The river press. [volume] (Fort Benton, Mont.) 1880-current, 1881-01-05
A Dreary Ending.
(Salt Lake Tribune.1

The pitable Sprague business is on the
tapis again. A brilliant, beautiful and slightly
''fast' woman married a man because he was
rich. She was sustained by a secret hope
that through her new position her fathers
political ambition might be gratifed and she
made the lady Of the White House. The "a
theirs hopes were blighted and he soon grieved
himself to death the fortune that she sold
her soul and body for passed away, and the
husband, whom she had married under the
belief that he was a harmless millionaire, de-
veloped into a drunkard and is now revealed
as too mean to live. Hence there is q separa-
ton and a suit for divorce. The husband re-
fuses the woman her clothes and abuses her
and her children. The wonder is that q Wo-
man like Kate Chase Sprague has consented
to bear his name SO long. There is little pity
for her, because she deliberately outraged
her w%omanhood in becoming his wife; but
while this is 50, only the deepest contempt is
due Sprague. He is that style Of man which
any self respecting woman would withdraw
from with infinite loathing. The marriage
tie is growing very much relaxed from whA
it was once in the United States but one
idea of modern times is surely right, and that
is, that gross abuse of a woman by 8 man,
not only makes q divorce excusable but
makes it, duty. For a woman to live with
and raise children to q man that her soul
justly loathes, is a crime which does not end
with the lives of the husband and wife, but
descends to the children and makes them,
and those who are near them, infinite IN
happiness. Kate Chase shut up the doors Of
her heart when she became Mrs. Sprague.
She but listened 70 the whisperings Of ambi-
ton and knew in advance that d world Of suf-
fering was in store for her. But she did not
dream of the petty meanness on which her
husbands character was builded. Had there
been anything manly or noble in him, the
pride of the wife would have been on guard,
and would have saved the home. But when
with the other misfortunes, that pride changed
to unspeakable contempt; when, building
without affection, she discovered that there
was not enough material in the man in whom
her life had been merged, to found common
respect upon, then her despair was complete
indeed. And the public that judges her
harshly forgets that indifference to public
opinion is apt to come to q soul when it real
ICES that, no matter how much it may awaken
the worlds scorn, all that the world may
think or feel will not equal the scorn which
that soul feels for itself. The stream that car
ries life and growth to the region through
which it flows, if choked or damned is liable,
in a rage to devastate the region that it be-
fore had blessed. Kate Sprague's life is q
choked stream, and is only useful now as a
lesson to young 10 She wounded her
own heart to crafty ambition, and now, as
the glamor Of her brilliant girl and young
woman life has passed, she realizes that there
is but Que abiding blessing for woman, which
is to be the loving centre Of q loving home, |
and that is denied her, because in her plans |
she did not consider this greatest need, and
did nothing to secure it. Women always |
fare that way when, N a higher or lower
plane, their hopes and their acts take the
same direction.
l