Newspapers / The Monroe Journal (Monroe, … / May 7, 1915, edition 1 / Page 6
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1 WTHF.K ' KKKFFtrs I.Al MI5Y U I'M NESS Memletl Humanity lh, Ity-Product A Fact Story. Henry Magill in Everybody's. Here's a little task to toy with: Take the most hapless and hopeless part of the population of a great city women who have been in prison: succor them; restore them to self support and self-respect: it can't be do no but do it; do it for thousand" of women; do it for fifty years; and never, all that time, never once so licit a contribution: never ben. never cat? advertise: accept no charity for mir charity none at all: make it pay its own way; and in the end. out of jour charity and for it and to per pcu.ite it. h:ne land and houses and equipment worth three hundred thou sd!nl dollars. To approach this task, to have the yearning heart and the healinu soul for it. one must be a man of Cod. To accomplish it. financially, one mu-t be marvelous business man. M..n? 1: happens --woman. A marvelous business woman and well, how stti.UKe ii is that the words 'woman oi Iod" should sound so stranue! - what smaller title shall we nic 10 Mother OKeelTe? She was born in the south of Irt l.uid. in the east of the south of Ire Ian !. on the lit bank of the Shannon -- Kllen O'Keeffe. carry inn still in her voice today the tilt of l.imber ick. She came to the city of New Y (.:: in poverty and pow erlessness. Two hundred women does she shel ter every night, and set to work every d;o in her places of business, her in es. And a thousand women and H ire did she establish last year in lh' employ of others to labor quiet ly ;.nd securely on their way hark to :iie re-making of their lives. A Kiisiiic Not a Charity I' is wonderul enough that out of broken women Mother O'Keeffe ha nude whole women. Hut more won derful still- much more wonderful this: t !';;! out of human material distrusted and rejected by business, co: detuned by business, to ao from to unempioyetnetit, to starvation, to crime, to jail out of such mater ial .Mother O'Keeffe has made a busi n ...... concern which, .hist its a falsi ties- concern, stands and walks l iis-:f. Scientific selection of employees? Mother O'Keette's places of business lie open, night and day, to every wo man, enrgetie or sodden, Cod-seeking or hell-bent, steady or reeling, w bo climbs their steps. More than half a century ago it was a nurse that youtiK Kllen O'Keeffe would he. For that she went to the Island that lies in the Kast river between .Manhattan and LoitK Island. There Kllen O'Keeffe saw hospital wards, but also prison cells. It was, and is, a place for "cor rection." And there Kllen O'Keeffe saw an old story. Site met a girl. She met h!' often. She had been sent to The Island, litis girl, to be "corrected" for her first lime. And she was soft -ln.rted and fair-spoken and fearful ard sorry, almost always; and Kllen O'Keeffe 'counseled her thai she might work at honest work: and her sen tence was served; and she took the trrv and wen' hack (( the l tty ami would sin no more. Hut the City - what tin old, old story! -turned her away from till hot. est work, distrust ina her, and wo ild not let her work at all except at sin and so, shortly, sent her back to 'iie Island to he "corrected" attain. Aid she cursed Kllen O'Keeffe to' hr face for h fool and a liar. And so did Kllen O'KeetTe write the old sequel to this story? Did she go and make a job for herself as secretary and agent for a society for finding employment for female ex-prisoners? And get a Hoard of Lady Managers with luncheons ami clothes? She might have done so. very pro--irly; but she did not. Instead, she wA two hundred dollars of her own. She gave to her prospective fling In Clod' business the same thrift she would have been obliged to give to a prospective fling in other kind .of business. Having saved her money. Ellen 'O'Kwfle was ready to save that " She went and rented a five-room flat In a tenement-building on Kast Twenty-sixth street, close by the dock to which the ferry comes plying from the Island to Manhattan. And she bought a few cots and blankets and chairs and a table. Here was a ref uge. But Ellen O'eKeffe didn t want rpfu(?ea retreat from the world. She wanted-for that girl a return to the world. So she bought, also. Fresh Stuff. ALL OF THE NICEST QUALITY'. FRESH SAl'SAGE, COOKED BKAIXS, DKIEI) BEEF, RHEUBARB, AND ANT OTHER GOOD THINGS. M. Waller soap, starch, bluing, wash-tubs, wash boards. There she had her first place of business Xow for her first order! Thrift! With fifty dollars of her sav iugs in her hand-bag Ellen O'Keeffe walked over to the old Fifth Avenue Hotel and asked that they let her take the wash, and laid down fifty dollar that the wash would eonie back. Aud the Old Fifth Avenue did a good day's work for New York by saying "Yes. With a place of business and an order, Ellen O'Keeffe, laundry pro prietor, went to the Island and told the girls who were about to be re leased that there was honest work for them in tlie City. I'id they come? "It is easier to gel a man on his feet and make something out of him." says Mother O'Keelfe. ' than to get a woman even to promise to start on the rii,'ht road." Therefore the great ones of the earth and even of the church said to young Kllen O'Keeffe in those d;tvs: "We innl be more attentive to men." Thai's what their talk came to. Mother O'KeeflV conclusion i diti'erni. "Therefore, savs she. "we must be more patient v iih w omen ." Hut Kllet, O'Keeffe, beside patience hid driving Ini.