Mineral Point weekly tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1859-1868, 1863-10-14
THE STRONG HEART.

II great factory, from It's yastness, and
,n;Sbt of its machinery, though without
arcbitecturaI elegance or aesthetica1 design
= lone file of girls were working at their noisy
looms Most of them presented the common
type of the factory girl, the independence
the selfassertiOn, the love of snatches OF me
nv in the shape of necklaces and earrings, IN
the middle of the dusty clothes, with their
bursts OF merriment at every pause III their
routine One girl was exception. She
worked in a corner, told of by a necessary
angle of the building from the stands OF her
comDanions She preferred that situation,
and had selected it without opposition. She
was not better than her neigIbors; she had
the ordinary calico gown, and the cap with
which the wise ones protected their heads
from the stuff flying about the room. If there
was any difference, her dress was more scru-
pulously clean and more precisely and primly
fitted, and pinned more smooth and neat, than
the dresses of the other girls. But she was
clearly woman OF a higher cast; you saw it
in her turn of features, her expression, her
intercourse with her felloW-wOrkers and the
manager Although she was quite a young
woman, and not unusually skilled in her trade.
there was a tacit respect paid 70 her, that I'M
conscious demonstration which often marks
the difference between inevitable just su-
premacyn and unwarrantablc usurpation. No
g
of airs or resented her dignity; and mill
hands are VIGOROUSLY shTewd Observers
They did not take to her much; they did not
like her over much she was a woman to be
trusted and treated with Indifference at that
stage, by the many as beyond their compre-
hensIcn and their instincts, and to be loved
engrossingly by the few.
Yet Lofty was only the orphan daughter of
a mechanic, who had kcen rather remarkable
for his incapacity than anything else. She
must have gone back to some distant auces-
tor for her faculties, because Lefty was born
4 rising woman.
| would like t. show YOU Lefty in the
physique before she leaves the factory this
night, "a ii happens, never TO return. She i
not little sprite Of woman, IA 1t is the
fashion OF the day to find embodiments of
latent power | suspect the size Of the Ian
tern has really nothing to do with the
strength of the flame within. Lefty was fair
and pale-so fair and pale that there would
have been something insipid about her per-
son, had it not been thrown into a grand
mould. She was big woman, rendered on
u slightly ungainly by her compressed dra-
perry.
That night, at the ringing of the factory
bell, Lefty sorted her loom, a. she was wont.
in her orderly fashion, and went out slowly
and singly, lingering behind the riotous troops
I'd Htf com pGIIOlo, III OiutE TO De joined bN
George Ashe. There he was, by her side,
slight lad, more youthful-lookinS than Lefty,
thosgh he was her senior, with that inefiable
air Of refinement which some people call a
genteel address, and with one Of those bright
and spiritual faces, set in soft, dark hair, cur
y hair, which we are driven to look on in
man with dim doubts and forbodings
IN month from that date Lefty went
abroad with the Bridgcwaters, who, in ordi-
nary, accommodating phrase, had taken fancy
t. the superior mill girl. Lefty went as aid
TO Mrs Peaston, to Mrs. Bridgewater's maid,
to the head nurse of the young Bridgewatcrs.
She got higher wages as an amphibi0us 10
nestle than she could win working in the fac
tory. She would See the world and improve
herself as the quiet young woman had an ar
dent desire to do, and her George was recon
ciled to the separation because lac could trust
her, and he was as proud that she could com
maad these advantages as ID was mortified
that they should 90 without his Instrumental
itE, and rot in his company.