The new Northwest. [volume] (Portland, Or.) 1871-1887, 1876-02-04
YOURS TRULYn HEARS OF nToM. u

YOURS TRULY" HEARS OF "TOM. I"
Let's see-it was nearly two years
ago, wasn't it, Mrs. D., the last time
Yours Truly had seen or heard of Tom
You were in California then, and the
temperance reform had resulted in the
incarceration of crusaders in the city
Jail in Portland, and Yours Truly, anx-
ious to benefit the public by repOrtOrial
critiques (which, by the way, she often
furnishes the papers, and never gets any
money for), visited the Jail and wit
messed the trial of the ladies at police
headquarters that she might be able to
write it up. Do you remember, Mrs.
D.? OF course you don't, though, for
you weren't there; but Yours Truly well
remembers that ad-shouldered Tom,
to whom she was once engaged, and
with whom she had had a quarrel
you'd call it rolO, but Professor Royal
says the word isn't elegant-broad-
shouldered Tom stood on the doorstep
and said he "wouldn't allow his wife to
be a crusader" and Yours Truly in
wardly applauded one girl of the period
as the important ex-suitOr laid his audi
BILE commands on that mythical piece of
property, and said to herself, "What a
blessing tits that Toms wife is an i'm
aginary creature! His ruling would
drive any sensible woman desperate"
But Toms wife is myth no longer.
''Madge Bright" has become "Mrs.
Tom" and if ever Yours Truly blest the
lucky stars that provoked the lovers
quarrel that prevented her from step
ping into that particular matrimonial
moose, it was when she read poor
Madge's experience as "with fingers
weary and worn, and eyelids heavy and
red," she had piled the busy needle in
the midst of her housekeeping to econ
omize, as Tom never would.
But Yours Truly rejoices that Toms
wife is sensible, sprightly, vivacious,
thinking, talking, and writing mortal,
with good eye for the beautiful, and
that she will have good dresses, even if
Tom, by his unreasonable stinginess
and impudent arguments, that cannot
be answered, simply because there is no
logic in them, drives her, while plying
her busy needle, into a "perturbed state
Of mind"
Then, too, if Tom hadn't married
Madge, her life might have flown so
smoothly on toward its setting sun that
she never would have thought it worth
while to illumine the pages of the NEW
NORTHWEST with her welcome Bright
ness. Persevere, proud, patient, piquant,
Incompatible Madge. Your letters
sparkle like sun-lit dew-drops in the
kitchens and sewing-rooms, and at the
wash-tubs and churns and mops and
cradles and cooking-stoves of thousands
Of weary wives, whose protecting
"Toms" are telling yarns in the village
stores or playing cards in the city dog
geries. They light up the hearth-stone
in many lonely home, where the wife
sits stitching in solitude through the
long evenings, or the girl of the period
is bending alone over a fashion-plate,
studying designs for her apparel that
may please the eyes of men who scold
about the extravaganza they admire,
while those same consistent lords are
treating their associates at the bar at
two bits drink, or spending several
dollars every day at billiard tables.
Your courage is inspiring, Bright
Madge. Of course the matrimonial
turn will come to every girl of the
period some day; and every gem Of
truth that sensible women send forth to
sparkle in the public prints will shine
somewhere, in the eyes of some lord ol
creation, who will see the errors of the
worlds ways and do his personal duty
to amend them.
Yours Truly confesses a growing par.
tiality for the "horrid men," There's
no use talking, Mrs. D. The world
wouldn't be worth cent without 'em
With all their faults, we love 'em still
Yours Truly isn't discouraged at losing
broad-shouldered Tom, though she con.
fesses that she does feel trifTe piqueG
at the reflection that after all greater
person accepted him at last. But there:
as good fish in the sea as ever wa:
caught.
Yonder comes the governor with thai
dry goods bill from Lewis & Strauss
And, would you believe it, Mrs. D., he:
got the very copy of the New NORTH
WEST in his hand that told you all about
that bill and the opera. Should she sur
vive the collision that is imminent anC
inevitable, you may again hear from
... YOURS TRULY.
Recently vote was taken amongst
the patients at DR.. Jackson's Water
Cure, Dansville, New York, upor
Woman Suffrage, and the result was a.
follows: Whole number of votes cast
14Q: for suffrape lis: apainSt "a. ma.