Evening Republican, Volume 14, Number 106, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 4 May 1910 — THE SPIRIT OF ADVENTURE. [ARTICLE]

THE SPIRIT OF ADVENTURE.

An American woman who travels much abroad tells this story of an eld-, erly gentlewoman who could surely have qualified for membership in Clement Shorter’s proposed “Jane Austin Sisterhood.” “We met her,” says the lady, “at a pension in Florence, where she- was nominally,, chaperoning her two nieces, energetic, robust American girls, who were determinedly and unrelentingly sightseeing. "The little old lady had long' ago given up the attempt to keep up with them, and used/to sit all day long in the dreaky pension parlor, rending several-weeks”old papers from home. She never went out alone, for the narrow, crooked streets confused her hopelessly, and she was in 'constant terror ot getting lost. “Several times we persuaded her to go with us; but she ttas a sensitive little old lady, afraid of troubling people, and worried so constantly lest she might be a burden to us that she was hardly able to enjoy the trips. So we reluctantly left her tef her own devices, and went to Fiesole for a few days. “When we returned to Florence the first person ,we met at of the pension was the little old lady. She had evidently just come In, for her outdoor things were still on, and there was a rosy color in her efteeks. She greeted us warmly; and -when I asked her in great surprise If she had been out alone, she drew me over to, a corner of the hall and answered happily, while she fumbled sbmething In her bag; ‘ 'Yes, my dear, every day since you have been gone I have taken a walk all by myself.’ Then, taking a huge piece of white chalk from her bag, she held It up triumphantly. “ ‘See,’ she whispered, proudly. ‘I make a little white cros"s with this on every third house, so I can go all arcund alone and find my way back quite easily”