obviously stricken with fear. Her face brought instantly to my mind the famous picture of the sorrowing mother. "Dolorosa!" I said. The tone and the word sufficed, and she opened the door wide enough to let me enter. In a corner of the room lay two children with marks of star- vation upon them. Laying my hat and bag upon the table, to indicate that I would return, I flew to the near- est grocery for food, taking time, while my purchases were being made ready, to telephone to a distinguished Italian upon whose interest and sympathy I could rely to meet me at the tenement, that we might learn the cause of this obvious distress. My friend arrived before I had finished feed- ing the children, and to him the little mother poured forth her tale. She, with three chil- dren, had arrived some days before, to meet the husband who had preceded her and had pre- pared the home for them. One bambina was ill when they reached port, and it was taken from her, why she could not explain. She was allowed to land with the other two and join her husband, and the following day, in answer to their frantic inquiries, they learned that the child had been taken to a hospital and had died there. Then her husband was arrested, and she, unacquainted with a single human being in the -287- |