Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1880-02-18

| not woman VINO talked IOr Ine sake OI
talking.
"I tell you, girls" she said, "we can
if we will! If we will do right, we can
do right. She who practically denies
this casts aside the very foundation of
virtuous character. and erects her struc-
trlre of life upon base of sand. lam going
| to tell you story of my own life. You
call me good: and I think / am good to
you. At all events I will try to be SO.
But my goodness of temper came to me
through mighty effort of will, as you
shall see. When was young [ was more
perverse than your cousin Ruth ever was.
NV temper was quick and high; [ was
subject to fits of dependency that made
all around me miserable; and l excused
myself upon the plea that such was my
nature-I could not help it. When
became the wife of Jacob Dins-
more I was very happy, and 1 thought
myself very fortunate, for l knew that L
won for husband one of the best young
men in the town. Your uncle Jacob was
then just what he is now-hnd, gener-
Gus, loving, forbearing and faithful to a
fault. For the first six months of our
married life did not allow my bad tenn
per to show itself much; but at length
my honeymoon waned, and my old feel
ings began to manifest themselves. 1
became, in short, just what I was before
/ was married. People called me self
willed; but had no self-will. did not
will to be cross and petulant. was
cross and petulant because had no will
to be otherwise. Sometimes 1 had bad
feelings, and 1 had no will to overcome
them. The slightest thing that crossed
me fonnd me so entirely devoid of
will that it swayed me at its pleas
ure. At the end of two years there
was more of misery than of happi-
ness in my home, and I could not
hide from myself the fact that was the
cause of it all; and yet I tried to con-
vince myself that [ was not to blame
When my mother talked with me, I de-
clared that I could not help it; and when
my husband ventured to allude to the
subject, [ flew into a passion. [ could
not bear o Gliding from him. In fact,
his very kindness and goodness some
! times fretted me; and when he offered to
point out to me my errors, it seemed as
though he were preaching to me, and [
would not listen.
"Girls, 1 tell you truly, when I tell
| you that / believe no one was ever more
| firmly fixed in the habit of ill-feeling
than L was at that time; and [ did GER
tainly then believe that could not helpit
s'Some time before we were married
| there had been a volunteer artillery
company In our town, and, as Jacob was
| the only commissioned officer living in
the town itself, he took charge o: the
property belonging to the corps, thus
retaining control of the two handsome
cannon. One royal birthday the towns
| people raised money for a celebration of
! the occasion, and, among other things, a
royal salute was to be fred ID the morn
ing, at noon. and st shutdown, of which
my husband was to have charge.
! "During the day [ received an invita-
| ton to JON some friends in q sail upon
the river; and as L could not very well
| go to the landing alone, asked Jacob to
go with me. He said it would interfere
with other duties, and he could not go.
l asked him if he thought the firing of
the salute was of more importance than
the making of happiness for his wife );
and when he had foiled me at that argu-
ment, asked him why he could not let
some one else take charge of the cannon.
He answered me calmly and candidly
that he dared not trust the gun in other
hands. He was the only one who under
stood how to properly handle it, and he
| felt obliged to attend to it. He told me
how many accidents had happened
through mistakes of inexperienced and
careless persons, and he could not feel
right to neglect the duty he had promised
to perform.
"That was in the afternoon. At six
o'clock it was time for me to start for the
landing place, if I meant to go; but I
would not go unless my husband went.
He had sent for carriage to take me
down, but [ would not use it, I shrank
away in fit of sllks, and so rename
until it came time for Jacob to go away
with his gun. AS he was putting on his
hat my temper burst forth into a wild
flame, and his calm answers maddened
me. At length [ pushed him beyond
the bounds of human endurance, and he
turned upon me more sternly than he had
ever before done. He did not speak
angrily, but he spoke as an offended
parent might have spoken to an offending
child. This set my blood completely
afre, and I cannot tell you all the wicked
things I said.
"'Annie, he said to me, as he stood
near the door, it might have been better
for both of us # we had never met.
81 answered him hotly and passion
ately that hoped we might never meet
again. IF you were dead said I, I
should be happier than am now!'
"No, no, Annie, you do not mean
that, " he replied to me.
"And I cried out that / did mean it,
and [ declared that I hoped I might
never see Linn again alive And he went
away as I said those words"
"My dear girls, do you think such
words could ever have have come from
my lips? All, you do not know to what
wild and wicked results of language a
course Of unbridled license will lead.
If, when Ruth Gray is angrily dsputing
with her husband, some shorthand
writer could take down her words just as
they fall from her lips, and show them