CHAPTER XXX. A CUP OF COLD WATER. For weeks Richard had been perplexed. He had found a young woman sick and almost dead from starvation. A doctor was sent for and Mrs. Miller hurried over to assist in her care. Her story was at last told. She had worked in one of the great stores that were just commencing to spring up. She had stood behind the counter from seven in the morning till six at night, with only twenty minutes for lunch at noon. She was capable, but do her best the proprietor would pay her only three dollars a week. This sum would not clothe and feed her. She had applied for the position of clerk to a prominent lawyer, but had fled like a hunted fawn when she learned the pit that was set for her. In desperation she had gone to work in a sweat shop and forty cents a day was the best she could earn. At last her strength had given out and when Richard found her, she was starving on a bunch of straw in a garret. Ethel and Mrs. Warren were deeply moved when they learned the story, and insisted that the sufferer be brought to their home. Tenderly they ministered to her, hoping that they might win her back to life, but famine had done its havoc and she grew weaker and weaker. Her appreciation of the love and care given her was beautiful to see. When the closing hour came, they heard her whisper, "Remember the poor girls." Ethel was thoroughly aroused by the revelations that this life had brought to her attention. With her father's and Richard's help a testimony of facts was gathered that shocked them all. Mrs. Warren invited a company of the best and most widely influential women of her acquaintances to her home, when Ethel presented her cause. The most of them were agreed that something must be done. It was decided at last that a committee should visit those who employed labor at such a cost and that they should be exhorted to pay a living wage. If any would not heed, their names were to be printed, with the wages paid and an account of the suffering and ruin of the girls. Mrs. Warren was upon the committee and threw her soul into the work. Added to the spirit that led her, the thought of her once homeless girl, quickened her interest. "What if no one had cared for Ethel, when she was homeless and starving?" she thought. Ethel and other interested women went to many of the stores and talked kindly with the girls and left them their cards that they might call, if they were lonely or needed a friend. They arranged to find them places to board. Houses were rented where the girls could live on the co-operative plan. A little library was collected for them. Out of this small beginning has come the many undertakings of this day for the young women in our great cities, as out of a single kernel of wheat comes in years the waving fields of ripened grain. No better glimpse can be given of the significance of this ministry than a letter received by Ethel a score of years afterwards: My dear Friend: I write you on this the twentieth anniversary of the day you found me discouraged and starving, to thank you again for the word and the help you gave me at that time. I did not tell you how desperate I was the day you found me. It was a question of death or dishonor and I had decided to take my own life, if I could drag myself down to the river. The food you gave me saved my life, but the kindness you showed saved my soul. I wish you could see our home. Our two children are in school. Julia has just entered the High School and Charley is a freshman at Philadelphia. Henry is the dearest husband in the world and takes great pride in the standing of the children in school. He says tell you that this fall he is going to send a carload of apples and other truck from the ranch to be used at the mission. We hope to have you visit us next spring when you go west. The children will be at home and the farm will be in blossom. You will never know what you have been to hundreds of girls whom you have never met, but who, through the agitation you started, have had shorter hours and better pay. You have given the "cup of cold water" to many a parched lip and the reward is sure. Yours in deepest gratitude, MARGARET HOLDEN. |