The new Northwest. [volume] (Portland, Or.) 1871-1887, 1877-06-01
EpIToRIAL CORRESPONDENCE.

1HO vi ILS ltbtl ulb. ia bCN
bright and peaceful, as they say in nOv-
els. Salem shook the dew from her
maple shades and shot her spires uF-
ward iuto the golden sunlight, which
answered back with many a gleam of
gladness.
We had engaged to lecture at Dallas
in the evening, and at 10 A. NJ, accom-
modated by Col. Reed with seat in his
comfortable carriage, we crossed the
winding Willamette, (another stereo-
typed remark and were soon "Over the
hills and far aw ~" upon the road to our
destination. The route lay through the
well-remembered scenes of our lastsum-
mer of girlhOod, past the remains of the
immigrants cabin in which we first
met our matrimonial fate; by the door
of the little old schOOl-house where the
bright-eyed girls and boys of the long
ago greeted us as "mistress;" then
through the Polk county foot hills, along
side the ripping La Creole; past farms
and dwellings, with orchards and fields
rejoicing in the wealth of spring, and
by and by we were in the town of Dali
las, enjoying a good dinner at the we'll
kept boarding-house of Mr.. and Mrs.
Stiles, who know just bow to keep no.
tel.
Circuit Court was in session, and the
town was filled with the usual compile
ment of lawyers, clients, witnesses, de-
PENDANTS, and hangers-on. 1t was es-
pecially matter of remark that there
should be SO many women engaged in
law suits or subp9nied as witnesses.
The lawyers tell US that the number of
these gets larger every year. No idea
of disgrace is attached to women in liti-
cation as formerly, and any philosopher
can see that this is only one of many
ways in which the sex is Unconsciously
coming to the front, financially, legally,
and, at last, politically.
Our meetings were held in the Court
room, Judge Collins presiding, and the
sheriff and other county officers, as well
as the lawyers, merchants, and ladies,
favoring the cause with respectful con-
sideration. The audiences were large
and orderly, and the interest in the
meetings universal.
The town of Dallas improves slowly
but healthfulIy. The people live in
good houses, the churches are in good
repair, the schoOl-house is cOmmodious
and the school orderly, the Courthouse
is open to lady lecturers, the stores are
well stocked and we'll patronized, and
all the usual industries of a country
town are prospering.
On Wednesday at noon, our labors be-
ing over in the town for the time being,
we took the stage for Amity, leaving be-
hind us many an invitation, seconded
| by many a promise, to return as soon as
our peregrinations elsewhere would per-
NIT for the purpose of giving other lee
lures.
A ride of sixteen miles through par
adise of loveliness, and we reach, "A nifty
and are made welcome guest at the
Sherman House, amid scenes so well re-
memb bered that it seems impossible that
two years have passed into the infnitude
of the Interchangeable since last we
gazed upon the dusty streets and over
the surrounding farm lands.
The Woman Suffrage Association of
Yamhill cosnty was in session at the
school-house not far distant, and thither
we repaired, to find genial Mrs. Lough-
ary and earnest Mrs. Martin at their
posts of duty. Instrumental music
was the order at the time of our
arrival, and as we stepped upon the
floor and Mrs. Loughary came to greet
US, the effect of the people ranged in
rows and double rows around the hall,
combined with the strains of a familiar
shettische from organ and violins, at
tackled the Presbyterian toes of a not
unknown missionary for an instant, and
every staid Christian laughed outright.
But the music ceased without any dane
ing, and the business of the day was re-
sumed amid universal good humor and
a general feeling that suffrage for wom-
en- was not intended to do away with
happiness for either or both sexes.
The evening session brought crowded
audience to the upper room in the
school-house, where grown people were
packed into benches built for children
and there they sat and suffered paraly-
sis while the deliberations went on
while two commodious churches, built
principally by the efforts of women, auG
locked by the Wanted piety of men
stood in ghostly selfishness in the CHEEKY
moonlight, saying in audible silence
"Men would not use the churches tC
publicly consider the negro question fol
a long time, but they had to come to it.
and so will they for woman's cause in
the days to come. Have courage, WON.
en-. You are behind your colored breth.
rem only few short years."
On Thursday afternoon we were ia.
vored with ride in the buggy of the
obliging sheriff of the county to the
town of Lafayette, where, in company
with beloved sisters whom we had moi
visited since returning from the far-of
haunts of our childhood, we talked till