About two years ago Daisy was left an orphan under peculiarly sad conditions. She resented the solicitude of an only sister—tho' her senior—and as neither was a Christian, the friction grew into a quarrel. She was given the alternative of submission or separation, and her sensitive spirit sought a place in the strange world without.
She entered the employ of a man whose family and business standing gave her reason to believe that she could trust him, and she testifies that he treated her as a true friend until he had won her entire confidence. Then in an hour of need when she was in search of a new place, he directed her to No. —— West Madison street. He did not take her in, lest he be charged with selling her as a white slave, but left her on the brink of ruin to take the plunge alone. How true the saying of the wise man, "Confidence in an unfaithful man in time of trouble is like a broken tooth or a foot out of joint."
After six months at Cook County Hospital she was removed to the infirmary at Dunning. She thought that her sister was having her taken to a private sanitarium and the rude awakening in the County poorhouse broke her heart. We had secured funds for a Christian burial to save her from the potter's field, when after a long search, we found her sister, who will bury her; and we would gladly have saved her from the poorhouse had it been within our power.
She told us that she was always of an affectionate disposition and was led to hope that her lonely heart would find loving companionship among prostitutes. Oh! God, judge these devourers of loving, trustful, innocent children. Instead of love she found betrayal and shame and remorse, and sickness, and death; another victim sacrificed to ignorance and treachery and greed and lust.
During the second month in the hospital, Daisy made such gain as to raise hopes of at least partial recovery. With returning strength she came to realize the sinfulness of her life and repented in deep humility. She was at her best when she accepted Jesus as her Savior, and definitely, determinedly yielded herself to him. Her sympathy went out to the diseased and friendless other girls in the ward, and her testimony moved them profoundly.
Her love for Jesus grew so strong that one desire possessed her—that she might live to warn girls of the sure end of the evil way and win them to Christ. In response to flowers and loving messages from young peoples' societies and friends, she sent most pathetic warnings. "Tell the girls for me always to confide in and obey their mothers," was her common message, and she urged us to tell her story wherever we could to warn mothers and daughters, and to use it in every possible way to save lost girls.
In fulfillment of her request, we send out on this day of her death, September 2, 1909, this message to accomplish the ministry that she was unable to perform.
"She, being dead, yet speaketh."
Belle Buzzell,
W. E. Hopkins,
Missionaries.
E. A. B.