The new Northwest. [volume] (Portland, Or.) 1871-1887, 1873-08-08


Col. AllstOn was a man of taciturn
manner, but of raging passions. Though
so ready to eOncede TO Mary before mar
riage, no sooner was the VOW irrevocably
taken than his sardonic temper made
her his victim. He was jealous to q
degree almost incOnceivable to natures
who know not the tortures of insane
suspicion. He seemed to be perpetually
tormented with the idea that the mem
ory of the dead rose, like the smoke of
sweet incense, between him and the
eyes of her affection. Yet, unwise man
that he was, craving her love as the
famishing man Graves bread, he sought
blindly to force her love, not to win It,
So Mary learned soon TO guard her
speech against any allusion to those
Elysian days when the golden atmOs-
phere of happiness enfolded her with
her lost love. She never spoke Harry's
name, and hid his pictures where no
other eyes than hers and Babie Bios
sOm's could dwell upon them. But do
all he could, Col. Allston could never
profane the sacred shrine in her heart,
where her tears and signs ascended con-
tinually to him who was second in her
love only to her God.
Col. Allston seemed also to look upon
Blossom as q barrier to his wife's heart
CT lilstu NlTllN
win his way to the mother through the
child, he madly thought to thrust the
little one away, that she should not
keep him from his souls desire.
When Mary married, of course her
small pension reverted to her child At
first she made no effort to secure this
for Blossom, as Col. Allston's means
were ample, and Mary, with an over
estimate of her ''rights," ridiculOusly
feminine, deemed that endowing her
with his worldly goods, meant both for
herself and child, corresponding sup
port. But she erred, as women have
erred before, who have trusted mascu-
line generosity to fill out the sad vacuum
which masculine legislation leaves i'm
Womanis Rights. Col. AllstOn insisted
that the claim should be made for Bios
SONS pittance, and Mary, heart-sick
with shame for him whose name she
bore, gave reluctant acquieseence.
The first step necessary was that
guardian should be appointed, whose
duty il should be to advance the claim
against the Government. OF course no
other than the mother was fitting per-
son for this Office, and Mary thought
| nothing else than that she should take
upon herself the guardianship of her
only child. But mark this, you who
assert so loudly that woman has all the
rights she needs, that woman fares bet
ter under exclusive masculine legisla-
ton than If she herself built up the bull
warks of her own defense, bark you
this, and hide your faces for very shame.
r When Mary went to her friend, Judge
Way, to assume the legal responsibility
of her child, she learned that q wise re-
, suit of legislative deliberation forbade
r her the right without her husbands
! consent. With dim realization of one
, fragrant injustice of class legislation,
/ she pondered it quietly in her heart,
while she sent a messenger for her hus-
: band. Straightway he came, knowing
of AIary's intention, and aware, by rea-
son of his familiarity with the law, that
when she visited Judge Way, she would
, have need of his presence.
, "Col. Allston," said Judge Way, ''we
have a small technicality to adjust in
: this business, simply your consent that
= Mrs. Allston shall assume the guardian
! ship of her child"
: (Which / refuse to give" answered
Col. Allston.
And, reader, that husband, fully en-
! powered by such legislation as remands
T woman to the companionship of crimi-
mails, lunatics, and fools, empowered to
withhold natures birth-right, a moth
10 neE OWL SIeslOldSLlY
, refused to give his consent. But with
|. equal persistency, he demanded that in
! his own hands should be placed the le-
gal guardianship of his step-daughter.
Aud of course he persisted to the effect
he sought, for with all our bombast and
fine rocket rhetoric concerning the lib
erty and equality of our Government,
truth is that might is yet right, in the
: ethics of our Nineteenth Century civili-
|, Zation.
Thus Babie Blossom, the dainty lassie
! whose witcheries were once so potent
with her dead papa, whose life was so
: inextricably interviewer with her moth
er's, became Col. Allstons ward.
1t is not for moment to be thought
: that Blossoms paltry pension was the
? object of her step-father's Vaccinations.
: Not so. His demand that she claim il
: was a part of his deep laid scheme to
! obtain the control of Blossom herself.
: The pension was only a necessary ruse,
: for he could advance no other plausible
! reason for a guardian to be appointed
= over a child who had no estate or purse
1 to be protected.
: need not recapitulate the perseeu-
tions which this authorized tyrant, from
this time on, laid upon mother and
q child. Every caress, every tender word
u bestowed upon Blossom by her mother,
J, seemed to him a direct infringement
e upon his own rights. Mary did not at
y first understand that her love for heI
s child inflamed her husbands hatred for
II Blossom, and when she did, her indig-
: nation took almost the form of defiance
T She spoke no word of rebellion, but
L unwisely for one whom neither love mol
r law protected, and from whom only mel
\ own small guile could ward off persecu-
j tions, made her love for Blossom as
demonstrative as If it did not gall heI
= husband to the quick.
/, Then Col. Allston took the child from
y her mother, regardless of their grief and
: indignant expOstulations, and placed
/ her with his sister, in a distant country
n village. Poor Maryl what could she
: do? Appeal to the LdI0 for the custody
a of her child? The law had already
: given it to her husband. Appeal to
:, him ? His heart was gall in its hatred
d of Blossom, and she appealed in vain.
!, What could she do? Only what thOus-
!, ands upon thousands of heart-stricken
i women in our perfect Republic (?) do to-
n day; fill the world with cries, "How
long, oh Lord, how long,"
n For dreary year Mary trod the wine
Y press alone, hoping and fearing, hoping
= that the hard heart would become eter-
4 nally adamant.
i But He who rules gave entrance tC
Q another character upon the scenes o.
: this life-drama whose name had moi
n been cast in the drdnldtis persona, anC
n that was Death.
Y Col. Allston was stricken with a fata
8 malady Just as Mary's heart was parting