The philosophy of Jake Haiden (late Jacob K. Huff) : $b selected from the columns of the Reading Times, Reading, Pennsylvania : with a biographical appreciation by his friend Henry W. ShoemakerHuff, Jacob K.
Philosophy
The philosophy of Jake Haiden (late Jacob K. Huff) : $b selected from the columns of the Reading Times, Reading, Pennsylvania : with a biographical appreciation by his friend Henry W. Shoemaker
Huff, Jacob K.
American essays; Huff, Jacob K., 1851-1910
The divorce trial of a handsome young woman and her wealthy husband,
brings up the story of her early environment and her unfortunate mother’s
disappointed life. The woman now seeking a divorce was reared in the
midst of matrimonial unrest and social misery—what other ending could the
world expect in her own case? Where the union is not purely a union of
heart and soul, a harmony of taste and temperament, where the souls are
not tuned to respond to the same vibrations, conjugal happiness is simply
impossible.
The mother of this woman in the divorce court was once a beautiful
Irish girl, the daughter of a man who kept a small crockery store
in Philadelphia. His store was located around the corner from the
aristocratic neighborhood, where the scions of the old Quaker families
reside in magnificent palaces. Sometimes a few of them would condescend
to stop at the modest shop and make a purchase, but the liveried negro
servants came more frequently to make the purchases desired by their
masters. At such times they would sit and gossip with the Irish merchant
and his wife about their aristocratic and proud employers.
These conversations with the servants revealed the great social chasm
existing between the humble shop people and the wealthy aristocrats
living just around the corner. The shopman’s eldest daughter, a beautiful
girl of sixteen, listened to the tales told by the liveried servants of
the rich, and a longing grew daily stronger in her humble soul to become
rich and aristocratic some day, too. She cared not by what means. She
only thought of the glorious end of the road leading up to one of these
magnificent palaces, and gave no thought to the mud and the mire and the
dangerous chasms to cross before arriving at the end of all this golden
glory and glitter of gilded gladness. She dreamed of it night and day.
Her pure soul became sordid and hard with an ambition that was ever in
her dreams. On the street where the shop was located, students bound for
the University of Pennsylvania would pass daily, and among them were a
number of young aristocrats, exquisitely attired, with their coats thrown
back to display their jeweled fraternity pins. As time went on, the
daughter of the shop man developed into a tall, slender, beautiful girl,
with violet eyes and chestnut brown hair, and a complexion of lovely
pink. In the morning she would go outside the store to put the goods
on display, and was noticed by the wealthy university students. One of
them in particular fell desperately in love with the bewitching girl.
They began to slyly flirt as the students passed. It would not be fair
nor true to put all the blame upon the student. The ambitious shop girl
was just as anxious to make a conquest as was the young man. She knew he
was rich and could see that he was handsome. She felt only hatred toward
the rich people who ignored her, and her humble parents. She could never
love this young man sincerely, but she would sell herself for the grand
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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