A STRANGE STORY.

Taranaki Daily News, 23 July 1919, Page 6

A STRANGE STORY.

STARVING WOMAN'S SACRIFICE. Here is a strange tut true story. A well-known London physician, on whose i authority wo tell it (says the Morning' 1 Post), was visited by a young seamstress, whose deep-set eyes, furrowed brow, hollow cheeks, and threadbare dross betokened a really desperate fight for existence. Obviously she was slarv- '' iug. Yet, taking from her pocket a i bundle of Treasury no,tes to the value of I £93, which she promised to make up to £IOO, she pleaded with him to find a hospital that would accept this endowment and ilse it for the institution of an eight-hour day for nurses. The physician's endeavors to dissuadelicr from devoting all her savings to this object—in any case difficult to realise—were unavailing, but drew from her this piteous tale. Her parents had died when she was a child, leaving her to look after a still younger brother, to whom she was passionately attached- The lad volunteered for the war, and fell—a terrible blow for his sister, who worked night and day, suffering every deprivation, in. snler to save money to set up a memorial to "her boy." Both impressed and distressed by this story of sacrifice, the doctor sent a letter to a London hospital, commending the pious project of the poor seamstress, but before lie received a reply—which, by the way, entirely ignored the prr,floijal—she liad died of starvation.