Smyrna times., 1876-04-05
A Woman who Had no Chance.


dozen originals of both; there will certain
ly be no danger of recognition. On one of
the earlier days of this month the woman
OF whom we speak went to Philadelphia to
lay in stock; she keeps small dry goods
and trimming store in a thriving town.
She went out to look at the Centennial
buildings, at the department for women's
work, for which women alone have paid ::
she saw, too, some of the Executive Com
mittee of her own sex at work. Noticing
her wisttul face, one of the busy ladies
said: " Can you not do something for us in
your own town? Women of intelligence
and patriotism ought to come to the front
now to help their country.n "I can do
nothing" replied the visitor. az am not q
woman who can come to the front. Nv
daughter IS at work for you, however" she
added with slight glow of pride. She
went home with bitter sense of hurnilia.
tlon. She was born, she thought, a genera
ton too soon. If she were a young girl
now, what careers were open for woman
OF ability-and she knew she had ability.
There were chances now on every side to
develop oneself and to help others. But If
was too late for her. She must die as she
mad llved-nothing and nobody. There is
plenty of such morbid maundering among
women nowadays. Mrs. White, let us saw
there are hundreds of her class among the
Whites and Blacks and all the other
colors), went home to her village and her
shop. 1t was a shop where she sold the
plalnest OF wares-she had neither money
to buy the pictures or bric-a-brac for which
her soul longed in the city, nor customers
to whom she could sell them; the village
was an isolated one, where the crops and
gossip supplied subjects for all mental exer
else. Some day perhaps facts and thoughts
from this wider outer world would meme. |
trate its dull atmosphere, but not while she
lived; she had too nearly run her course |
for that.
The history of the woman was this.
She had great beauty when girl; not mere
prettlness, but rare absolute beauty. She |
had also a nimble receptive intellect. of
quite as good caliber as those of the women |
who have made themselves public name
and position; in short she began life with
good capital. But opportunity was wanting
to use it. Her beauty made her the BELLE
OF the country. She married well.to-do
farmer, who lost his property by misman.
agement, died and left her with house
full of healthy, headstrong boys and girls
to feed, clothe, educate, and bring I'M
nationally and piously. She did not sit
down to sew; the needle was too small for
such a weighty work. She opened dairy,
a laundry, vegetable garden. As one
staff broke down she tried another, finally
settling down in the shop which she now
owns, which is the largest in the county.
In the mean time she has had n tough
struggle to pull the children along and up.
for she was resolved that they should rise
above her own standing ground. There
was one son, whom she sent to college, and
who began to drink as soon as she had him
ut work attending the lectures at Philadel.
phia. Twice the poor woman crossed the
mountains and ransacked the great city to
lind him in some den of misery for more
than year she kept him under her own
eye every moment, while the poor wretch
fought the devil of drink, nursing him
tenderly as though he were still a baby.
With agony of soul to which the pains of
his birth were nothing. The boy con.
luered at last. He is now the leading ply
'iclan in his native place, man of great
orce and stability of character. and he is
ond of telling his boys how that all he is
ne owes to his mother. There was the
oldest girl, too, who had spinal complaint. :
md for years lay hopeless cripple in the
little chamber over the. shop. Everybody
n the village remembers how dainty and !.
cheerful place the little chamber was. and
low, no matter What drudgery or anxiety
waited for the poor mother outside, she !
never entered its door but with a smiling
ace. Everybody knows the hard work and :
aving and stinting she practiced for years
o educate the other children-to give a
on start in Kentucky, and buy a daugh- t
"a ~ hOhoC anu Outub Wuen Sne was lett a / c
widow. They are all married or happily i
ettled now. The poor cripple, after her 7
'ears of pain, is at rest in the green hill. il
idle. The mother lives alone, with such v
as can be spared to her now t
md then. Her youngest girl, went as a 9
eacher to Ohio, then entered college \
where both sexes were admitted; now she I
$ in this city earning her living by draw. J
ng, writing for one or two weekly papers. Il
Ec. 1t is she who is working for the h
voman's department Of the Centennial. r
'he is brilliant talker; she gIances over t
he current subjects Of the day in a light c
ouch-and-goway, which bewilders her .
mother with the profundity and extent of 5
Ter knowledge. If she had had Betty's il
.hancep r she thinks she too might have il
'layed great and worthy part in life. Il
There are many women of her age and Ii
lass who have this morbid discomfort, just s.
row But the Judge who shall weiob har | r.