This text is part of:
[428]
frivolity and vice ended, as usual, in the hospital on Blackwell's Island.
When she was discharged, she tried to drown her sorrow and remorse in intemperance, and went on ever from bad to worse, till she became a denizen of Five Points.
In her brief intervals of sobriety, she was thoroughly disgusted with herself, and earnestly desired to lead a better life.
Being turned into the street one night, in a state of intoxication, she went to the prison called The Tombs, because its architecture is in imitation of the ancient sepulchral halls of Egypt.
She humbly asked permission to enter this gloomy abode, in hopes that some of the ladies connected with the Prison Association would visit her, and find some decent employment for her. Her case being represented to Friend Hopper, he induced his wife to take her into the family, as a domestic.
As soon as she entered the house, she said, ‘I don't want to deceive you. I will tell you everything.’
And she told all the particulars of her history, without attempting to veil any of its deformity.
She was very industrious, and remarkably tidy in her habits.
She kept the kitchen extremely neat, and loved to decorate it with little ornaments, especially with flowers.
Poor shattered soul!
Who can tell into what blossom of poetry that little germ might have expanded, if it had been kindly nurtured under gentle and refining influences?
She behaved very well for several
Boston, J. P. Jewett and Company; Cleveland, Ohio: Jewett, Proctor and Worthington; London; Low and Company, 1854.
Tufts University provided support for entering this text.
This work is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 United States License.
An XML version of this text is available for download, with the additional restriction that you offer Perseus any modifications you make. Perseus provides credit for all accepted changes, storing new additions in a versioning system.