The new Northwest. [volume] (Portland, Or.) 1871-1887, 1876-07-21

"Why, submit gracefully, as said
before. Self-abnegation is the crowning
glory of a woman, madam-the crown
ing glory"
"Then, Squire Lawmaker, see here !
Before God, and this right hand, 1 call
you to witness that 1 spit upon your
laws! defy, detest, and abhor them
There is no justice in them. Women,
like negroes, have no legal rights that
men are bound to respect. But they
have natural, inherent rights, and by
the Eternal God, Tll tear this hot-bed
of oppression called free country up
side down! The women of this land of
despotism will yet rise in fury, like
tigers robbed of their whelps! And not
one stone shall be left upon another, of
all your strongholds of oppression, if
you fail to grant the mothers of men
that recognition of ownership in their
minor children which alone will make
them free indeed! My Pearl had never
known sorrow. Her many wants had
always been anticipated. She was sur
rounded by everything that love could
gather for her interest. Behold her
now! In the internal custody of an ig-
norant, brutal, overworked woman see
her placed, and even now she cries for
bread. With my shut eyes follow her
from one dingy apartment to another.
Her companions are coarse, profane,
and drunken men, her playmates coarse,
ignorant, filthy children. o, Sara Per-
kins, another victim of that bad mans
protection, would to God were as free
as you! Would to God the stamp of il
legitimacy were upon the brow of my
jewel, that might protect herw
MADAM" said Squire Lawmaker,
sternly, "all this is very unwomanly.
You don't know what you're talking
about"
"You'll see," said Madge, as a sudden
idea possessed her. "I know what I m
thinking about. I'lI take care of my
baby if 1 have to follow her into the
very jaws of the bottomless pit to do it,"
"What a she-tiger she isp' said
Squire Lawmaker, looking after her as
she ran homeward. "Tm sure she isn't
proper person to have the custody ol
her husbands child. It had better re-
main with it's father"
Madge was not at home to the throng
of expectant company that at -four
o'clock assembled in her elegant parlors
Alone in the secIusion of her chamber
she laid herself down to think and plan,
$50 strange that did not see that
George was comingw she thought
"But L was entirely off my guard
doubtless for some wise purpose. will
not despair. have a work to do thai
in the luxury and seeming security o
my present life 1 had well-nigh forgot
ten. Tommy, the waiter boy served
me good turn once, and he shall wal
upon me again."
Her resolve thus taken, though feebly
defined, was sufficiently defined to some
what calm her agitation, and she sooI
slept soundly.
In her dream she sought the chilC
and found her. Over the long road be
tween her home and Portland sh,
seemed to wander afoot. After a lonl
while she reached the thriving youn!
city in her ideal wandering, and then
thread of electric light seemed to reacl
out to her, so fine and impalpable tha
none but she could see it. She enterer
the room where her child was sleeping
1t lay prone upon filthy pallet, wher
vermin were busily sucking its lif
blood. Other children, so filthy that
seemed their very touch would be pol
, luton, lay slumbering near. In her jo
at finding her jewel, but ere she coul
seem to clasp and rescue it, she awok
, to consciousness. The clock was strik
, ing four.
The clothing she had worn a
q Tommy, the waiter boy" hung in he
wardrobe, placed there and preserved q
= souvenir of by-gone troubles. He
q mother was called to her assistance, an
q again her luxuriant hair was given as
willing sacrifice to the dire necessitie
of her position. Her mother sighed 6
she severed her tresses from her SHAPED
: head.
"Cut it long in front, and give it
q plentiful lathering with alkaline soal
so it will look unkempt and shocky,
e said the willy rebel against existing law
e The old clothes fitted her as before, til
e old hat slouched wickedly over her eye
: as of yore, and the jaunty air of a car
d less rover which she assumed becan
j. her finely.
'pll get my baby back, for 1 feel it
It my bones," she said, as she descende
= the stairs to wash her hands and arm
'. in decoction of oaken bark to stai
them to a necessary brown to suit b.
purposes.
Then, snatching a hasty meal, ar
concealing sufficient coin about b.
le person to serve her in case of need, 81
le left the mansion, sought the highwa
ct three miles distant, by taking a sho
" cut across a field, and there awaited Il
TO outgoing stage.
lie Her destination was reached at mi
De night. Tommy" was readily reco
M uized hv tho old iupoofas IF tbo l,ot