The new Northwest. [volume] (Portland, Or.) 1871-1887, 1877-05-25

have let everything be held in the name
of Sue Randolph, or your mother, for
both of them are without husbands, and
they can hold property, you see. Ha I!
ha hap
"My mother las often said that wom-
ans degraded, helpless position is the
weak point in our institutions to-day.
She says it is disturbing force every
where, severing family ties, filling our
asylums with victims, our prisons with
criminals, our towns and cities with
prostitution, our homes with disease
and death. 1 never saw the force of
this abominable truth as I see it now. I
have toiled like galley slave to build
up and sustain this business and main
tain myself and children. 1t has not
occurred to me once this summer that
my being wife by fiction of law, un-
der which have found, no protection,
would render it necessary for me to put
my earnings into other hands than my
own for safe keeping, else would have
done it and defed the law. AS it is,
am powerless. But what am to do ?"
aust what this writ advises, madam.
You are to vacate the premises at once,
to satisfy the judgment"
"Lesve my house this minute, sir W
said Edna, folding the paper and resum-
ing her rolling-pin. "You can't put me
out under a writ of ejeetment under
thirty days after having given ten days
notice. know few things about law
when stop to think of them, if am a
woman"
"SOpll be madder'n thunder ~ solilo-
quized the sheriff, as he waddled away
to carry the news to him and Mr.. Brief
and John.
"How strange that I should have been
SO blind p' thought Edna. 81 knew, or
might have known, that John Smith,
as my husband, could commit no recog-
nized or punishable crime by robbing
me of my earnings; but here have
been tOiling and accumulating for
months as though unconscious of exist
ing facts. Luckily 1 have few hun
dred dollars hidden away. I intended to
use that money toward liquidating bills;
but Sol, or whoever gets the house, may
do that. I'll save all I can during the
next thirty days"
Her resolve thus taken was followed
for week, and then came legal in
junction forbidding the bOarders to pay
their bills to Edna, and there was no al
tentative but to lose the result of her
summers toll and begin preparing anew
in the autumn for the near approach of
rigorous winter.
"When the Lord loveth He chasten-
eth," said Mr.. Handel, with a sancti-
monious air, as soon as he learned the
facts.
81 should say that whom the devil
despiseth he destroyeth," was Edna's
prompt rejoinder.
81 am sorry, my dear madam, that
you do not accept your trials in meek
and quiet spirit" observed the preacher.
"And am surprised that you are such
a consummate foolr' was the impulsive
retort.
"What?"
Mr.. Handel would have been scarcely
less surprised had the heavens fallen.
He had long felt it his pastoral duty to
call upon Edna once or twice in every
week, and had never failed to share hel
hospitable board. She had always be-
fore been passably courteous, despite
some of her hetrodox vagaries, of which
he constantly warned her.
"I've done what could to keep you
in the straight and narrow path, Mrs
Smith, but find you constantly drift.
ing upon the breakers. You know what
the Scripture saith. He that, being of
ten reproved, hardeneth his neck, shall
suddenly be destroyed, and that without
} mercy"
"Leave the house this minute will
your mOcking cantr exclaimed Edna
Indeed, she was nearly crazed, and nj
, wonder.
Let any reader of these pages wht
: would chide her put himself in her plac,
and see if his human nature would no
instantly rebel. 1t is very easy, always
r to bear other peoples troubles with for
titude. 1t is our own that come to US t.
stay.
lawful as a divorce is, Edna, you will
] be compelled to get one, or starve," sal,
, Mrs. Rutherford, while the thought tha
her beloved daughter, in whom she ha,
SO long INDUCED more pride and antici
patton than in all else in the world
= would be that loathsome thing, 'gras
: widow" was enough of itself to pros
r trate her on bed of sickness.
' Another week elapsed, and Edns
+, with her mother, Sue Randolph, an
three little children, was again en-
1 sconced in the diminutive cabin wher
n she had begun her struggle for brea
D when she had first settled with Aun
@ Judy in Idaho Flat.
: "Men are constantly placing a pre-
8 MUM upon crime, )" said Edna, bitterly
"See how much better off fallen won
b an is than the wife of a bad maj
a Those courtesans you were cOmplainin
q of, mother, are safely housed and fe