Twenty tales by twenty women: From real life in ChicagoAnonymous
General
Twenty tales by twenty women: From real life in Chicago
Anonymous
Chicago (Ill.) -- Moral conditions; Prostitution -- Illinois -- Chicago
“My early life was devoid of anything more than most girls are called
upon to endure. At the age of twelve I lost my mother, at fifteen death
claimed my father, then I went to live with a maiden aunt in Columbus,
Ind. I was poor, very poor. As I now look back and view the past, I
wonder that I was able to continue my studies until I graduated with
high honors, but I did and the day I was seventeen my greatest heights
of happiness were scaled, for it was on that eventful day that my
youthful lover, Jamie Harris and I became engaged with the consent of my
auntie, provided, however, we would not think of marriage until Jamie
had finished his course at college, which he was taking at the State
University, located at Bloomington, Ind. We two young lovers, eager in
our happiness, consented to the plans which my spinster relative laid for
us. Jamie was twenty; he had two more years in the regular collegiate
course, then a professional course of some sort and we would be ready to
take up life’s journey.
“Meanwhile, I bided my time, looking forward to the longed for event with
anticipation in every way worthy of the reward. One long year dragged
along; I cared for no one, thought of nothing but to dream of Jamie.
All the little details of ‘love in a cottage’ had been thoroughly gone
over, and directed, I, in my own mind, trying to find some method of
improvement on the time worn ethics of a wife’s duty.
“When morning came I busied myself with the affairs of my aunt’s humble
home, which I, too, had known as my only shelter for years. I moved with
the spirit of love. I became mechanical in doing things while I drew on
my imagination to such an extent, that at times I almost fancied that it
was our home (Jamie’s and mine), and that I was serving him. I planned
and thought so much of how I would always have his slippers ready, and
papers and cigars, for he smoked. Oh, all the dreams made me so happy and
contented.
“It was the beginning of the second year that I received an invitation to
visit a friend in Franklin, Ind., a near-by town. During my stay there
I met many and made scores of friends; it was then that I realized how
closely my life and Jamie’s had become cemented together. I saw the world
as I had never before known it to exist; I was the recipient of many
favors at the hands of my new friends. If I failed to write to Jamie as
often as I had done, he excused me by saying in his letters that he was
glad I was having a good time. Theaters, drives, parties, dinners, etc.,
to the fulfillment of my fondest hopes. More excitement than I had ever
expected to know.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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