Ashtabula weekly telegraph. (Ashtabula, Ohio) 1880-1886, 1880-08-06
THE FATAL FOURTH.
A Tragedy.


FREDERIC, - said my wife, in the tone
of dying martyr, "dO you really mean
to let our children have fireworks on the
FourthP"
"I do, my dear"
"Then L know something dreadful
will happen. Think of Tom"
"Tom is eleven years old. He must
take his chances like other young scamps
of his ilk."
"But, Frederic, there are Frank, and
BERTHE, and Jenny, and. Lii, and the
baby. Oh deari know something will
happen" And my wife shook her head
prophetically and sighed.
Here my sister-in-law, Wilhelmina,
broke in.
" Never fear; your children will all
be spared to grow up, Mary. Naughty
children always live. For my part, l
think fireworks are tiua,'' she adds.
Now, Nina was very emphatic young
lady, with the most positive and un-
changeable views on the conduct of life.
Miss Italics, l used to call her, because
she was all for emphasis, and yet she
was such small type of girl.
"Mina, your tastes are entirely too
loud my wife said.
The young person tossed her saucy
head, arched pair of delicate eyebrows,
then bounced up and went to the win
dow, looking down an avenue that leads
up to our country house. Now Nina
never bounced up without jerking down
the skirts of small jacket she was fond
of wearing. It was sort of cut-away
coat arrangement, with buttons behind,
bit of vest in front, dash of white
linen bosom, and stand-up collar.
To-day the rig was brown silk, with bits
of gold-oolOr peeping from mysterious
Innings, and cordings. Nina wore her
fair hair short She shook it out of
cold water every morning, parted it on
one side with masculine freedom; then
putting in a pair of turquoise earrings,
bought, with feminine coquetry, to
match her eyes, she considered, in
her own concise language, "that top
piece fixed" Now Nina was girl for
which the days of good Walter Scott,
that maker of heroines, would have
furnished no model. Cooper's young
hunters never bore such a maiden as
Nina safely to the arms of her family.
Hannah More would have used my sis
ter-in-law simply as a frightful example.
A French novelist would ascribe to her
more wickedness than poor Nina would
even know how to name, and then make
adazzling study. In short, Mina's con-
tradictions in character would have
bothered Shakespeare himself, and ex-
hausted his subtle involutions of Ian
guage in painting creature at once 80
rude and so gentle, so bold and so shy,
such a Jolly fellow and such very
woman. She was the outgrowth of an
unsettled social state, of a day when
women, having struggled out of their
old places, have not yet quite
jostled comfortably into their new
ones, and so, feeling q little inse-
cure, they incline to be defiant.
Nina belonged to woman's club,
where, in the daintiest of silks and the
sweetest thing in lace, she talked of fem
inine ability in every department of Sc
we're labor and scientific research. On
returning home she always went to bed
with q headache, but was none the less
ready to declare herself fit for marine
service, or any other work commonly
held proper for men only.
eff McAllister comes to spend the
Fourth, he'll bring all sorts of fire
works. remarked this enthusiastic
young woman, not Disgusting that she
was looking out for McAlister down the
avenue.
"Mina, " said my wife, ''don't speak
of men without decent prefix to their
names; it isn't pretty"
4" / don't want to be pretty" answers
Nina II want TO be clever and inde-
pendent and strong" Here she shook
all her bangles, and examined a pearl
ring on her slender forefnger.
You want 10 be mannish, don't
YOUR said / teasingly,
"Quite the contrary-I want to be
sensible" Then, with q careless yawn,
as Il she had said a nnatter-of-co
thing, she added, ~ think / shall take
f.sYou'd' better be a nice womsnly
girl, and take up husband, 3" quoth her
sister.
q Take IN, you mean" 1 suggest, by
way Of revenge"
dNot at all, J" answers the ready little
mink; " she means take Hp. Men can't
arrive at any elevated position unless we
do take 'em up"
"Oh, Aunt BLY, screamed Tom,
rushing into the room, followed by Muff,
our old terrier, sleepy, superannuated
pet, of which the children were very
fond,
"TOm, don't call your aunt Billy"
says my wife.
l'Yes, be shall. My name Is vii
helmina, or William, and Billy Is good
for short. Go on, Tom"
"Aunt Billy, McAlister is coming