The Cambria freeman. [volume] (Ebensburg, Pa.) 1867-1938, 1872-10-25
Il MAIL-MATCH.

ted by recording journalism than as being
in Michigan, that a recent widower named
Dodds, who had chosen to CRAFTY his own
wishes and tastes by contracting a second
marriage, found it necessary, in the inter
ests Of domestic peace, to subject his only
and decidedly disfavoring son to an imme-
diate choice between treating his step
mother with dutiful respect and finding a
new home for himself elsewhere. The lady
in the case had not apparently been guilty
Of any greater offence against the young
man than he chose to see in her succession
to the station of his late mother, but in the
fact that he had been prompt to show his
sense of Il grievance in that matter, there
was sufficient reason for her exhibition to-
wards him of demeanor not warmly ma
ternal and for his own consequently in
creased prejudice against her. Second
marriages do not often please first children,
as = prophetic instinct Of jealousy seldom
fails to make the latter keenly distrustful
of the most amiable possible circumstances
Of the former; and in common natures this
wary instinct of antagouism requires little
or no immediate irritation to develop it into
an element of chronic opposition, destroy
ing all harmony in household. Young
Dodds would have disIiled and sighted his
step-mother had she been the meekest and
most conciliatory of her sex; and as she
happened to have viii Of her own, and
very prompt temper for the assertion of her
prerogatives and privileges in her husbands
house, he was aggressively at war with her
from the first day of her domestic author
fortunate state of affairs patiently so long
as he could, and then vindicated his own
authority by the paternal ultimatum above
noted. His son chose, thereupon, to leave
home, and declared that he would seek his
future fortune in California but, before
parting, determined to give one last proof
of hostility to his step mother. Dodds, the
elder, with the rather reluctant consent of
his wife, had decided to give home to the
orphan daughter Of half-brother named
Wilson, who had lately died in Detroit
and the young man resolved to warn this
coming young lady, whom he had never
yet seen, of the kind of treatment which
ond Mrs. Dodds. Accordingly, on the eve
of his departure from home, he addressed
to Miss Wilson a letter of compassionate
chivalry, advising her to be on her guard
against the female intruder whose dom
ineering disposition as he phrased it, had
compelled him to leave the paternal roof,
and inviting her to depend upon his sym
II; i
proved the truth of his forebodings in her
behalf His letter, written rather from
spleen against one woman than because Of
any definite sentimental inclination toward
another, was received by the orphan in
Detroit as a most noble minded and disin-
tcrested Offering of friendship, and pre-
pared her to admire extravagantly the ex-
lied writer and feel very different senti-
ment toward the lady supposedly OCCASION
ing the exile. Thus very naturally preju-
diced, Miss Wilson became an inmate of
her half-uncle's house soon after the de
partule of her half-cousin for the Pacific
coast, and entered upon her new social re-
lations with such strong predisposition
against Mrs. Dodds as was sure to invite
as may be seen, was a fresh opening for
household diScord. The step-mother, find
ing the young lady disposed from the first
to be uncongenial with her, and displaying
a particularly provoking air of incredulity
at any casual mention of the absent SON s
ungraciOus behavior, soon asserted her own
dignity by adopting a demeanor equally
Il or
take long for the adopted orphan to dis
cover that the warning which she had re
ceivcd before leaving Detroit had only
been too well founded, and to pine at the
thought that she had no choice but to re-
main in home where she was unbelOved.
The head of the house, noticing tins second
disagreement of elements in his home life,
and not at all aware of the letter his son
had volunteered to his niece, was rather
unfortunate than otherwise i'll his early eff
forts to make the two ladies agreeable to
each other, and soon abstained from all
attempted mediation. Despite all this,
however, as neither the step-mother or the
adopted daughter was person of actually
unamiable disposition, there might posi-
bly, have enSued better understanding IN
the little family but for an unexpected let
ter from the California exile. Not deign-
ing to write to the sire who had permitted
him to go away from home on account of
a new wife. that self-willed wanderer chose
to address his unseen half cousin once more,
and that too in a strain of magnificent in
jury and melancholy. He did not know
when he wrote whether she felt enough in
terest in his existence TO even ''care wheth-
er he did well or i'll, lived or died." but as
he could not help thinking that she must
be as unhappy as himself, there might pos
sibly be sympathy between them to which
he might trust for occasional response to
his natural yearning for few words from
his old home. Driven thence as he had
been by the <'domiDeering disposition of a