The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1880-10-15
HOME INTERESTS
A visitor from the tropical Land.

IL is stormy weather outside The
clouds hang heavy and dark overhead, and
the clustering, stormy east wind is driving the
rain in thin, misty sheets over the broad, foam
streaked Manatee The waves have lost their
brightness, and, dark, angry and foam-capped
they come crashing IN upon the beach. / trem-
BILE for the poor storm-tOssed sailor out yonder
on the gulf, for everything betokens a coming
storm.
The lesson that our opinion is not
the only right one in the world, that
other people have the same right to opinion as
ourselves, and that their opinions should be az
correctly treated as our own, is one that / have
studied, or tried to study (and remember), well.
IL Is a right that claim for myself and uphold
others IN claiming right that is granted one
and all In this "glorious republic" of ours /
would not give thrip for the man or the
woman who IL swayed entirely by the public or
private opinions of others, and would toss my
glove (to use rough expression) in the face of
any man or any woman who has not moral
courage sufficient to maintain his or her opinion
III the face of all the world, If they felt con-
WINGED OF the truth and justice of that opinion
So don't throw any reflections" of that kind
upon me. L have but little faith in the truth
and goodness of human nature, in men or in
women. Neither have given me much cause to
have very exalted opinion of them. Still
believe that there are good men-good,
the world, and just as many OF the
former as there are of the latter. Any
woman who will run down her own sex is un-
worthy the name of woman" declared one of
my own sex to me, not thousand years ago.
when talking on this same subject. And l say
SO, too. But L IN not " running down" my own
sex: I'm only trying Qll say it all and be done
with IT. Ito give the devil his due can truly
say that know more than one man, and they
every one of them-lack considerable deal"
OF being idlotic too, with whom L can trust
secret; and If the first early passer down town
happened TO he woman, and wanted an " adj
vertisement well circulated, / would step to the
door, inform her OF the fact, and then proceed
calmly with the washing Of my breakfast dishes,
satisfied that my friend, Mrs. Blank, from her
home five blocks away, would run in, ere the
task was completed, to communicate TO me the
intelligence | had just impaired to my other
friend. When woman's feet, in a moment
OF weakness, slip from that narrow way
marked out for us all-even when rumor
only has i; that those feet have 80 erred-who
Is the first to condemn her, to put her down, to
keep aloof from her, TO point at her the finger
OF scorn, to shun her as though there was con-
taminaton in her very touch, in her very pres
enceI Who, when, weary and hopeless, she
turns her pale face, her sad, reproachful eyes
upon them, pleading silently for her
old place among them-who, l ask. is
the first to say her nay? All! l know,
knows that we, that our sex, cannot
deny that charge when it is brought against us
in that last hour May God forgive us for it
that great SIM that sad injustice, that lack Of
religion, that utter lack of charity toward the
weak and erring ones of our own sex, of which
in His sight we dare not plead innocence. Aye,
when that charge is brought against us in that
last, awful day, the verdict-Gods verdict
will be guilty" l have brother,
and l thank God for it. A brother whose
"boots and clothes it would afford me pleas
ure to brush, whose cigar l never light except
for the fun of it. A brother who foots his own
bills, and who has footed mine and his fathers
full many a time, working and toiling for me
when could not work for myself. A brother,
whose faithful loyal, tender love was never so
tender and so faithful when / stood in sore
need Of help and shelter. whose brown, toll
hardened hands have wiped away the tears
called forth by the heartlessness and faithless-
ness of others, wiped them away with a wom-
ans gentleness and more than woman's pity
ing love. MAC CRAIG
BRAIDEs TowS, Fla.