OCR Text |
Show ,ti- BEAUTY IN DISTrCSSS. 4 Tery I'nromnion Kurt of Itelle Been In a Crowd of Well to Do Women. Did you ever we a poor and shabby bell? Such a young lady stood in the throng of women in a cabin of a Twenty-third street ferryboat yesterday. At the first glance you would not, in all likelihood, have noted anything peculiar about her. You would have seen only tall, very shapely, modest girl of dis-; tinctly genteel appearance. If you had ; glanced at her again you would have been startled, for she presented a picture oh rare an any that we see in the kaleido-1 ecope of life in the metropolis. For she was young, well bred, proud, and yet Very, very poor. ' She wore a hat of what apjiearod to be rabbit skin, evidently home made and j Ttiuila with irr,.nr. oli.vnriu.oa uti1 t;iuto i yet showing in other ways than in the cheapness of the fur that it had never come from a milliner's hands. Moreover, the fur was bedraggled, as if its wearer had been out in tho rain without an umbrella. um-brella. Her Newmarket was of gray cloth and fitted her perfectly but the cloth was old and had faded, and here and there were little knots of stitching, showing that small moth holes had lieen carefully sewed up without success at I concealment. Her gloves were good, but they were of cloth. But it was when her face was studied that her condition was made eloquent. Her skin had that waxen apiiearauce which the human face displays dis-plays when the body lacksnutritiousfood. There was a hint of pathos in her eyes, and though the lines that were drawn down and back from her mouth were not yet deep they were apparent, nevertheless; neverthe-less; they were tho lines of sorrow and of continually enforced self denial. A little boy was with her, and when she spoke to him her voice was soft and musical. Her choice of words was that of an educated and refined lady, het manner was dignified. When she moved about yon saw that one shoe, though polished, was torn and out of shape. Slit was very, very poor. And she was con- j scions of her condition; indeed, it was evident that she had not long lieen as ; poor as now. She must have once been : , in comfortable circumstances. Very richly dressed ladies crowded ; around her, pushed against her, pressed clone to her. Their perfumes filled the air, their heavy furs slid past her hand aa it hung by her side, their brilliants 1 flashed in her face. It was a remarkable s gathering of fashionablo and wealthy women. There were mincing, tripping, fay like young women, some almost in-Bolent in-Bolent in their pride and ea.se. There were chubby, rosy, well nigh stupidly comfortable little women, swathed in fur and broadcloth. There were great, rotund mat rons moving luxuriously each in her own atmosphere of comfort and plenty. There were practical, firm looking young married women making no display dis-play of ornament or superfluity, but bearing bear-ing themselves confidently, as lacking nothing and asking nothing. All these surged around the shabby belle as the lioat floated into the pier. They squeezed her among themselves, they hid her as if they had swallowed her up. Not one appeared to notice her, nor did she seem to be conscious of their presence. But ahe must have noticed it; not a figure, 01 a brilliant, or a fur garment, or a whin" of scent could have escajied one so keenly intelligent as she. How every personality, person-ality, and every luxury, and every hint of comfort must have cut her like a knife thrust! New York Sun. |