Iron County register., 1880-08-05
THE FATAL FOURTH.
A Tragedy.

FREDERIC - said my wife, in the tone
of dying martyr, edo you really mean
to let our children have fireworks on the
FourthP''
81 do, nv dear.''
.sThen I know something dreadful
will happen Think of Tom.''
sTom 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 dear! | know something will
prophetically and sighed.
Here my sister-in-law, Wilhelmina,
broke in.
'sNever fear; your children will all
be spared to grow up, Mary. Naughty
children always live. For my part, 1
think fireworks are fs1as," she adds.
Now, Nina was very emphatic young
lady, with the most positive and un-
Miss Italics, I used to call her, because
was such small type of a girl.
"Mina, your tastes are entirely too
loud" my wife said.
head, arched a 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 1t 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-color peeping from mysterious
Innings, and cordings. Nina wore her
fair hair short. She shook it out of
cold water every morning, parted it on
putting in pair of turquoise earrings,
match her eyes, she considered, in
her own concise language, ssthat top
piece ixed.'' 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 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
dazzling study. In short, Mina's con-
tradictions in character would have
hausted his subtle involutions of Ian
guage in painting a creature at once so
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
iostled comfortably into their new
ones, and SO, feeling q little inse-
cure, they incline to be defiant.
Nina belonged to a 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 a 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 McAllister down the
avenue.
"Mina," said my wife, "don't speak
of men without decent prefix to their
names; it ism t pretty"
uI don't want to be pretty answers
Nina; ssI want to be clever and inde-
pendent and stypng.'' Here she shook
all her bangles, and examined q pearl
ring on her slender forefinger.
.sYou want to be mannish, don't
youP' said l teasingly,
6 Quite the contrary want to be
sensiblc.' Then, with a careless yawn,
rs it she had said matter-of-course
thing, she added, ssI think I shall take
up geology"
YOU'D better be nice womanly
girl, and take up a husband" quoth her
sister.