The Wheeling daily register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1864-1878, 1876-04-07
Woman Who Had No Chance.

AWOman Who Had NO Chance.
From the New York Tribune, March 70.
Weare tempted to give sketch of a
woman still living, because hers Is so
common character and history that
any village or inland town may claim a
half dozen originals of both; there will
certainly be no danger OF recognition.
On one of the earlier days of this month
J the womun OF whom we speak went to
| Philadelphia to lay in stock; she keeps a
small dry goods and trimming
| store in thriving town. She went out
to look at the Centennial buildings,
at the department for womens work,
for which women alone have paid; she
saw, too some of the Executive Commit
tee of her own sex ut work. Noticing her
W .stful face. one of the busy ladies said:
"Can YOU do something for us in your
own town? Women of intelligence and
patriotism ought to come to the front
now to help their country" 81 can do
nothing" replied the visitor. ain a not u
woman who can come to the front. My
daughter is at work for you. however"
she added with slight glow OF pride.
She went home with better sense OF hu-
initiation. She was born, she thought, Il
generation too soon. If she were young
girl now, what careers were open for a
! woman of ability-and she kne" she had
ability. There were chances now on
every side to develop oneself ard to help
others. But it was too late Tor hcr. She
must die as she had lived-nOthng and
nobody. There is q plenty OF such
morbid maundering among women now
adays. Mrs. White, let us say lthere
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
plainest Of wares-she had neither the
money 10 buy the pictures or Dric.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 sub
icc,s for all mental exercise. Some day
perhaps facts and thoughts from this
wider outer world would penetrate its
dull atmosphere, but not while she lived;
she had too nearly run her course Tor
that.
The history of the woman was this.
She had great beauty when girl not
mere prettiness, but rare absolute beau
tv. She had also nimble receptive in
tellect, of quite rs good calibre as those
of the women who have made themselves
public name and position; in short she
began life with good capital. But OPP
pCrtunity was wanting u use 1t. Her
beauty made Ler the belle OF the country.
She married well-to-do farmer, who
lost his property by mismanagement,
died and lett her with a house full OF
healthy, headstrong girls and boys To-
feed, clothe, educate, and bring up ration
ally and piously. She did not sit down
to sew; the needle WIS too small tool
for such a weighty work. The opened
dairy, 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 country.
In the meantime she has had tough
struggle to pull the children slorg and
up. Tor 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
40 she had him al work attending the
lectures 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-
ment, while the poor wretch fought the
devil of drink, nursing hun t"nderiy as
though he were still baby, with agony
of soul 10 which the pains OF his
birth were nothing. The boy conquered
at last. He is now the leading physician
in his native place, man OF great force
and stability of character, and he Is iona
OF telling his boys how that ali he Is tie
owes to his mother. There was the old
est girl. too, who had spinal complaint,
and Tor wears lay hopeless cripple IN
the little chamber over the shop. Every
body in the village remembered how
dainty and cheerful place the little
chamber was, and how, no matter what
drudgerv or anxiety waited for the poor
mother outside. she never entered Its
door without smiling face. Everyood
knows the hard work and saving and
s,inting she practiced for years to educate
The other chl.dren-to give son starr
in .kentucky, and buy daughter
house and outfit when she WAS LETT a
widow They are all married or hSppily
settled now. The cripple, after her years
O. pain, is at rest in the green hillside
The mother lives alone with such grand
/ children as can be spared her now ana
! then. Her Youngest girl went rs teach
I ar to Ohio. then entered college where
, both sexes were admitted; now she Is IN
/ this CITY earning her living by drawing
writing for one or two weekly papers
/ g.. 1t is she who is working for the
/ woman 5 department at the Centennlal
/ She is brilliant tslker; she glances ove'
the current subjects of the day IN light
touch-and-go way which bewilders her
mother with the profundity and extent o
1 her knowledge. If she had had Betty
! chancen she thinks, she too might have
PLAYED n great and worthy part IL lie
There are many women of her age and
/ class who have this morbid dlcon.enI
Us: now. But the Judge who shai
weigh her work and her dsug hter's, and
that OF each and all of Us, has other scale:
than ours.
Road ApprOpriatiOns-W. L. Arnoi'
for Governor.
WESTON, ". VA, April Sd, 1876.
Special 10 the Register.