SURRENDERING A CAREER.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 213, 2 June 1908, Page 5

SURRENDERING A CAREER.

• Many stories have been told from time to time of great friendships that .havo existed between man-and man,, of the . heroic - sacri:fices involving life, honour, position, that they have macte for. one::another; Woman, too, can prove her friendship ..for another woman;; and often it is done so'quietlyj in such unassuming, taken-for-granted ways, : that it'has gone by totally unobserved and unrecognised.. ' ■ ' Quite;recently an instance came to light. "The Scrapboob" tells the story. • In a officein : Washington works . 'a] woman copyist, Mrs; widow/ But. I am forbidden to give heir name, though the .story hero told is true in every'detail, She| is the heroine in a drama of silent 'selfdenial.! She laid down, not her life, but moro —her career/ for her friend.': Sho.was a pen-writer—ono who copied, in tho permanent records some three thousand words'a day; No inaccuracy, n<j mistake, no jilot, not even an erasure, was permitted in her work. ' '• ■ ' ' ' She -' 1 suffered backache,' ,her' nerves were joiistantly' overwrought through strain on the Jyes. ' She endured—and here was her 'greatest hardship—the turriblo trials of incessant proximity; that is, seven hours a day, elbow to elbow, with fellow copyists. •' I. feel like a galley-slave," she said, "chained to tho oarsmen on either sido of me.", •: ;■ ■ One morning her chief sent for her, and said: lamto be promoted, and have recommended that you be given tho place I now hold." The widow thanked her chief and retired. How happy she was! N No more backaches, no, more strain, on the eves, no more of the trials of incessant proximity.- In her new position she would be an executive. She Would:'have a desk all to herself—would work alone in a little alcove partitioned off from the main room, lio longer chained to fellow like, a galley oarsman, but free, free. And her salary would be quad- '. '. But , that , night, while thinking of her coming freedom, of her happiness to be, and of. all-thp ; neoded changes ner larger salary would bring to her surroundings, shoVremem-i oered' ; tho girl who worked at her loft elbow,' Tho .girl was the solo support of a mother and .two younger sisters. Her salary, divided thus among-'four, barely kept the body and foul °f sny one of then; togpthcr. In. tho thought of'that young friend, tho widow, rcfleeting that she. had only herself to support, went to sleep, smiling... The- following morning sho went to her chief; .saying:— \ . . -J cannot accept tho promotion you so kindly offer me. ; 1 am not qualified for the duties of an executive. But Miss -— who works;,on my left, is a born executive. I want you to give her this position." ; .Never a word said,tho widow about tho younger woman being more needy than sho. Nor she tell her friend of what sho had done, feho relinquished her hard-earned and sorely-needed promotion for , a friend. Today she is still a copyist. To-day her chief is the. younger woman for whom she gave up a bright and promising career.

A sooiety woman; of New England (says an American journal) gavo a dinner not long ago, among the guests of which was a distinguished, but absent-mindW, Gorman professor. Covers were laid for twelve guests. Tho hostess had recently purchased a dozen very expensive and boautiful Japanese doilies, which'alio had placed on the plates beneath the finger-bowls. Imagine her feelings when sho saw the professor remove his liuger-bowl from the plate, leaving tho choico doily, and calmly help himself to the ice-cream which was being served, placing it upon the lilmy bit of-embroidery ! But imagine how much more distressed she bccame when sho saw tho professor, earnestly talking to his righthand noighbour, finish his cream, and, taking the doily up on his fork, calmly swallow it I No doubt,.if lie noticed it at all, he thought American ice-cream peculiar. The hostess had lost a doily which could not bo replaced and her set was broken. _ Small, soft-coated dogs, some of them 110 bigger than kittens, and exactly matching in colour tho furs of the ladies who caressed them, were the main-attraction—so far, at any rate, as feminine interest was concerned —at tho French Bulldog and Brussels Griffon Club's show, hold on April 8 at the Horticultural Hall, London. Some of tho tiny mites could be truthfully said to be worth more than their weight in gold, seeing that the, valuo placed upon them was in several instances as much as £200. Many of these pet dogs had a special maid to attend to them ;