-iness power. Her Ulan was workable. The women came; and they have kept on com ing for tifty years. The laiindrv business in the five- room tlat in the tenement building grew. It grow to iill the whole build ing . On behalf of the women who were not strong enough to do wash ing. Kllen O'Keeffe took in mend'tic. And, for their food, she asked her customers, who were hotel men to send her cut bread and other lis carded but decent victuals in the hampers in which she relumed their linen. She asked them to do this but she paid them for it. It wa imsiiiess. till of it. Accordiiiglv. Kilen O'Keeft'e began to have standing. She was no mere charity lady. She was business, sol I vent and growing. And so site was I abl- to go on to what is really the 1 bigger part of her work. I When Kllen O'KeelT said to one of ! her customers "This woman is vig oroiis and industrious-- I know it, I ami she would make a good dis'h- wastier, ttie woman started wasniiiK dishes. Ami when Kllen O'Keeffe said: "This wonitn has her faults but stealing i- not among them: ami she can be trusted to be a cham bermaid." the woman started mak ing beds. It was a big employment auencv that Kllen O Keefle was now, besides an employer. On her word thousands of women have passed hack into working life who without some such bridge would have sunk a not drowned. So thirty years went by. during which Kllen O'KeetTe became Mother O'Keeffe to multitudes. And there came to be two hie houses for sale a mile or so north of Mother O'Keeffe's laundry. They were massive, luxurious. They had been built by Heinrp'h Steinway. man ufacturer of pianos for his sons. They were called the Sleinway Mansions. The neighborhood in which they were situated had ceased to be "awfully nice" ami had become frightfully mix ed " The Sleinway Mansions on Kift v-second street were for sale. Hut at it stiff price. And Mother O'KeetTe, manager of a business for female ex prisoners. bought them and paid cash. Afterward she bought anoiher big house still farther north, on East Seventy-ninth street, in a neighbor hood extremely expensive and ex tremely profitable. There is no cow ardice in Mother O'Keeffe's concern. And she was a regularly incorporat ed corporation, though two places of business, open day and night to the most hopeless part of the population, recruiting its working-force from what is thought to he the most inef ficient element in society, paying reg ular wages and accumulating sur pluses. A quite well-mannered cor poration! Mother Mary Zila Naturally the lips of a woman who has accomplished such things are firm. They are even hard. Mother O'Keeffe has not managed hor sort of business without making derisions. Hut she decides a thing once, not twice. Her lips show It. And her quick fdep shows the woman of ag gressive action and the stoop of her shoulders the laborious administra. tor. Her voice, to. Is telling quiet and low and not wasted. She knows this world. But the smile-lines about the good gray eyes show the woman of sisterly love, and the forehead, smooth and clear as heaven, shows the woman who thinks and rests in Cod. She wears God's habit now dark brown the habit of a new organi zation In the church to which she belongs. She began to see that the property which she had accumulated and which she had dedicated to a purpose be yond her death. The young Irish girl who came to America In poverty and nuwerlessness and who would be a nurse, has taken her place In th line of historic, heroic women. Has Married About 0 Talis Southern Pines Dispatch, 3rd. Squire J. Will Wicker of Lee county Is working toward his 30 years as Justice of the peace. He started dispensing Justice in Moore county, and kept right on with the work when he was set off with Lee when the new county was created. In his day he has married upwards of 300 young pairs, but probably no more romantic wedding came his way than a few days ago when a cou ple Insisted on being married In the public road. The 'squire looked at the license blanks when he filled them In, and when It came to note In the blank the place of the ceremony, he thought a minute and then Instead of church or residence wrote In "the big road" and let It go at that. Years ago when 'Squire Walker was making his second campaign, he was called on for a speech. Speech making was not In his line, so he told the audience that all he bad to say was that If they wanted to elect him, he would aenre, and If they did not that was their affair. They elect ed hlm.and hare been keeping it up ever since. NEXT SIN DAY IS MOTHER'S DAY. Next Sunday will be observed all ' over America as Mother's Day. The following selections have been sent to The Journal a appropriate to the day: To My Son. Do vou know that your soul Is of mine such a part That you seem to be fibre and core of my heart? No other can pine me as you, dear. can do; No other can please me, or praise me. like you. Remember the world will be quick with its blame. , If shadow or stain ever darkens your name: "Like mother, l.ke son." is a sayitt!: so true. The world will judge largely of "mother" tty vou. He vours then the task, if task it sha!' he. To force 1 his old world to do homage to me: j;Hst t'ssiifei! it will say, when it venl'it you've won. She reaped as she sowed, behold: this is her son" Veni Mrl'oual.l. in The Chmit.ni qusn. Mother. Tale, vviiliet.il hands, that ne.srl four-si ore ears Had wrought ior others, soothed the hurt of tear.