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Show Hawthorne's Daughter a Nun. (Herbert Young in iV.nahee's Maai:i. . Misfortune left Rose Hawthorne free ':,,,:: ties perhaps ten years ago. Death tek :.! child and her husband and closed h"r home i N v London. That sorrowful freedom she i::nne.,i.. - consecrated to the most wretched among the i . If you have any dread of inevitable death h. ordinary forms, fever, pneumonia, heart tinh;:' . -take yourself to the tenements and study ae ! '-insole, the human being dying of cancer. 'I hen y.-u will greet pneumonia as a blessed me-senger. heart failure as a direct interposition of ;...!. Since man must die, it is seemly that hi- -x:r f made with dignity and decency, if not oui'e -.. j coolly as Bryant would like it : Like one who wr:1; ; f the drapery of his couch around him and lies to pleasant dreams. But to have the grave rea-!t Up and seize your flesh before, the time, to brirm e. irrupting ir-rupting while life thrills the blood, to -me!i ef i'. . charncl house and to repel the human kind in !..:-ror, !..:-ror, even as the ancient leper; to become divadfri! to those that love you. ami abhorrent to all ether-, and to carry about your shame in the narrow-, in-m, hopeless limits of a tenement house; tlie mind fanr before the merest details of this misfortune. Government charity has not yet found i;s w.r.-to w.r.-to this calamity; it has hardly discovered h'.v deal with the acute cases of sickness. Irs ;eiv-cates, ;eiv-cates, believe, are often loud in proclaiming iiici;- ability to manage the whole body of human -'!! . . ing without the co-operation of individual-. Ju the two cases of consumption and cancer. the I V eminent has done next to nothing for the suffer-. -rs and. the patients are nur.-ed until death in tkh- f f-homes. f-homes. Such nursing! Not to be sneered at. si im it is prompted by affection. Yet what attention can the poor give to their sick after earning a i.iy"s wages, and the work of tomorrow awaiting tnem? Even when affection finds a way to do sometime ignorance leaves it only half done. Where a rice- . tion fails, as it easily does under too heavy a burden; bur-den; where strength is lacking, where skill find intelligence in-telligence are absent, the cancer patient is only a few degrees removed from the outcast and aban-dond aban-dond lepers of ancient Palestine. Of all these Hawthorne's Haw-thorne's daughter made herself the servant. .sl dwelt in the slums and sought out the patients iu their homes, discovering conditions too sad ? description; with her helpers she redressed tir : wounds of corruption and endeavored to thn.'-.v about the sufferers at least the appcaram-c of li j' ; and where it was possible, stirred into life the bono of a nearing heaven. Her mission aroused some curiosity a' tho tui and reporters called on her in the shabby quar- i ters of her infirmary. Their surprise, incredulity and kindly scorn illustrated one phase of American thinking. Charity for many begins with the s'a'e. They cannot understand individual enterprise and devotion. It means for them lack of system, overwork over-work and poor results. If there need be charity !': awidespread condition, this sort of American would apply to the state legislature, get all the money necessary, equip a line hospital, and see that every official in it received adequate compensation. 1!r reporters who visited the infirmary wrote of it indu1-gently, indu1-gently, with sympathy, of course, but quite without; knowledge, and their words suggested that the worx was superfluous and the lady eccentric. The woman reporter in the case reminded us that the Haw-thornes Haw-thornes were often queer and quoted a curbs'o'.ie critic to the effect that this particular Hawthorn was insane. Nevertheless, the' work found an unoccupied field, and in time the foundress secured a house in Cherry street, which had been the nest of gentility sixty years ago. The East river and the park wero part of the horizon. I went there one autumn after- j noon, curious about the venture, interested in tin ) unexpected phase of character. The charm of tho . . New London home lingered in my memory, from a fleeting glimpse 3'ears before; and one does not easily bridge the gap between the boudoir and tba charncl house. In this instance there was a bridge. The same personality presided and had simpe' brought the wretched into the boudoir. The ancient; house touched the heart by its simplicity and i's pathos. Whatever had been its history, some worthiness wor-thiness must have marked it to win this distinction as a climax. It was now the home of divine courage, cour-age, of heroic charity, of resignation under the severest se-verest afflction. The nurses were dressed in rough but picturesque and serviceable co-tmacs t Holland peasants. The grewsomc did not show and the odor of death was absent. If one had v.' known, the refuge might have passed for a reiiva.-escent reiiva.-escent home, where hope of release solaced the sio- return to health. Man's ideal is the truest expression of hi? ture, and the most potent agency in devclopin.- !M powers. If the ideal wc aspire to be is below its life's aim will be downward, and the nearer ve approach ap-proach its realization the smaller and littler we he-come. he-come. But if our ideal is above us, it will of necessity neces-sity appeal to the very best and noblest in our nature, na-ture, and call for the exercise and development et our highest faculties and powers. |