The new Northwest. [volume] (Portland, Or.) 1871-1887, 1872-04-05


Woe. woe the day, when from thy distant
Thy loved ones urged thee to these halls TO
come.
She arose and hurriedly paced up and
down the room.
"Am going crazy?r she whispered.
''Yes, am crazy, for now recall every
burning word that old erOne uttered.
The time has indeed come when
Long for the hearse and the shroud and the
bier.'
But it's to late to retrace my footsteps.
l was inpelled to this course against
my own inclination, and now 1 must
Become the glad bride of the gentleman true,
Who would fain kneel before me his suit to
pursue.'
His glad bride indeed His sad BRIDE
the old gipsey had much better said.
But harkl The clock strikes nine.
Farewell freedom! Farewell individual
ity! Farewell hoper'
Patient reader, do not become disgust
ed with this straightforward story.
Thousands are the women who marry
from sheer force of circumstances, whose
inward thoughts of repulsion are none
the less real, expressive and bitter be-
cause skillfully concealed. Never will
womanhood become disenthralled from
this yoke of matrimonial oppression un-
til every conventional yoke is broken
which binds her as slave to circum-
stances, and she, like man, endowed
with pOUCer TO shape and control her
own opportunities, accepts matrimony
as a choice instead of necessity. That
very many women do become mated
from choice does not prove that woman's
present status is correct. 1t only proves
that they are often comparatively happy |
in spite of prescribed opportunities,
while the many sad, disappointed, mis- /
mated and misanthropic ones bear daily
testimony to the fact that women need |
the greatest largess of personal liberty
to enable them to choose for themselves
such lots as seem TO suit them.
The civil magistrate, who entered |
with the groom and landlord to perform
the marriage ceremony, proved to be
the proprietor of the intelligence Office,
whom Ellen painfully remembered, as
he entered the room with the inevitable
pen behind his ear.
''Bless my eyes, but this is a pleas
urer he exclaimed, rubbing those
"blessed" members till they resembled
inflamed feline optics, that had been
treated to dose of diluted vitriol. az
didn't expect such denoument as this
when you came, my pert and plucky
little lady, to seek hired man in my
office-though l might have known it,
for these matters usually terminate just
so. Are you ready?'
Ellen bowed assent. For her life she
could not have spoken.
Peter Dowd crossed the room and,
taking her by the hand, led her forth, as
Ellen inwardly expressed it, like a
lamb to the altar of sacrifice"
A short ceremony; o promise on one
side to Glove, protect and cherish" and
on the other, to 'slOve, honor and obey"
was quickly over, and Ellen became
merged by law into the personifi-
cation and ownership of her husband.
''What God hath Joined together let not
man put asunder," was the final COM
ment of the magistrate.
All, reader, does God ever join two
human souls under circumstances like
these?
The marriage certificate was duly
signed, sealed and delivered, the re-
quired fee was paid, and the officer of
the law and the landlord, as his witness,
left the newly married couple alone.
"By ginger, Jenkinsr said the land
lord, in a low, earnest tone, 'I feel /
dreadful blue over this transaction. It's /
very nearly thirty years since Ellen
Darcy, that girls mother, married Pc
ter Dowd, that mans cousin, in this
very house. don't at all like the stock /
of them Dowds. a prettier girl than
Ellen Darcy, or better hammered.
more accomplished one, didn't exist in |
her time; and her daughters quite up
to her. Old D'Arcy's daughter had
dooced hard time of it in this world,
and if Pm not mistaken, his grand
daughter won't recline on roses"
'1f you had any objection to the
match, why didn't you say so?" queried
the magistrate, very virtuOusly indig-
nant, now that his fee was in his pocket
and any objection to the marriage would
be forever too late.
81 keep public house to make mon
ey, sir; and if I'd spoil the little made
up games of impetuous young folks I'd
lose much of my business. Can't afford
it, sir. Do you understand?r
Business is business, that's fact"
was the rejoinder, and the two sat down
behind the bar room stove to smoke and
| grow serene.
Peter DOwd ordered breakfast, and
pale, motherly woman spread a tiny ta-
BILE with an appetizing meal of savory
dishes.
Ellen tried, but could not eat. She
seemed as one in trance. So pre-occu-
pied was she that her husband was COM
PEELED to address her repeatedly to
arouse her sufficiently to cause her to
reply to his well meant admonitions to
partake of food.
Breakfast over, the young couple de-
parted for Chicago, by way of the great
lakes. Peter Dowd sold his horse for
fifty dollars, which, added to his purse
/ ,f fx-a,,fx- daIIars ,,,;n,,s fba hofal hill