Nellie Bly

“ He ordered some ice cream for Dido and some Culmbacher for himself, and lighting a cigarette he gave himself up to the influence of the beautiful Hungarian music and dreams of Penelope.
The music sobbed and sighed, and Dick drifted on dream-clouds and was lazily happy. He would solve the mystery, he felt sure, and then what years of happiness with Penelope stretched before him. What a great thing it was to be happy; life is so short, why should people allow themselves to be unhappy for a second if they can possibly avoid it? ”

“ Rarely had New York been so stirred to its depth over a mysterious death. The newspapers published the most minute descriptions of the dead girl’s dainty silk underwear, of her exquisitely made Directoire dress, of her Suéde shoes, the silver handled La Tosca sunshade, and more particularly did they dwell on descriptions of her dainty feet and tiny hands, of her perfect features and masses of beautiful yellow hair. ”

“ Dick endeavored to be friendly and pleasant, but Dido maintained a stiff silence that made him have a sense of relief when he and Penelope finally took their departure.
“Ah, Penelope, it’s true, as Tolman Bike said, happiness is not so plentiful in life that we can afford to let it slip by when near our grasp,” Richard said, sadly, as he and Penelope drove homeward. Penelope merely sighed in response.
“I did not solve the mystery as you expected and wished,” he continued, taking her hand in his, “still I object to being cheated of my happiness. When are you going to marry me?” ”

“ What an ass I am to risk a life-time of happiness with Penelope, just to sympathize with a girl whose life is lonely, and yet, poor little devil—It’s all up with Penelope, I know. I can tell by the look on her face that she will not forgive or believe me. I’ll give up. It’s no use now trying to solve the Park mystery—no use trying to do anything.”
Dido looked uneasy. She had seen all and she partly understood. She said, in a little strained voice: “I am very sorry.”
“I wish some man would tramp on my toes or punch me in the ribs. ”

“ And to add to the mystery of the case the most thorough examination of the girl’s body had failed to show the slightest wound or discoloration, or the faintest clue to the cause of the girl’s death.
The newspapers had all their own theories. Some were firm in their belief of foul play, but they could not even hint at the cause of death, and how such a lovely creature could have been murdered, if murder it was, in Central Park and the assassin or assassins escape unseen, were riddles they could not solve. ”

“ Nothing was wanting in Penelope’s special den, that luxury could suggest, to make it an exquisite retreat for a young woman with a taste for the beautiful. There were heavy portieres, soft, rich carpet, handsome rugs here and there on the floor and thrown carelessly over low divans. Chairs and lounges of different shapes, all made for comfort, little tables strewed with rich bric-a-brac, unique spirit lamps, and on easels and hanging around were paintings and etchings, all of which, as Penelope said, had a story in them. ”

“ How mountainous our troubles grow when we brood over them.
How they dwindle into little ant-heaps when we relate them to another.
Richard talked in his frank, healthy way to the girl, and it was not long until she told him the simple, pathetic story of her life.
Her name was Dido Morgan, she said. She was a country girl, the only child of a village doctor, who lived in comfort but died penniless. Her mother died at her birth. She had been raised well, and when reduced to poverty she was too proud to go to work in her native village, so after her father was buried she came to New York. ”

“ Woman-like, Penelope was in tears, and had as much pity for the unhappy man as for the luckless girl.
“I knew he was the man,” Richard said. “When the messenger boy pointed out the man in the Hoffman House as looking like the man who got the gown, the resemblance struck me, though this man was fair and Tolman Bike was dark. The moment the resemblance struck me, the whole thing flashed before my mind. My ridiculous remark that probably the man was bleached, suggested to me the possibility of Maggie’s sister having bleached after she left home. ”

“ They have no pleasures, no happiness, no comfort, and they are raising families to live out the same miserable existence. Ugh!
“And there are Maggie and Dido! They live in that miserable, God-forsaken room, and haven’t a decent-looking dress to their backs. There are no drives, no jewels, no pretty dresses, no fond petting for them, yet, bless their brave hearts, they are more cheerful than most girls I know who live on the Avenue. Dido is happy now that she has work, and Maggie would be happy if it wasn’t for her absent sister. ”

