The new Northwest. [volume] (Portland, Or.) 1871-1887, 1873-07-18
Nasty on the Elevation of Woman.

hannan Jane, salI tue preacher, was
n girl of seventeen, that age at which so
many maidens remain so many years.
Beauty is nOthing-as / know from ex-
periencei But Hannah Jane was a glo-
rious creature, of medium height, plump
but not gross, Grecian nose, kissable
mouth, taper fingers, hazel eyes, pure,
red and white complexion, the figure of
n Venus, as graceful in movement as a
panther, etc, etc. She was a girl for
whom a warm man would fOrsake not
only his father and mother, but his
grandfather aud grandmother, and even
accept a mother-in-law, provided she
was old and subject to climatic infiu-
encesi Then, too, she was genuine, no
whalebone or paint abeut her All the
young men admired her, while the
young ladies hated her with a perfect
hatred; they were ready to tear her 10
pieces. They said she was pretty, but
She stopped, and it was pity she
squinted, and her hair was OF a fiery
red, and her teeth artificial. In fact,
they made her out 4 miracle of ugliness,
whereas she was 4 miracle of loveli-
ness.
They couldn't see what there was
about her to infatuate the young men.
Yet she was their matrimonial saliva
tion, for her beauty lighted up n flame
Of love in the hearts of the young men
which nothing could extinguish save
matrimony, and that does it pretty ef-
fectually sometimes. As they couldn't
all marry her, they must marry some
body else, and even Jotham Pendletown
Smith, who was so ugly that his looks
were improved by his being kicked i'm
the face by n mule, when he had pro-
posed and been laughed at by Hannah
Jane, went and married 4 gushing Great
ure who had seen twenty-seven or
thirty years, who had cross eyes, wore
number eight shoes, was thin where she
should be thick, and whose mouth was
so large that she couldn't talk without
her teeth dropping out. Hannah Jane
was not only beautiful but good. | will
not say she was free from feminine
faults. No one could rush TO the window
with greater alacrity than she, TO see
the latest new bonnet go by, abuse the
style, and then go and buy one just like
il. She would not have been a woman
if she didn't do that. She was accom-
plished in nothing; but she had great
possibilities Her brothers got all the
edueation; her beauty would secure her
a husband, and that was all she needed.
Dhc SOulu Itiu bul iilulllSlehLiNt Sut
spelled kiss with one :, and her reading
was limited to the newspapers, of which
she preferred the New York LdcDencl-
ent to all others, because it only took
five copies of il To make sizeable bus
tie.
Abel Merriwether was n young law
student, who, having nothing TO support
one, undertook to provide for two. He
wooed and won Hannah Jane, and mar
ried her on the maxim, that il costs no
more to support two than one. Horri-
ble fallaeyl You might rs well say that
two pounds of beef costs no more than
one, a proposition which any rcspecta-
bic butcher would reject with toathiHg
and scorn. There is nothing in love
which is opposed TO roast beef Yet
marriage is AN estimable institution;
would not have it die out, though that
might save us from such productions as
George Francis Train and Sylvanus
Cobb. Abel married Hannah Jane,
and their friends came out strong on
wedding gifts, sending no less than
nineteen cake baskets, and a great va
riety of other silver they had no use for,
all of which Hannah Jane traded Off for
a kitchen stove and a sewing machine.
At this time Abel was in the hair-Oil
period Of life, when the state of his shirt
front preyed upon his mind. He culti-
waited the wavy masses of his hair, and
If he had taken to literature might have
made another Theodore Triton! Han
nah Jane had native intelligence, but
she read nothing and knew nothing.
She lived in perpetual state of admir-
alton of her husband. She believed he
had great future before him, and she
was bent on helping him TO reach il.
All her little patrimony went TO stock
their cottage, and she slaved, that he
might have leisure TO develop his great
powers. lie accepted the sacrifice, ly-
ing on the sofa of an evening, aud smok-
ing his cigar, while she took in sewing
to supply their needs. When ut last he
tired of her company and absented him
self evenings, she accepted his pretense
of "businessr with undoubting conf
dence, and when he sometimes came
home Il little unsteady, she grew fondly
alarmed, and begged he would let busi-
ness 60, before he completely exhausted
himself. Thus he continued TO receive,
and she to give; he advancing, she
standing still, because he did not try to
develop her, until lie began To feel her
inferiority. At last business came;
Abel got murder ease. The mistress
of a man who had forsaken her, went
for him with a romantic little pistol,
and Abel got her clear, on the plea of
emotional insanity. He got little
money-thOugh he took all she had
but he got reputation, and he followed
it up, went into politics, got elected to
the Legislature, and then TO Congress.
All this time, Hannah Jane was max
ing constant sacrifices to help him along,
cutting up her cloak To make him 4
coat, that he might make good appear
ance at the Convention. Close confine-
ment to household duties made havoc
with her beauty, but she was happy i'm
the thought that il was all for his adj
vaneement. He went on enlarging his
opportunities, while she went on rocking
the cradle.
4 change came stealing over her, for
hard labor had stolen her beauty, and
many cares had given her an anxious
look. Abel, meantime, kept on advane-
ing. At forty, he was judge, and had
achieved national reputation.
He was constantly putting himself
i'm the hands Of his friends" and had
made money in Congress, though rail-
roads didn't then pay a third as much
for votes as they do now. He was bril-
liant and ambitious, and had developed
much, while Hannah Jane had neither
improved nor developed. The events of
the day were not familiar to her. She
didn't know Mrs. Woodruff, and if she
had known that an attempt had been
made last fall to beat General Grant,
she would have supposed it was in earn
est instead of being a stupendOus joke;
of the horse epidemic, George Francis
Train, and other horrors, she knew not
And, after all, am not certain if she
was not the better for it; deaf man es-
capes many disagreeable noises, and Il
man with n Wootien leg has diminished