The new Northwest. [volume] (Portland, Or.) 1871-1887, 1874-11-13
PLINGING SHADOWS.
BY MRS. J. \. JOHNS.

1 find a short article in the Salem
Mercury, in which the author evidently
thinks he has discovered that women
are particularly addicted to ''finging
shadows over the spirits of the family.
What has induced this opinion, 1 know
not; but the supposition is, that the
growing commentator is not favorite
with women, or that his Julia Ann
filings shadows" over his pathway by
smiling at some more favored wight.
In this case he is certainly exeusable for
throwing this fling at woman, although
ten chances to one she is merely paying
him of in coin that he has in times past
given to some other.
The truth is, men, and women, too,
are too much given to the blighting
habit of ''fiinging shadows" 1t is not
popularity of sex-it is a lack of
thoughtful kindness and consideration
for the feelings of others, that men and
women alike so often suffer from.
Shadows are often thrown, perchanee
in q thoughtful manner, which extend
far beyond the present gloom that they
cast, and serve to cloud the future years
of those unborn.
A case of shadow fiinging" occurs to
my mind in this connexion which l
will here relate.
A mother once said to me: 'I would
willingly live on one meal day if my
husband would only allow that to be a
pleasant one, by abstaining from fault
| finding. Never do we eat a meal, but
that one or more of the dishes that I
have done my best to prepare in man
ner that I hoped would please him, is
subject to his criticism. have tried
my very best to prevent this by using
every care and art known me in prepar-
ing our food. l could not endure his
fault-finding without deep depression
of spirit Before three years of our mar
ried life had passed, found myself suf-
fering from dyspepsia, from which, in
the twenty-eight years that have fol.
lowed, have been a constant sufferer
Seven of my children are sufferers from
the same disease, but are otherwis,
healthy" In all these years the hus
band enjoyed the best of health, all un
mindful of the shadow with which b
was darkening the lives of wife an
children. He had probably inherite
: this spirit of fault-finding in the sam
r manner in which his chill lren inherite
: the ills of weak digestion. These case
: where the sins of the father are visite
: upon the children to the third an
fourth generation are too numerous t
require proof.
Rational persons cannot expect mucl
: improvement i'm this line, so long as il
: law and usage husbands are masters an
wives servants.
That women are more i'm the habit O
: flinging shadows than are men, i
scarcely believed, even by the persol
who unblushingly asserts that to thi
: "very common sin women are particu
larly addicted" Such sentiments, wheI
, eleverly woven into sentences, maxi
fiowery, smooth-flowing nonsense, bu
are otherwise valueless contributions t,
literature.
Those who are possessed of steady, un
wavering cheerfulness have a heritag
more enduring than houses and lands
Yet to those who are sitting in grief ant
humiliation under the brooding SHADOW
! of great sorrow, even cheerfulness
often out Of place, as it serves only t.
render the gloom of their own despond
: ency the deeper by contrast. Thus ther
is time for rcheerfulness as for all thing
else.
The assertion that We hear almos
daily that wives are accountable for tn
. moods of their husbands, is not nearl,
so true as is the reverse of the statement
, There are thousands of wives in thi
land to-day, whose lives are one con
slant effort to please their husbands, bu
a who never receive by word or act an ac
, acknowledgement of the effort. Is
, strange that sometimes, or it may b
often, that they grow weary, discourage
I and heartsiek, in expectancy of tina
which never comes, and find it impossi
bic to smile as serenely as they di
, when love and hope were young? Ah
if the ghosts of women, grown old befor
, their time, defrauded socially and affeC
tionally, could rise from the prematur
graves that were to them as a port G
a refuge from the disappointments c
, starved affection, the CHASTITY ARA
would astonish, and l trust put to 81
+ lence those who so flippantly exhol
women to cheerfulness while every in
> dignity is heaped upon them.
And as 1 leave this subject, 1 ask car
, did and thoughtful persons to giveitthe
consideration, and in SO doing, dout
4 not that they will find real facts mol
numerous and potent than faneies. NJ
= only object in calling attention to thes
things is to benefit humanity, and If
!, should be the means of lifting from on
life the shadows that thoughtless aet
, have shrouded in gloom, I shall fet
i. more than repaid.
Salem, November 1st, 1874.