The new Northwest. [volume] (Portland, Or.) 1871-1887, 1876-03-10
EDITORIAL CORRESPONDENTS.
DEAR READERS OF THE NEW NORTHWEST:

DEAh headers Or ANEM ANOhAd ESIs
Once more are we upon the wing, and
once again do we find time to snatch a
pencil and prepare some hurried jottings
of our periodical journeyings. Conven-
tion work and Temperance Alliance and
ten days toll among the loved ones at
home would have driven the last vestige
of our hitherto unchronicled report from
our over-full brain and sent it to eternal
oblivion but for the fact that some frag-
ments of an epistle, attempted during
Convention week, yet repose among the
numerous waits in our travelling basket,
many of which are destined to be stran-
gled in their incipiency, and many more
to be remodeled before the world shall
witness them.
The week prior to the annual Conven-
tion we find that we had prefaced some
correspondence intended for your eyes,
reader, with the trite but true express
sion, "There is nothing certain but
death and expenses; and on Wednesday
of last week, in order to consistently
prepare for the one and liquidate the de-
mands of the other, we hastily swal-
lowed the morning meal and hurried
aboard the train, bound Salemward.n
Stopped over at Gervais to arrange for
course of lectures, and went on in the
evening to the city of churches, where
we found the citizens, as ever, hospita-
BILE and genial, and everybody wide
awake on the woman question.
Had business on Thursday with a
dear, intellectual, but broken-down ex-
ample of protected and supported wom-
anhood, who at the age of fifty had fled
from the protecting gentleness of hus-
band for whom she had toiled without
recompense for a third of a century.
Had much difficulty in finding her, for
she was hiding with her children from
her lawful head, and was in mortal ter
ror lest she should be discovered and
robbed of her little ones. Found her at
last, enscOnced in a dingy, unfinished
building, her children covering and
clinging around her, and the doors and
windows securely fastened against in
truders. For the first time in our life
we felt like building an underground
railroad. There is one obstacle in the
way, though, and that is that there's NO
Canada in all the world to give such
fugitives protection. A woman who is
driven in her desperation to defy the
law and flee with her little ones, giving
up the accumulated property of life.
time to the head of the family, asking
only the boon of her children's custody
and being ready to go out penniless tC
toll for them, with constitution al
ready broken by disease and overwork
who is willing to submit to all this only
that she may be free from a presence
and persecution that have become un
bearable, such a woman ought to have
her freedom, and the fruit of the "labo
J of her hands," No man or woman cal
successfully preach as into the belle
that God honors such a union, or haC
anything to do with making it. AnC
they needn't preach that such womer
have no cause for complaint, either
They may be, and generally are, to &
great extent, blameworthy, for none are
perfect, and the more inharmoniOus the
surroundings of humanity, the more
imperfect becomes human conduct
But everybody has right to life, lib
erty, and happiness, and this generation
shall not pass away till we shall be hon
ored by all wise and good men who reaC
, these columns for having said so.
The Recording Angel will surely write
plea for extenuation upon the fore
head of every woman, who, like ou
conscientious, Christian friend above al
luded to, is willing to battle alone will
: her little ones against disgrace ant
want, rather than longer endure tn
hell of constant contentious that man.
continually undergo, preferring to lie
the world imagine, if it can, that thei
trials are blessings, to which failing
health and saddened features give tn
lie. But the children-"ay, there's th
rub." Legally, mother has no chill
: dren. They belong to the law-maker
and when the mother of such famil.
goes back to the hated life rather thai
give them up, the husband may exult
antly exclaim:
81 told you SO She had no reason t,
be estranged from me. She comes t,
her senses when she's thrown upon he
own resources for a while"
Don't tell sensible women that he i
: vindicated. They know better.
Let US pause right here, friendly
reader, while we for the thousandtl
time assure good husbands that the!
outnumber the bad ones in the ratio o
twenty to one, in spite of the advan
tages the law confers upon them.
No man will vince, even when hi
toes are trodden upon, unless he ha
corns, and small danger is there tha
those so afflicted will read these column
at all.
"You believe in easy divorces, then?'