It was gratifying to know that the society had been kept up all these
years by the industry of the people, although it could not be claimed
that any one system could have done it alone, and it had been recognized
that the honors conferred upon the deserving had a great deal to do with
the success. It brought together larger numbers of the better class than
could have been done under any other system. Those who came into the
ranks supplied with money enough to last them their life time were not
able to receive even the title of “Honorable” unless his or her life was
truthful and honest in their dealings with the public. Brave deeds were
not ignored because those who accomplished them were only ordinary
people. Each member who lived a self-denying life to better the whole
people was honored publicly, and by so doing the world was made better
for such acts. All could not gain the highest titles, but all could be
“Honorables.” Only the honorables could make the laws that governed.
The society had princes and princesses simply because these people had
lived princely lives. Some of them had brought to the society large
fortunes in money, land, mines and jewels. They gave their wealth to
promote the welfare of the whole community, keeping, in many instances,
only the amount the society compelled each to hold during their life.
Still their money could not buy for them even the smallest title. What
then? Labor, for all holding titles had to honor labor in some way. This
is the way one princess gained hers:
Princess Lovechild was the daughter of a man who had been disinherited
by his father for marrying against his wishes. His father sent him
adrift without money enough to keep him a year. He had no profession, so
he went to the mining district of a new country, and was given
employment overseeing miners. In this way they got along for several
years. A child had been born to them the second year. She was the pet of
the camp and considered their mascot. Every time a large find of gold
was discovered, she was given a share, the father investing, besides
buying several for himself. One day a great grief came to the mother and
child; the father was killed. They had to leave the camp, it not being
safe for them to remain. The kind-hearted men gave them gifts to take on
their journey as well as buying the claims. The mother took the child to
a city to find employment. Before she was successful, her money had been
spent. She tried among her friends, but they were unable to help her;
then she got cooking to do, but that separated her from her child. She
then obtained a place as housekeeper, even doing the hardest work to
keep her little girl with her. It was not long before the man who
employed her gave her to understand that he expected more from her than
she was willing to give, so she was obliged to leave and live in a noisy
district that racked her nerves because those who had nice houses
refused to take children. In time her money was gone again and she had
no friends who would help her. One day when the child was about six
years old the mother became ill and died.
The child was placed in an orphans’ home, and then given to a woman who
used her as a little drudge. It was hard to have no mother to love her,
no pretty clothing, but she could love the baby that she had to mind and
her poor little love nature had all gone out to that baby, even when it
had grown older and would abuse her until she cried with pain, she still
loved it. The husband in this home died, and again she was homeless.
She was at the age of thirteen then and had taken a place as nurse, when
one day she had been called into the breakfast room to answer some
questions about her name and her father, by the master who was reading
the morning papers. After a day or two she was startled to find that she
was expected to show a new nurse where to find all the things belonging
to the baby and children; then she was told that in the future she was
to be one of the family and was asked how she would like to go to
school. It had been her secret ambition; she studied hard and was
admitted to one of the best colleges. At the age of twenty she was home
again, or rather the place she had learned to look upon as home and
still did not know why these people had so suddenly changed toward her.
One day she was reading the paper and saw her mother’s name. She had
often read over her marriage certificate and found it was the name
advertised for. She had often wondered why she had to sign a paper for
the allowance which they were giving her; it seemed strange. She
answered the advertisement, however, and discovered that her mother had
fallen heir to a fortune which became hers. Instead of these people
rejoicing with her, as she had expected, they were angry. They said many
things about ingratitude that made her feel so uncomfortable that she
left them. Her lawyer discovered that she had had a larger fortune left
her by her grandfather years before, she being the only direct heir on
her father’s side. Suitors and friends sprung up like mushrooms, but the
man she loved died. Life lost all interest for her then in a personal
way. She could never forget the poverty she and her mother had suffered.
She was watching to see what she could do with the money that had come
too late to be of use to the parents who had needed it so much.
Then she heard about the society. She said, “What a good thing that must
be.”
Then she donned plain clothes and went to work in the worst paid places
she could find, just to learn the histories of the women who were forced
to work in such places. This is how she gained the title (she worked for
a cause). As is the case with so many who are already rich, the mines
that had been theirs had not been sold according to law. Now all this
money had come to her without any effort on her part. She had merely
inherited it, so she determined that it should do the most good to the
largest number of people.
She had become acquainted with Scoris, Helen, Tom and the rest of the
family, and was given the name of “Princess” because the people among
whom she had worked had always spoken of her as “The Princess
Lovechild.” A little girl once asked her name and she replied, “Love,
child,” not intending that her name should be known, but the child said
it was Lovechild, and all thinking the name appropriate, it clung to
her.
She was now past thirty years of age. Always finding out where her money
was needed the most, she gave freely. She had given it for factories, to
help along the exchanges, to buy shares for the old who were unable to
do for themselves. She used it to place hundreds of children in the
society until they were old enough to earn their own living. The society
said the name of “Princess” was none too good for her, for she had given
in return the love of her very being. Some brought their jewels to her
to be set in her crown that she wore on coronation days.
She was not the only princess by any means, but they all had to earn
their titles.
One day she had been going the rounds to find the deserving who could be
brought into the society, when she heard a child crying bitterly at a
window. She walked slowly past and smiled. The little fellow looked at
her and then called out, “I am all alone and it is getting so dark. Oh!
I am afraid; and the door is locked. Won’t you stay here until mamma
comes?” She did so and what was her surprise to hear the child say that
his name was “Freddie Moberly.” Then he looked around and said, “No, it
is Freddie Smith. I forgot.” She questioned him and found he was the
child who had been lost for nearly two years. She told him not to be
frightened that she would stay until his “mamma,” as he called the
woman, returned. In a moment or two she came, and as the child drew back
into the room, the Princess walked on, but no sooner had the door closed
than she returned and rang the bell. As Mrs. Smith appeared, she asked
to be allowed to go in as she wished to talk to her. The child was sent
out of the room and the Princess started at once on the subject for
which she had called. In a short time, Mrs. Smith told her if Mrs.
Moberly would get a divorce from her husband that she could have the
child. “He was a wreck from drinking and I nursed him back to life. We
were attracted to each other and when he afterwards told me he was
married and his wife would not live with him, I was sorry for him. I
knew at once that it was drink, and I also knew that if left to himself
he would be as bad as ever, for I could stop him from drinking. Well,
you see the result. He will support himself and me, but he wouldn’t keep
sober long enough, even if she would live with him, to support his wife.
Now I am not all bad, as she thinks I am. I am sorry that we have the
child; I don’t want to take him from his mother, and I certainly didn’t
take her husband from her, as the papers said. You see we know all about
it. It is not a case of kidnaping, either, for the law has never given
her the child and she cannot get him until she secures a divorce. I
cannot see my mother until I am his lawful wife. Now, madam, you see how
it is.”
The Princess had never known such a case before. That woman did not seem
to be a thoroughly bad woman and there was evidently something in the
man to make it worth her while to stick to him. His selfishness and
drinking had embittered the whole of his wife’s early life and shadowed
the childhood of his children as well as leaving them dependent.
The next day the Princess drove to the Colony. She saw Tom Vivian and
talked over what was to be done. They sent for Mira and told her.
Shortly after Tom called at the house where the child had been found by
the Princess, but as he expected, they had gone.