Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1871-04-22

THE TRIPLE CONTEST.
BY sELwYN s. sTELLIs.

y
of mallets were heard on the croquet
grounds in the rear of Mr. Truman Burns
residence, while the proprietor sat out on
the piazza dreamily viewing the scene.
A bachelor past sixty, having no family
OF his own, he took lively interest in the
pleasure OF his nephews and nieces, ar
ranging his carriage drives, croquet
grounds and gardens with view to their
happiness, so that hardly day passed
that some did not 60 over to have good
time at ''Uncle Truman's." He had three
favorites among all his relatives, his nieces
Anna Beale, Anna Rimmons, and Anna
Lynn. They were the daughters of three
sisters who were dead Though theil
fathers were living and they were wei
supported at home, he had a peculiar
sense of responsibility in their case that he
did not feel for others. So the three Annas
cousins of about equal age. came and went
at viii to the home of their kind relative
living Just out of the city of b.
On one pleasant May afternoon several
young people from town shared with the
cousins the sports of the croque. ground.
After completing five games they sat
ing locust trees and conyersed the while.
AhNiV was ANNA tail allt DN no
means pretty, her lips were thin and long,
her eyes narrow, sleepy and squirting,
her nose being the sole fine feature. Hav-
ing nothing to do but to array herself she
was taultless as a chignon and curls, lace.
fiounces, and ribbon; being as stiff and
prim in motion as she was prosy in word
and thought. Anna Lynn had little grey
eye and an aquiline nose not in harmony
with her other features. Being slight and
under medium height she went among
her mates as''the little Anna" Anna Rim
mons had the finest features ofth three,
having dark full eye, pearly fair COM
pleXion; in person not too tall nor too
short, the natural curls playing about her
neck adding to the charm of her figure.
So much for mere personnels. But the
old proverb on the handsome held good
here. Anna Rimmons with her dashing
beauty had a coarse sharp voice and a
cold unteeling manner. while Anna Lynn's
gentle eye beamed SO kindly on all and
her few quiet words were so full of SYM
pathy, that those who at sight had waxed
eloquent over Anna Rimmon' s beauty and
pronounced Anna Lynn positively ugly,
after days acquaintance with both,
would yield the palm to Anna Lynn, and
wonder how they could have thought the
other handsome.
Near them were John Mills, radiant in
and neck-tie, and Fred Palmer,
hero among the bellies, conservative from
the crown of his hat to the point ofhis
boot. from his gait up Broad street to his
opinion on social qualifications Palmer
was a devotee at the shrine of the little
Anna
''Ill give up on ever winning at cro-
quet when you're against me-" said Anna
Rimmons the bold.
"Oh-ah! I'm sick of this ALL said An
ma Beale of the sleepy eye, with yawn,
81 wish we had something new"
amusement is spice in its place, but
one is satiated with too much honey said
Anna Lynn of the gentle voice, play
should be only a recreation"
''Recreation from what ?" asked Mills,
you must want us to go back to school
again, or be apprenticed to some trade"
''She's always preaching that doctrine ="
laughed Anna the bold.
suppose you explain" said Mills.
II mean just this, y said the gentle Anna,
''that these lives of ours which we at twen-
ty years old are SO fitting away are just
butterfly lives. | am utterly dissatisfied
with an existence so aimless.n
That's all very well in poetry, "said
Fred Palmer, 'but when it comes to fact,
it means bona fide work.
That's what | mean too,n she replied
very quietly.
Dear me!' exclaimed Fred, "who
wants to quit all fun and 90 boring into
work till ones obliged to do it P"
sAh we'll find pnnuUb tn do soiJ A N
ma of the sleepy eye, whose ideas were
brilliant and originals skim milk. Il
have to spend time drenssing, going back
and forth from the moctua- makers being
fitted, regulating my wardrobe, and dear
me its tiresome. Besides, rs far as a
woman is concerned there isn't much of
anything else that one. can do and be re-
spectacle"
Then do something lowly and make ii
respectable" said gentle Anna, with en-
phasis, yet very softly.
Poetry again, said Fred with smile,
''oh you ladies have such sweet fancies,
they come about as near to realities as the
tales of the Arabian nights to the fact of
the 10th century. You harp sweetly on
work be it ever so lowly, but when it
comes to real low work, leaving off the
poetic ring, dare any lady of my ae-
quaintance to undertake it.
Il too, ha ha !" laughed Anna the bold,
land do despise especially those who go
ranting about the country about 'woman's
work and all that sort Of thing"
Little Anna looked up calmly, but tear
filled her eye as she said. ''lf womanli-
ness is being fettered to fashion and folly,
if womanless is sleep and inaction in the
midst of world full of work, alas for
womanhood alas for the thousands who
weep with none to comfort them!n
Fred Palmer, touched by her pathos,
thought he would give gallant turn to
the question and yet satisfy her"
Woman sacred name! Heaven pity
me when cease to be her champion in
peace and war. Now that her cause is be-
ing banded about on vulgar lips from
State to State, and her sanctity put in ieap-
ardy by the so called strong minded,
Heaven pity me if to the last do not op-
pose that class who under profession OF
seeking to enlarge her mission, tear down
the barriers that have kept her in her pure
pSfntA the nnlV trpa and upsultia6 baino