The new Northwest. [volume] (Portland, Or.) 1871-1887, 1877-04-27
CHAPTER XIX.

CHAPTER XIX.
Ten days of weary marching over the
sandy sage plains, swim ming across the
rapid streams, and climbing precipitous
activities, and John Smith and Jim
Young, "bankers," had reached Lewis
ton and settled themselves at "busi-
ness"
Critical reader, we will spare you.
Should we undertake to initiate you
into the mysteries of any of the tricks
of the sporting fraternity, we should
fail, for we could give no detail from
personal knowledge, and some of you
would be sure to detect the counterfeit
Again, did we know exactly what these
men were doing, and precisely how
they did it, we should not sully these
pages with a repetition, for no good
would come of it so long as women are
not lawmakers.
If your neighbor gets the smallpox,
you, as a physician, do not shake his
infected garments in the air aud under
the nostrils of your friends; so, when
alluring crimes of any kind are COM
mitted, unless by publishing the facts
you are enabled to warn others to keep
away from the scene of danger, you
should not scatter the details broadcast,
lest by so doing you make the contagion
general. Suffice it to say that for six
or seven months, during the entire cold
season after their departure from Idaho
Flat, the two adventures eked out a
precarious existence as professional
gamblers.
Nobody knew that John Smith had a
wife and children, and, in truth, nobody
cared.
Why, indeed, should the public mind
be interested in such a subject? Were
not women supported and protected by
men? And wasn't that enough to con-
tent the entire sisterhood with their di-
vinely appointed sphere? Then, too,
do not many women who happen to be
fortunately situated in spite of the laws
and usages that consign many others to
lives of poverty and uncongenial toll
Others who, but for such laws and
usages, could rise to comfortable cir
cumstances themselves-do not many
Independent or wealthy women forge
the chains of the oppressed through
their own selfishness q?
There is little guessing what the out
come with our adventures might have
been had not vigilance committee ap-
peared upon the scene and checked the
gambling laws for a season.
John Smith was hot sufficiently adept
in low cunning to evade the rigor of
border vigilance. Besides, his "luck"
had turned, and he was hungry and
penniless.
"Pd go back to my wife if 1 were
you" counseled his friend.
"But she will not receive me-" an
swered John.
''The dickens she won'tr' exclaimed
the other, angrily. ''pd like to know
how she'd help herself! All you've got
to do is to go there and stay, and if she
kicks up muss, you can give her a
IasUe o. Jaw Oone" :"
"What'll yOu do if go back ?'' asked
John, as he began to comprehend his
advantage over Edna in the new light
In which his associate had placed it.
81 don't know" was the hesitating
answer. "If Sue LaSelle were only ma
aOJe I'd be perfectly independent. But,
bless you, man, as it is the law would
protect her in turning me out o. doors"
"Then why the mischief didn't you
marry her in the first place? You don't
catch me letting the law get such a
power over me that woman 1 keep can
turn me out if I've mind to stay"
With Edna and Sue the winter had
been tolerably successful, as far as bust.
ness went. The children throve and
grew, and Edna's health gradually inn
proved, until, with the return of pleas
ant weather, she had great hope of re.
suming her public labors to better theil
worldly prospects still further.
"Only let US keep our heads above
water till the weather gets warm" she
would say to her companion. "We'l
renew our entertainments then, and
'we'll soon have money enough to enable
you to go after your child.n
"Alas, Edna, you little heed what YOU
are saying! Reeollect, 1 am, in the
eyes of men, an awful sinner. In the
eyes of God and in my own estimation
1 am far from being what ought to be
but know L m as worthy to possess my
baby as Hal is, and certainly as he
mother have far better right to he
than be has,"
"Well, my dear, there is no kind o
use in our talking about right Wehav,
no rights that men are bound to re
spect."
"But, Edna, I have known man!