Connecticut western news., 1878-09-19

tears it down? Gan we get grand re-
 Oh, my sister women, who are so ready
 to spend and be spent for each others | good, let us leave to men the maxims of
 worldly wise policy and selfish compass
 ing of good ends We who have had motherhood to teach us that the little
 duties and constant spirit are of more
 importance than noisy deeds or occa-
 sional exploits-we should know better believe that it is of greater moment to
 society that each human being keep hls
 or her separate channels of influence
 pure and noble all the time, than any l great cause be aided. Better every
 benevolent public enterprise be retarded
 in it's external growth for lack of money till our children take our places than
 that we defraud those children of soul inheritance of faithfulness to justice and
 honor in daily life.
 Gentlemen" she said, turning and
 lowing to the executive committee of men, as she handed her husband the package of money Git was in a lovely silk case 1 made lnyself)-" gentleman, there is the fruit of our labors. That un- known portion which would have been ours to give if we had had no fair, but gone about and begged, in a quiet, dig nified way, from those able and willing to aid our worthy object, present you with pride, as the result of our honora- ble efforts. The other unknown, and l 4ear much larger, portion which we have won through disobedience to both phy- sical and moral laws, present you with shame, as the result of our dishonorable labors. l pray you, gentlemen, to praise us no more We are yet your superiors if you can truthfully commend us for acts we ourselves despise."
 Well, tell you, I never heard so still silence as there was in that hall while that brave woman was speaking. Even the boys, who had crowded in because we put the admission down so low the last night, kept as quiet as could be.
 You may imagine there was 8 sensa- tion, though Some of the women were crying, and some were just as angry with Mrs. Lesley as they could be- Mrs. Gray had on her most naughty and disgusted look. I believe she would have left the hall if it had not been her own brothers wife, and she knew he would never forgive her if she did.
 But I'll tell you how I felt about it. I thought we were all real mean to sit still and let our president take on her own shoulders what she considered so wrong, when she wasn't responsible for it in the least, and had tried in every | way to prevent it.
 And, if you will believe it. I, who never made a speech in my life, and | could not if my life depended on it-I | just rushed forward in the dead, awful | pause that followed Mrs. Lesley's last | words, and I didn't stop to say "Ladies and Gentlemen" or Mr. President" | or anything, but broke out just as if had been all alone ill our parlor with | John and the canary bird, and sad :: " I'm not going to let our President | blame herself ill public for what isn't | her fault. She has done everything she could all the way along to make the rest | of us do right. I know she would have resigned her office when she saw how things were going if 1t had not seemed | unkind to leave us to do what we had | planned for her share I believe just as oh rt nd I don't know but do all the rest But | I was more anxious to make money than to make it ill the most just and honest way. And that's the way with all of us except Mrs. Lesley. Now we are all through, I am as much ashamed of some things as she is. But nobody need | blame her for anything that has gone wrong p
 You ought to have heard the cheering as sat down. l was frightened almost into mysteries after found out that l really had spoken in public. John whispered "You're brave little cat p
 didn't care to look at him, for was just as near crying as could be. And I couldn't help thinking what spectacle should make ot myself, sobbing on the platform till my eyes and nose were red and swollen, and with nothing but my best lace ocket-handkerchief I never could cry as the heroines in novels do and look interesting all the while. My tears always make me resemble boiled lobster.
 We'll, the end of it was, MT. Lesley, whose place it was to respond, and who hadn't known, it seems. what his wife was going to say, couldn't get up any kind of speech. He just said he could not help agreeing with the president of the Ladies Auxiliary in most of her es- innate of the influence of the fair, but he hoped the ladies wouldn't blame themselves too severely for fault which they were led into by their zeal for the cause, and which had been so frankly confessed.
 Then we had kind of stiff breaking up. Mrs. Gray left the very first one she couldn't trust herself to speak to "her dear sister," know
 Going home, John said: "What a magnificent woman that Mrs. Lesley Kitty But should think it would be a great deal like climbing up Mount Washington all the time to have her for a wife. I'd rather have a little Kitty like you for a steady diet"
 "Yes, said, "John, I know you would, and am very glad of that. But I feel like very insignificant valley be- side her"