“ So the beautiful mystery of Central Park was not sent to a medical college nor to the Potter’s Field. The next morning Penelope accompanied Richard in his coupé, and Mrs. Louise Van Brunt, her aunt, who had in her carriage two charitable old lady friends, followed the sombre hearse in its slow journey across the bridge to Brooklyn. In a quiet graveyard on the outskirts of the city the dead girl was lowered into the earth. ”

“ See her smile and talk to that insipid-looking man, with an enormous nose and bald head and eye-glasses, whose ‘villain’s mustache,’ carries a sample of everything he had for dinner. Now can’t you picture that pretty girl is some ballet girl ambitious to rise. He, a man of means and influence, and she forgets his looks and that he talks through his nose, and tries to impress him with her ability.”
“Hum!” said Richard, giving Dido a strange smile. “I’m afraid my imagination is not as great or as charitable as yours. ”

“ I don’t want to live! I am tired of life and of misery. I want to know what right any one has to interfere—to make me live a life that doesn’t concern them and only brings me misery?” she cried, indignantly. ”

“ The majority of the dressmakers denied the gown so emphatically that Richard began to have a dim idea that the workmanship was not so fine as had been thought and that the dress had come from a humbler shop. He, not being a woman, did not know that one dressmaker never saw any good in another dressmaker’s work.
When he reached the last establishment of any note and importance it was almost dinner time. There were no customers about, and the employees were making preparations for closing the shop. A girl came forward and politely asked Richard his business. ”

“ Richard Treadwell sent a description of Maggie Williams’ missing sister to the police authorities, and also inserted a cautious but alluring personal in all the leading newspapers; still the missing Lucille did not return, and nothing was heard of her.
“My God, what it is to be poor!” Richard mused one morning as he walked up Broadway. “Why, the glimpses I get during my visits to Mulberry Street, of the trials and privations the poor endure, makes me heartsick. There’s Gilbert, blind and helpless, forced to spend his time on a Broadway corner begging his living. ”

“ She secretly resolved to give the poor unknown girl a respectable burial, and to order some flowers to be strewed in the rough-boxes with the other unfortunates who would be taken to the Potter’s Field to-morrow.
[Page 37]
“Death is a horrible thing,” she remarked sadly, as they filed through the iron doors again.
“It is, miss,” the keeper assented. “I’ve had charge of this here Morgue for these twenty years, still if I was to allow myself to think about death and the mystery of the hereafter, I’d go crazy.”
“But the thought of Heaven. It is surely some consolation,” faltered Penelope. ”

“ Meanwhile I thought I would feel more comfortable if Lucille were better dressed. You know how men feel on this subject. Most of them would rather be seen in company with the lowest woman in New York if she wore a Paris gown, than with a woman [Page 197] in rags, even if she were as pure as a saint. A man is always afraid of being chaffed for being with a badly dressed woman.
For the world, looking on, judges only by the dress. ”

“ I spoke to Lucille. I found she was as sensitive about her cheap garments as I was, so I told her if she would buy an entire outfit suitable for our wanderings I would pay for it. I made suggestions, and the garments she bought were as lady-like and appropriate as if it had been an every-day affair with her.
Then came the question, Where to send the clothes?
She could not send them home, for her mother and sister, though poor, had Puritan ideas concerning morals and propriety.
There is a way out of every difficulty.
I had her send all her new articles to my bachelor apartment. ”

“ A great wave of peace welled up in her heart, her weariness disappeared in an exquisite languor, which enwrapped her body and mind.
“‘Rest, everlasting rest,’ rang soothingly [Page 85] in my ears,” said Dido, in conclusion, “and with a little cry of joy I went to plunge in”——
“And I saved you from a very rash deed,” broke in Dick. “My poor girl, don’t you know there are hundreds of noble-hearted people in New York who are always ready to help the unfortunate? There is charity and Christianity in some places.” ”

“ Richard could hardly dress quickly enough after he finished Tolman Bike’s letter. The indolent young man had never been seen in such frantic haste. The elevator seemed to him to creep. Rushing out to the street, he jumped into the first cab, telling the driver to make the best possible speed to Fifth Avenue.
With a sad, penitent face, Penelope Howard was impatiently awaiting her handsome lover in her own little room, her abject apologies all cut and dried for use. But he gave her no time.
“Penelope, the mystery is solved!” ”

