The new Northwest. [volume] (Portland, Or.) 1871-1887, 1877-03-09
The Old Story.

The following from the Evening Ne1Os,
of Detroit, Mich, is evidently written
by Mr.. NJ. Almy Aldrich, whose pen is
ever enlisted on the side of right and
justice, and whose work on the NesUs
has added to the reputation of that pa
per, and has caused it to be widely
quoted as an authority of fairness and
ability:
The old, old story of woman's disap-
pointed love and misery is told again.
1t has been told so many times that it is
as familiar as the accounts of the COM
monest occurrences of every day life.
But the very frequency of the repetition
lends to it an added interest. Only a
change of names, and, perhaps, of some
of the minor details, is needed to tell
the story each time anew. This time it
comes from Fort Wayne, Indiana. A
young girl, named Jessie limbaugh, is
engaged to do some sort of household
work on the occasion of a grand party
at the residence of a prominent citizen.
While engaged in her duties she is
taken sick, and retires to a sleeping
room. The next morning she is ordered
to leave the house, without inquiry be-
ing made as to the cause of her sickness.
1t is a bitter cold morning. The wind
pierces to her very bones. The warmly
mutfied, hurrying people do not pause to
ask her why she is abroad on such day.
They do not even notice that she presses
close to her breast little bundle, as she
almost totters on her way. AT length
she reaches the house of a lady with
whom she is acquainted. She immedi-
ately goes to an upper room and takes
the little bundle from under her shawl.
1t is an infant. Perfect in form and fea-
ture, the little newborn stranger lies
before her.
| But it breathes not. It is cold in
death +! The rude blasts of wintry wind:
that chilled the mothers aching breast
penetrated the infants heart, and thai
heart ceased to beat before it even be.
came conscious of the great cold worlC
in which its stay had been so short
| The frightened mother places the life.
| less form In an old trunk. During the
afternoon it is found. OF course, the
mother is at once arrested and lodged in
Jail. What her fate will be cannot bt
told. 1t may be that her own sickness
and suffering will end by her joining the
little spirit that has gone on before. i
/ undy uc ludG d lIldi anu puulSuu6uJ 10
murder await her. Or, it may be, al
was the case in a similar instance some
months ago in Massachusetts, that some
wise judge will look beyond the swOrr
facts and see in the antecedents some
thing that will move him to let the CIR
go free.
Meantime, where is the author of al
these troubles, the father of the child
1t is said that he is well known to thu
authorities, and that he won the girl't
confidence by protestatiOns of undyinl
love and promises of marriage. Urde
the law he is in danger of suffering SOM
petty fine, or, it may be, few months
imprisonment at most. But the sat
wreck he has wrought pays for her Low
ing faith by being branded as a murdere
and an outcast, and, it may be, by death
Truly, it is the old, old story.
Sometime-it may be in the far-of
future, but sometime, assuredly-th
scales of justice will swing evenly in tn
world, and the blind goddess will neithe
know nor ask whether it is a man or
woman on whom the sword is to fall
Sometime the sun will shine on a Worlr
where justice shall know no sex.