllen Ellen looked up wistfully to see if Mrs P was about to pay her for the last work but Mrs Pwas merely rummaging rummag-ing a drawer for a pattern which she put into Helens hands Having explained how she wished it fitted she dismissed her withouta word of the expected dollar Poor Ellen tried half a dozen times as oho was going out to turn round and ask for It but she was a diffident girl and before be-fore she could think of any words for the request she found herself in the street I Mrs P was an amiable kind hearted woman but a woman who was so used to dollars that she did not know how great an affair a single one might seem to somo people For the same reason after Ellen bad worked incessantly the now work V put into her hands that ahe might get the money for all together she again disappointed disap-pointed her in payment Ill send the money round tomorrow I she said when Ellen at length found courage cour-age to ask for it but the morrow never came and Ellen was forgotten nor was it till after one or two applications more that I I the small sum was paid But these sketches are already long enough and let us hasten now to close them Mrs A found liberal friends who could appreciate her integrity of principle prin-ciple and her real worth of character and by their assistance she was raised to seo MORE PROSPEROUS DAYS and she and tho delicate Ellen and the i warmhearted Mary were enabled once more to bave a home and fireside of their own and to enjoy something like a return of their former prosperity Wo have written these sketches because we think that there is in general too little consideration on the part of those who give employment to those similarly situated The giving of employment Is a very important im-portant branch of charity inasmuch as it assists that class of the poor who aro the most deserving of assistance It should be looked on in this light and the arrangements arrange-ments of the family so made that a sufficient suffi-cient compensation can be given without the dread of transgressing economy It is better to teach our daughters to do without expensive ornaments or fashionable fashion-able apparel better even to deny ourselves our-selves the pleasure of large donations or direct subscriptions to public charities than to curtail the small stipend of the female whose candle goeth out by night and who labors diligently with her needle to earn a subsistence for herself and the helpless dear ones who depend on her exertions Cincinnati Ohio 1839 THE RETURN OF BILL JOHNSON I Is it true that the Now Jersey farmer is harder on a tramp than the farmer of any other state I asked of a veteran old tourist tour-ist in Bowling Green park the other day Well I duane about that he slowly replied Ive alms got along with em I purty well except in one case Any objections to giving the particulars particu-lars to the jury 1 I Oh no It was down near Vineland I was lying in a fence corner one day and I heard some men in a field talking about i the owner of tho next farm west His I I name was Johrson and it appeared that i he once had a brother Bill who ran away I I and hadnt been heard of for fifteen years I l I There was a heap of talk about how glad I f hed be to see Bill agin and it put an idea j I j I into my head To pass yourself off for Bill Exactly That evening I put in an appearance ap-pearance Johnson was milking in the barnyard and I sat down on a hayrack and broke the joyful news to him that his longlost brother Bill finally stood before him He got white and red and trembled all over and finally he got up and embraced em-braced me and said Yes its Bill fur sure I Id a known you if we had met in Chiny Thank the Lord that the long lost has atlast returned Now I kin be happy agin P Accepted you offhand eh Yes sir and for a few tninits I thought I had struck it rich He got through milking milk-ing and we were ready to go into tho house when he sets the pail down and I saysBill remember the day you left home in the dissen long ago i Yes I I advised you not to go and you got mad and called mo a redheaded hump backed liar I have never forgotten that Bill and Ive allus stuck to it that if you over got back Id turn to and lick ye out of yer butes You are here Bill and now Im going to do it1 But he didnt I I I asked Yes he did He was as big as two of I I me and he mopped me all over that barnyard barn-yard for half an hour and the only way I saved my life was in breaking away and crawling through a hole in the fence He hollered to me to come back and that the fatted calf was ready but I never stopped runnin fur five miles Cant say that the I New Jersey farmer is particularly down on tramps but they dont seem to have no brotherly feelings for longlost brothers I M QUAD |
