The new Northwest. [volume] (Portland, Or.) 1871-1887, 1873-02-21

gineer and absorbed in his work. He
comes into the "air-tighC' room, like a
fresh breeze into the desert. He works
early aud late, and is rising in his busi-
ness. He too has had an Angelo, with
the left off-a black-eyed angel whose
"Black eyes
Told lies"
lie had thought to lay these honors
at her feet, but she has deceived him.
What keeps him from poor novels and
confectionery? Nothing but his work.
That buoys him up, that fills his mind,
and he lays her memory away with the
1 faded rosebuds behind his cOlor-boXes.
Is his heart renewed like that of Prone
/ theus as fast as it is broken, or is he
without heart? Neither, but the world
calls to him as the stirring notes of the
bugle call the masteTless steel, the
morning after battle. Every muscle
/ quivers with life, his eyes dilate, his
ears turn TO catch the sound, he pauses
an instant, his feet paw the dewy grass,
then he springs fOrwOrd, and dashes
into his place in the ranks.
But Mariana, poor Mariana, sits by
the fire and means,
ale comeih not, am weary,
wish that were dead"
Is it her fault? / think not. II is
only the difference in training. The
Beauty has been trained TO sleep until
/ the Prince should come TO wake her up.
/ Because her father has money enough
for her to struggle through existence
without labor, she does not dream of
working. Only yesterday some fash
/ ionable lady came in an announced:
"Did You ever hear of such a thing?
Julia Nandyke has gone to teaching
school,"
'.she has? Why, has her father
! failed ~
''No, he has money enough to support
her."
"Then, how can she pr
"Welli she thought it her duty to do
something
''How very peculiar"
\ woman lecturing a short time ago
IN New York discanted on the dreary
prospects for labor, for the higher classes
Of women, possessOrs of brains as we'll
as fingers. The great difficulty, it seems
to me, is that the women have not been
trained. Unskilled labor wants TO OBJ
tain responsible positions. Perhaps,
too, there may sometimes be mistake
as to the amount of brains. In many
cases the hands might prove much more
powerful.
But l am entering on too wide a
prairie of thought for a limited corner
of print. The question is, Who eau
convince Mariana that labor is what she
needs? Who can make her believe
that the tree, beautiful with foliage and
fruit, is not TO be cut down when the
cold winter chills it, and its leaves lie
brown and curled, blown hither and
Ihlther by the wind, and trOdden under
ioot, but that the sap runs yet, and next
springs tuds are only waiting? When
winter turns away, warm south winds
viii come up from the magnolia and
orange groves; then the tree shall again |
rejoice and bear fruit.
If Mariana has not the skill to do
anything that the world wants done, |
let her learn, no matter if she has passed
that dreadful RubicOn Of thirty. She is /
not q candidate for the "HOme of aged |
and INDECENT females yet.
i know of an old lady, over sixty, who /
acquired good knowledge Of the Latin |
language, that she might help her
grandchildren.
| remember, when a child, a queer old |
parsonage who went to the same gram ]
mar school that did. She was forty or I
fifty years old, she had a funny little
head on the top of a long neck, and a
squeaky voice. We called her Aunt
Charity. She was a school-teacher, and |
finding her knowledge not quite suffi- /
cient for the rapidly developing crani- |
ums of Young America, had gone to .
school to ''study up" 1 laughed at her
then, but l don't now; dear Aunt Char
ity, l know you! 1 appreciate your sac
riiice, and if You still live to troweI
round your young shoots in the district
school, l have no doubt they are wiser
and you are happier for the sacrifice you
made.
But Mariana, Mariana, singing her
sad refrain, may the time soon come
when she will no longer make herself
md everyone about her miserable. Let
ler forget herself and her sorrows in ac-
i've work, and as she works, she will
ing. But none of these sad, drearv
iongs; her voice will rise like that of an
lneaged bird, and make not only her
'wn heart rejoice, but the hearts OF all
.round. As for the kind of work, more
mother time.