Iowa voter. [volume] (Knoxville, Iowa) 1867-1874, 1871-10-12
Miscellany.
CHOW HOTTER DID IT."
by j. r.. HADERaAgH.

THE year ls33-tbat ID, The year IN
which / was born--is Of no manner Oh
importance To myself or anybody else.
The year is59-that Is, the year in Which
I began to lice Charlie and got married
that yearj--is Of considerable i'm ortance
10 myself and TO somebody ese The two
decsces forming the interim between
those years constitute my Dark Age, in
which / yeethed and measled and whoop-
ing-cOughed, and went 10 school, and wore
my hair in two long pig-tails, and loved
molasses candy, and regarded school
r0om al pnrgatory, ball room as heaven
when sang and danced and grew as the
birds and grasshoppers and flowers sing
and dance and grow, because they having
nothing else TO do.
Then came my Golden Age. That
means, then came Charlie into my life,
when 1 felt for the first time that there
was music in the birds voices and per.
fume In the f1wers--that there was light
in the heavens above and on the earth be-
meath, for God was In heaven and Charlie
was on earth-when |, who had all along
been hardly more than human grassbop-
per, became the happiest OF happy women
80 much happier, | thought than de-
served. For who was j, and what great
crowned with such crown Of glory ag-
ChArlies why should ], ins gniiicant l, be
% best among women as to TIC taken to
wife by CharlieY
was insanely sentimental enough to
rather resent the fact that Charlie VITO
prosaicslly well off; his circumstances
were distressingly easy. II would ls
been so much nicer, 80 delicioufly ro-
mantle, if there had been an opportunity
Afforded me 10 show how ready, nay,
eager, was To sacrifice friends, home
and country for his dear sake But
Charlie didn't want me to sacrifice my
friends; nor did 1t require any great
amount Of heroism TO exchange my
modestly comfortable home TOR his decid
odly luxurious one; and as for country,
nothing ON earth could have induced
Charlie To leave bis own country, much
Less his own parish, much less his own
planta ion. So we were married without
any talk of sacrifice on either side, and
moved quietly enough from fathers small
plantation TO Charles larpe one.
There was but one dra ~ back 10 the per
iectncss Of my happiness; there was so
little hope OF my ever having an opportu-
nifty To air those magnaDimous traits OF
character upon the possession OF which |
% plumed myself | felt sure that could
meet the most adverse circumstances with
tho most smiling patience, but circum-
stances Obstinately refused to be adverse.
1 was inwardly conscious that the most
trying emergency could not shake my
heroic but purely feminine foriiude; but,
alas my fortiude was likely 10 rust while
waiting FIR the emergency. Injury and
wrong should be met with sublime dig
nifty. out the most wildly speculative i'm
ngination could not look upon Charles
piacidly handsome face and convert him
into possible iyrant.
To tell how the longed.for opportunity
To exercise my powers OF endurance, and
my dignity, and all the reg. ~ It, did
finally come about, and 10 tell how bore
the test, l. the object OF this paper.
For the first six months Of our married
life Charlie and Iwcre simply ridicul usly
happy seltishly happy, too. We re.
scented neighbours visit as an act of bar
barous invasion, and the necessity Of re-
turning such visits was acknowledged
with sublimity of resignation worthy of
pictorial reprcs, ntation in that exquisite
parlor manual, Fox's Book Of Martyrs. II
Charlie left the house for an hour or two,
/ looked upon his enforced absence az a
cruel dispensation of Providence, which
did not bear with 'foftitude aud sublime
dignity" but uted over like the ridicu.
lOus baby was. Bare conjugal civility
required that on leaving the house Charlie
should kiss me three times, and on re
turning six times; anything short of that
/ should have considered premonitory
symptom Of approaching separation. If
Charlie had ever been 80 savage as to call
me plain "Lulie," should have felt he
was sick and tired Of me, and was repent
ing of having married me in
stead Of that specialized has bleu,
Miss Minerva Henshaw, who read BUCKLE
and talked dictionary. believe was in
toxicated with my own happiness, and
was little nonsensical because was 80
happy.
Fortunately for the comfort of both
Charlie and myself his domestic cabinet
consisted of marvelously we'll trained set
of servants, who were simply perfect-as
perfect in their way as Charlie was In his.
They had been trained by Charles