-, Rocked children's cradles, eased tlf- ; fever's smart. Propped balm "I love in many an 1 aching heart ; Now. slirless folded like wan ro leaves pressed j Above the snow and silence of b'r, breast. In mute appeal they told of labour done, i And well earned rest that came at' set of sun, I i From the worn brow the lines i: care had swept As if an angel's kiss, the while she slept. Had smoothed the cobweb wrinkle away. I And given hack the peace of cli i 1 .1 -; hood's day. i . . .. i . .1... i.,i... ..,;! ..l.l .Villi Oil (tie lips lot- 1 .1 1 1 1 1 piuiie iii most said, "None knows life's secret but the happy dead." So gazing where she lay, we knew that pain And parting could not cleave her soul again. And we were sure that they who saw her last In that dim vista which we call the past ; Who never knew her old and laid aside. lemembcriiig best the maiden ami the bride. Had sprung to greet her with the olden speech. The dear, sweet names no later hire can teach. And "Welcome home" they cried, and grasped her hands, So dwells our mother in the best of hands. British Weekly. My .Mother A Prayer. Tom Pillon in Seattle Tost. For the hodv you gave me, the bone and I lie sinew, the heart and the brain that are yours, my mother, I thank you. I thank you for the light in my eyes, the blood in my veins, for my speech, for my life, for my being. All that I am Is from you who bore me. For all the love that you gave me, unmeasured rrom the beginning, my mother. I thank you. I thank you for the hand that led me, the voice that directed me, the breast that nestled me, the tap that rested me. All that I am is by you, who nursed me. For your smile in the morning ana your kiss at nignt, my motuer, i thank you. I thank you ior me tears you shed over me, the songs that you sung to me, the prayers that you said for me. for your vigils and ministerings. All that I am is oy you, who reared me. For the faith you hail in me, me hope you had for me, for your trust and your pride, my mother, I thank you. I thank you for your praise and your chiding, for the Justice you bred into me and the honor you made mine. All that 1 am you taught For the sore travail that I caused you, for the visions and despairs, my mother, forgive me. Forgive me the peril I brought you to, the sobs and the moans I wrung from you, and tor the strength I took from you, mother, forgive me. For the fears I gave you, for the alarms and the dreads, my mother. forgive me. Forgive me the Joys 1 deprived you, the tolls I made for you, for the hours, the days, and the years I claimed from you, mother, forgive me. For the times that I hurt you, the times I had no smile for you, the ca resses I did not give you, my mother forgive me. Forgive me for my an gers and revolts, for my deceits and evasions, for all the pangs and sor rows I brought to you, mother, for give me. For your lessons I did not learn, for your wishes I did not heed, for the counsels I did not obey, my mother, forgive me. Forgive me my pride in my youth and my glory In my strength that forgot the holiness of your years and the veneration of your weakness, for my neglect, for my selfishness, for all the great debts of your love that I have not paid, mother, sweet mother, forgive me. And may the peace and the joy that passetb all understanding be yours, my mother, forever and ever. Amen. Health Promotes Happiness. Without health, genuine Joy Is Im possible; without good digestion and regular bowel movement you cannot have health. Why neglect keeping bowels open and risk being sick and ailing? Take one small Dr. King's New Life Pills at night. In the morn ing you will have a full, free bowel movement and V feel much better. Helps your appetite and digestion. Try one tonight 19, 95. Twentieth of lay. Celebration and Trade Carnival, lay 18, 20 and 21 Charlotte, N. C. Come Help Us Celebrate! The City of Charlotte and Mecklen burg county will hold this year a great celebration commemorating the Anniver sary of the Signing of the Mecklenburg Declaration of Independence, beginning on the evening of Monday, May 17th, and closing on the afternoon of Friday, May 21st four nights and four days of festivities. We cannot reach every patriotic citizen person ally and we use your own borne paper to invite you, your family and your friends', to come and be with us on this big occasion. For your entertainment we will have some of the country's greatest speakers and entertainers to be with us on this occasion. We will have numerous big free shows, george ous parades, blazing with electricity, fireworks dis plays that will be remembered by our dhjldren long after we have passed these celebrations down to them, balloon ascensions, baseball games, bands of music, and many other entertaining features. Every railroad entering Charlotte has posted low round trip rates within a radius of 200 miles. In addition to the entertainment features the big stores of Charlotte are sending buyers to the markets now and will have the greatest values ever known to offer you. Standard merchandise, milli nery and ready-to-wear clothing, furniture, and all classes of goods to supply your needs. You can combine business with pleasure and make this a profitable pleasure trip, but, whether you buy a dollar's worth of merchandise in Charlotte that week we want you to come, bring your family and your friends. Charlotte will welcome you and guarantee you the biggest time of your lives. Cgme and see the biggest city in the State and see how we do things. If you can't e with us all four days be here one or two days anyway. We are looking for YOU. PUBLICITY COMMITTEE.
The Monroe Journal (Monroe, N.C.)
Standardized title groups preceding, succeeding, and alternate titles together.
May 7, 1915, edition 1
6
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