“ Women will take the most infernal whims. Good Lord! If I wasn’t suspected of being connected with her death, and if Penelope——But I’ll be d—— if I can give it the go-by. It’s solve the mystery or lose Penelope! If I only knew how to go to work. But, by Jove, I know I could preach a sermon, or set a broken leg, or—or cook a dinner easier than find out why, where, when, how, that yellow-haired girl died. ”

“ Dick’s blue eyes beamed kindly on Dido as he replied, quickly: “There’s a good girl, don’t let us talk about that. I’m a useless fellow, and if I have been of the least service to any one, the gratitude is all on my side. ”

“ The man closed the box as if he had given her time enough to weep, and the wailing woman went out.
“What becomes of the bodies of these poor unfortunates?” asked Penelope, with a catch in her voice.
“Most of ’em we give to the medical colleges as subjects. Yes, men and women, black and white alike. That nigger woman, who wouldn’t tell on the man who gave her a death stab, lying to the other side of the Park mystery girl, will be taken to a college to-night. The bodies not sold are all sent up to Hart’s Island, where they’re buried in a big trench.” ”

“ I haven’t the least doubt that Maggie’s sister, tiring of the poverty at home, found snugger quarters and is sticking to them. If I only knew what she looked like I would likely run across her in some of my rounds. New York is a very little place to those that go about. I’ll wager if I knew that girl, and she was running around, I’d meet her inside of three evenings. If I could only identify her——By Jove! I have it. I’ll get Dido, who knows the girl, and I’ll take her to the places where we are likely to meet the missing sister. ”

“ Richard laughed softly.
“Well, Dido, I don’t want to spoil your dream, but that little man has a brain that is far out of proportion to his weak and dwarfed body. He stands at the head of his profession, and has accumulated wealth by his industry and ability. ”

“ Richard noticed him, and pressing Dido’s arm, he whispered:
“Look at this man.”
“Yes, yes,” she said, excitedly.
The men exchanged glances, and the stranger raised his hat stiffly in response to Richard’s cordial greeting. After they had passed, Richard said:
“Why do you tremble so? I merely wanted to call your attention to him. That is Mr. Clarke, the gentleman I had the experience with in the Hoffman House bar.”
“Mr. Clarke!” cried Dido, in amazement. “Why that is Tolman Bike!” ”

“ Lucille was timid at first; afraid to come in or go out, but she soon grew bolder. She even grew to like the danger of it.
I was very fond of her then.
There is no use to be hypocritical and cry it was love of her that led me on. Why men [Page 199] adopt such weak pleas, I never could understand.
It was not love of her.
A man never injures a woman through love of her, but through love of self. I realized this all the time, but I was passionately happy, and happiness is not so plentiful that I should slight it, result as it might. ”

“ I was afraid of losing my wealthy fiancée and so I would not risk the least chance of Lucille’s telling. Of course I could have claimed blackmail and been declared innocent, yet, knowing the nature of the woman I was hoping to marry, I would not risk the effect it would have on her.
There seemed only one thing to do, and I did it. I had Lucille write an order for a dress, from my dictation, inclosing the measurements and stating that it would be called for on a certain date. Personally I went to different stores and bought the garments necessary to make a perfect outfit. ”

“ A woman in love invariably blames other women for all the slips made by the man she loves.
[Page 172]
And they will do it to the end of the world.
While Penelope was spending the day racked with unhappy thoughts, Richard was busy trying to see Tolman Bike and managing the messenger boys in their search for the man who paid for the dead girl’s gown.
Richard called at Mr. Bike’s office, only to be informed that Mr. Bike was still absent from town. But he knew to the contrary this time; so, obtaining the address, he called at Tolman Bike’s bachelor apartments in Washington Square. ”

“ Maggie says they are going to rent a flat further uptown, and one room is to be for me and Lucille when she comes back, and Gilbert is to stay with them also. It’s a pretty big family to begin with, but we’ll all give what we can to pay expenses. I don’t think Gilbert will go, though. He likes Maggie as though she was his daughter, but he’s been so many years in that house on Mulberry Street that I don’t think he will leave it.”
“Well, this is our last evening to search for Maggie’s sister,” Richard said, with half regret, “and we have had no success whatever. ”