The River Falls journal. (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1857-1861, 1858-09-08
An Incident In u GrOgscry.


small tables, on which, of an evening. some
Of tho frcquentcrs are resting their glass
es, but more arc shufHing half-worn cards,
There is no name over the door, nor any
number upon it; it seems to be no part Of
the keepers plan to attract transient pat
ronage, but rather to depend on "a regu-
lar line O customers. a dozen of whom
were assembled some time after l l one
night last week, where they might have
realized as much fun rs Swedenborgs
evil spirits in the delights of their ordure
but for most abrupt interruption just as
our reporter CHANGED to be crossing into
Broadway.
81 want And.cw O'Ncilw The men at
the bar and the s;tters by the tables looked
toward the door, where stood n young
woman, poorly but MT shabbily dressed
in whose unspoiled face hope and desire
were struggling with despair. Il want
Andrew O'Neilw There was an energy
behind the almost calm voice of the wo-
man, and at this second summons, a mid
de-aged man with a pock-marked face,
and in whose mixed bic cd the Scotch
seemed to predominant, got up heavily
and moved towarl the door,
"What are you here for, and away
from home again, Mrs. ~
For you, for you, O'Neil you're not
to be here spending your money, and me
washing the long day"
$50 about your buslness-you might
be ashamed here among the Merccr-strect
women. I'm not going with you, so start
off, and the sooner tho better"
"Will you say that to me Come here,
now"
And saying this, the woman caught ut
her husbands cap with one hand, and
pulled him by the arm with the other,
when the brute pushed her in the face,
and sought to excite his fellows against
her by vile epithets; but the first jcer he
raised made the woman frantic; and
snatching for an oyster knife, she rushed
upon him with such wild fury, that ho
was rescued with difficulty by the keeper
of the house and one or two bystandcrs
as this the way you talk to me, YOU
white-faced villain lis this what YOU
promised when l left my good home?
Look me in the face, you skulk, and
speak, fyou saw ever, or heard ever aught
against me as maid or wife? I've not in
the house what's comfortable, and YOU
here drinking and playing away the mon
ey I should have for the boys. How dare
you look at me?'
The craven woman shrieked this rather
than spoke it, and the landlord annoyed
by the crowd gathering at his door, inter
fered TO get her off He told her to go
about her business; that if she was de-
cent woman she wouldn't be disturbing
the town, and intimatcd where the door
WIS out of which she must 90.
''Do vou tell me to 90? do you say
anything of me that's not decent Pm O.
Ne;rs lawful wife. I'm the mother Of lis
two housekeeping close to him, and draw
ing herself unconsciously up to an attitude
of graceful power do yondare to strike
me, or say wrong Of me! You steal away
my joy; you steal away honest peoples
earnngs,y you scpent. Yes, hold on TO that
post; you can't look an honest woman
Mary O'Neil in tho face; no more can
any man here, nor this pitiful huband of
mine, drinking with harlots and skulkipg
here, look at me-
This burst of invectivc subdued all about
her. Her comcly face was radiant with
indignant passion. She stood on that
miserable floor a revelation Ct unconscious
eloquence and original power, before
which covered the inferior people around
her. II ere was reyelng in the St Mich
oas, near by. The gilded bar-room of
that carayansera was crowded, its drawing
rooms and late snpper-tables thronged
fair women in costly silks; but was there
in any one of all that brilliant assemblage
so much Of that native power, force Of
character and capacity for sef-asscrtion,
that mark where the gold veins are in the
quartz of human formations; was there
anywhere more Of this than CLEANED from
the features Of MaryO'Nel, with her heart
breaking there in the low drinking room
across the way?
While she was speaking, her husband
sneaked out through q door behind the
bar. and the woman was left alone. Two
1 or three strangers in tbecrowd expressed
their admiration of her womanliness and
their sympathy for her misfortunes, by
compelling her to take small sum of
money, and urging her to give over look
ing for her worthless husband then or
ever thereafter. But her pathetic reply
was. e'Bad as he is, love the ground be
! walks upon."-N. Y. Tr!iqne.