The new Northwest. [volume] (Portland, Or.) 1871-1887, 1878-01-25

though he's never ugly unless he's
drinking"
And while the mother was thus
speaking, her pain-pinched features
lighted up with sanctified smile, born
of a trust in the Infinite and Invisible,
that Martha could remember as having
sometimes come to her in the past,
though she could not realize it now.
"Have yOU any babies ?"
And the mother looked lovingly into
the tiny red face Of the infant upon her
bosom, with heart big enough to love
and care for it, even though her cup
were already more than full.
"My husband went off and left me,
and then sued me at the law and took
my babies, too" was the reply.
81 often wish James would go Of and
leave me, but it would be awful if he
should take the children, too. Wouldn't
it, now ?"
"He'd do it, unless you had money to
try the validity of the law; and then he
would take your money if you earned it
yourself. A woman may keep or spend
the property her father bequeaths her,
but if she earns it with her own hands
it belongs TO her husband"
as there any way could get rid Of
James? l feel as if might take care Of
these babies-I have five now-but ]
don't see how could put food in the
mouths Of any more"
"Alas, dear stricken sister, cannot
advise you. Your lot is even worse
than mine. But, then, you loved your
husband in the beginning, didn't your"
"Why, certainly! Why else should
have married him ?"
Martha blushed scarlet.
"Why, indeed, should any woman
marry, save for love ?" she thought.
All, me,
Echo only answers, Why?
The consumptive mother was made as
comfortable as Martha knew how TO
make her under the unpropitious cir
cumstances, and then, heart-sick almost
to dying, she threw herself upon the
trundle bed apportioned the children Of
her delirious host, and sank into a fitful
slumber.
She dreamed that a hundred years
passed away, and through them all she
toiled and climbed the lonely sleeps OF
unloved, unappreciated life. So real
was her dream that she felt herself grow
old and gray; and then she thought she
died. She saw friends that she had
never known around her mortal re-
mains, and heard the sobs of lamenta-
tion to which they gave utterance, and,
strange to say, felt more keenly than
ever before the throbbings of an exist
ence which she now knew to be eternal,
though those around her seemed 10
know il not. After little while she
was borne away upon the invisible cur
rent Of neutral-tinted ether, in which
she swan, as a swan, the mellow coloTs
exhilarating her senses, and the breath
Of sweetest perfumes filling her being
! with a delicious languor, but for which
she would have gone wild in a deliruu
r of ecstasy. After a while, it seemed
E only a very little while, she felt hersel
r descending, though still buoyant anC
E quietly exultant. In her dream sh,
wondered why she was not afraid
e Presently a very little opening wa
= made, as by an unseen hand, in a pale
s rOse-tinted cloud, through which sh
] aufaraN op1 bab,fHf Vfl,-o L.. -
e her a seemingly boundless, slightly un
: dulating plain, where homes and happi
s ness abOunded, and where no tyrann,
: or wickedness could enter. Groups q
a sunny-faced children played in fair
?; gardens. Men and women worked o
+ read or sang or chatted as the mood bes
suited them, but all seemed governe
Y by the eternal law Of liberty and Low,
e She drew near to group Of earnes
!, counselers, to whom she was strangel
d invisible, and hearkened to their wordi
"There was a time, my children,
d said a venerable and yet youthful az
e pearing sage, "when men held the de-
If tiny of woman in the very hollow {
:, their hands. They made laws withoJ
is consulting her, and administered ther
e according TO their own conception
i without listening to her demands f
o personal consideration. They ruled S
e badly that they wronged not onl
Is woman, but themselves and their chi
[. dren. But all Of this is past. Woman
N the mother Of humanity, is now II
le arbiter Of her own destiny, and Il
1t earth is beginning to reap the fruitio
le Of better things. Right, and not nigh
ii is now the law that rules, and man
nt learning to bow reverently al the foot,
womanhood, and worship understanr
G. ing at the shrine OF maternity. p
n, consequence, the world is better, ma
st hood is nObler. childhood is grande
r and womanhOod is glorified. Time W
a when these things were not so. Tin
a was when man could rob woman Of b
10 earnings, trample ruthlessly upon h
ed maternal domain, tear her cbildr'
er from her embrace, or, worse still, infli
IN upon her the balefulness Of a domest
be tyranny which well might transform
ed angel to a demon"
ld \ sudden crash awOke the dream'
so and she opened her eyes and beheld q
ms infuriated victim Of deliriuHi trelae
", standing over the bed where the hel
ie- less mother lay, the rickety bed viii