The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1876-04-05
GheGttelIigettter.
Nnmnn Hho IIad 70 ChoIee

Tribune is probably from the pen Of Mrs.
R.becca Harding Davis, formerly OF
Wheeling, who is an editorial writer on
the Tribune staff.
ave are tempted to give q sketch Of a
woman still living, because hers Is SO
Common character and history that any
village or inland town may claim half 4
dozen originals OF both; there will GER
,ainIy be no danger Of recognition. On
one Of the earlier days Of this month the
voman Of whom we speak went TO Phila:
delphia to lay in stock; she keeps small
dry goods and trimming store in thriy'
Ing Town. She went out to look at the
Centennial buildings, at the department
Tor women's work, for which women alone
have paid; she saw, too, some OF the Exc
Cutiye Committee other own sex at WORK.
Noticing her vistiul face, one oil the p!Sy
ladies said: Gan you not do someLn'ng
for us in your own town? Women o.
intelligence and patriotism ought 10
come 10 the front now 10 heIp
,ba;s corrtryr al can do moth
;nvn renIied The visitor. a Am not a
Ivy, Is III oon come to the front. My
JanaI,or IA at work for you, however"
she added with slight glow OF PRIDE
She went home with bitter sense oil hu-
initiation. She was born, she thought,
generation too soon. Ifshe were young
9irl now, what careers were open for q
woman OF ability-and she knew she had
ability. There were chances now on every
side 10 develop oneself and to help others.
Bu. it was too late for her. She must die
a, she had lived-nothing and nobody.
There is plenty Of such morbid maunder-
Ing among women nowadays. Mrs. White,
lei US say There are hundreds OF her
class among the Whites and Blacks and
ali the other colors), went home to her
villuge and her shop. It was a shop
where she sold the plainest Of wares-she
had neither the money to buy the pic.
lures 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 exercise.
Some day perhaps facts aud thoughts
from this wider outer world would pene-
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 prettiness, but rare absolute beau
". She had also nimble receptive In
teIleCt, OF quite as good calibre as those
OF the women who have made themselves
public name and position; in short she
began life with good capital. But oppor-
tunity 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 Encouragement, died
left her with house full OF healthy,
headstrong boys and girls to feed, clothe,
educate, and bring up nationally and pi'
ously.' She did not sit down 10 sew; the.
needle was too small tool for such
weighty work. She opened a dairy.
laundry, n vegetable garden. AS one
staff broke down she tried another, finally
settling down to the shop which she
now owns, which is the largest in the
county.
In the meantime she has had tough
struggle TO pull the children along and
up, Tor she was resolved that they should
rise above her own standing ground.
There was one son, whom she sent TO col
Icge, and who began 10 drink as soon rs
she had him at work attending the lee
lures at Philadelphia. Twice the poor
woman crossed the mountains and ran
sacked the great city to find him in some
den OF misery; for more than year she
kept him under her own eye every mo-
mtnt, while the poor wretch fought the
devil Of drink, nursing him tenderly as
though he were still d baby, with agony
otsoul to which the pains Of his birth
we're nothing. The boy conquered at last.
He Is now the leading physician in his
native place, a man Of great force and
stability Of character, and he is fond Of
telling his boys how that all he is
he owes to his mother. There was
the oldest girl, too, who had spinal
complaint, and for years lay hopeless
cripple in the little chamber over the
shop. Everybody in the village remem-
bers how dainty and cheerful place the
little chamber was, and how, no matter
what drudgery or anxiety waited for the
poor mother outside, she never entered
it, door without smiling face. Every
body knows the hard work and saving
and stinting she practiced for years to
educate the other children-to give son
a start in Kentucky, and buy daughter
house and outfit when she was left a
widow. They are all married or happily
settled now. The poor cripple, after her
years Of pain, is at rest in the green hill
side. The mother lives alone, with such
grandchildren as can be spared to her now
and then. Her youngest girl went as q
teacher TO Ohio, then entered college
where both sexes were admitted; now she
is in this city earning her living by draw
ing and writing for one or two weekly
papers, &c. 1t is she who is working for
The woman's department at the Centenni-
al. She is brilliant talker; she glances
over the current subjects Of the day in a
light touch-and.go way, which bewilders
her mother with the profundity and ex.
tent OF her knowledge. "lf she had had
Bettyschancew she thinks, she too might
have played great and worthy part in
life.
There are many women OF her age and
class who have this morbid discomfort
Just now. But the Judge who shall weigh
haF work and her dnuUhter's and that OF