The new Northwest. [volume] (Portland, Or.) 1871-1887, 1876-06-30
"IT TAKES A BRAVE WOMAN TO
LIVE"

LII
In speaking several weeks since of a |
wife Is years old who, tired of life's toll
and endeavor and disappointment, had
rashly brought all to close so far as
this world is concerned by drown
ing herself, we remarked with per-
haps seeming severity: ''If, instead
of grieving after a husband who 'had
peremptorily requested her, in harsh
note, not to write to him again. she
had gone bravely to work to make
something of herself, she would not
have left behind her the cowardly rec
ord of a suicides death, nor by the ILL
considered act have gone stained with
crime into the land of souls. Any cow
ard can die; it takes a brave man or
woman to live when assailed by out
rageous fortune"
For this friend who has borne the
storms of life for more than half a cen
tury, now facing the blast with firm de-
termination, and again bowing before it
in the vain hope that it might pass by,
takes US to task for what she terms our
"harsh structures upon the case, al
though every day of her life has given
abundant testimony to prove the asser-
tion that it takes a brave person to
live." We quote from her letter:
1t is not so very strange that when woman
can find no place in the world for herself she
should feel like getting out of it. You say it
takes a brave person to live; yes, it truly takes
bravery that borders on presumption in some
cases. The person TO whom reference was
made by you was young, and life's possibilities
were all before her; but let us suppose a case
where not one hope of youth has been realized,
although the patient toiler has mounted the
third score of her years. Her protector has
proved failure; she has not sufficient educa-
tion-for when she was young education was
not thought necessary for a girl-tO enable her
to teach, or carry on any kind of business; she
has no capital, for the accumulation of the
matrimonial firm all belong to the protector
aforesaid, to be retained at his will, or dOled
out at his pleasure. There is nothing left but
manual labor, and this, with shattered health
and age creeping on apace is neither certain
nor remunerative. She can scarcely, even
when usually well, earn more than her board
for from time immemorial womans time and
woman's service have been counted as naught
and paid in the same way as counted. Under
these circumstances, of what avail is it TO heI
that her heart is brave, and what road or even
bridle-path, obscure and blind, is there to lead
2 her weary feet into the long-dreamed-Of fields
of independence Often neglected by friends
always maligned by the evil-minded, mis-
judged by the more favored children of fortune
D what wonder if she should feel that in all the
wide world there is no place for her, and lOol
toward the mystic veil that shrouds from he
! view the beautiful beyond, with an almost ir
a repressible desire to lift her hand and dash i
G aside? No myth, but a real living and breath
= ing reality is this woman, possessed OF a will
q power sufficiently strong, but lacking the phys
- ical strength to hew her way through obstacle
! that at every turn beset her endeavOrs. If sh
were young she might perhaps fit herself 10
something. If she were strong she nigh
: work. no matter how hard the labor. But as
= is, she must consent to remain burden to he
O friends. This is not an overdrawn picture
From my own knowledge it is drawn, AM
: more than one subject in my immediate aC
o quaintance illustrates it. Praying that yo
V may be blessed with health, strength, and wis
dom sufficient for your needs in the great cor
fict with error, am most truly yours.
- The foregoing, if intended to disprov
a the assertion that heads this article
J. certainly fails in its object. A sudde
plunge in the cold waters demands II
courage compared to that which is re
quired to battle increasingly with th
J. ills of life, hoping nothing, expectin
of nothing but a peaceful voyage acrOs
II the dark river at it's close. Surely th
sorrows of this life are sufficient, with
.. out jeopardizing the possible pleasure
81 of the life to be, by reckless plung
lie into its mysteries. And though life
b. fairest fruits have after patient toll
81 ! the gathering turned to apples of SOdol
he in the grasp, and to bitter ashes upo
les the lips, falter not, o weary and di
of heartened worker, but be assured of IL
90 ao final rest promised to those who thanl
an fully take life's pleasures, and patientI
,w bear its pain.
si-