The weekly register. [volume] (Point Pleasant, Va. [W. Va.]) 1862-1909, 1882-07-05

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they earn their own living. Come,
just reason on our position calmly; is
it natural that a man of my means
should bring up seven girls in abso-
Lutte dependence on him, with the
risk Of leaving them chargeable upon
Others, If he were to die without hav.
ing amassed a fortune? Is there any
law in common sense by which the
father of seven girls should look up
on himself as having seven helpless
girls to provide for so long as these
girls may live? Am l bound to ar
que that, if two or three of my girls
live to ninety, unmarried, they shall,
seventy or eighty years hence, be
supporting themselves only by means
of what l have saved2"
"That is all very well, but the
world is not going to be reformed out
Of Wattlcport, Y replied the friend.-
"If you mean 10 set up asa prophet,
Harkwell, you must expect a pro-
phet's reward in his own country"
This hard truth was not to be gain.
said, and Mr.. Harkwell was not SO
Indifferent to the worlds esteem as to
be altogether callous to the tokens of
reprobation with which he was Wis
tied, His former observation-disclosures;
doctors, clergymen, small squires-
looked upon him as q disseminator
of dangerous doctrines which might
possibly infect their own girls; and
those of them who's income were most
precarious, and who would have done
well to follow his example, became
his sharpest censors. Al Christmas
time, when his girls came home for
the holidays, some good people got up
sort of conspiracy not to invite
them to their parties, and this was
mortifying to Mrs. Harkwell, al.
though the girls we're amused at it,
Their bright, happy look, the pleas
uro they took in their new pursuits,
the hopes they derived from them,
brought great comfort TO their father;
and then it must be owned that all
the gentry in Wattleport were not
narrow-minded simpletons. The
richer merchants and bankers Of the
place etcemed Mr.. Harkwell for his
courage and spoke well of him in
proportion as his weak-kneed friends
fell away. The most trying thing
Mr.. Harkwell had to put up with for
a time was an undoubted falling off
of his practice. Eccentric lawyers or
doctors are people 10 beware of, and
when he balanced his accounts at the
end of the twelve months the solici-
tor found that his earnings had di-
minishcd by hundred pounds.
An event which occurred about
two years after Jenny Harkwell had
gone to study for the stage in Lon
don, set u section of the public fur
thur against her father. Jenny was
then thirteen, and her teachers, who
were eminent in the dramatic pro.
fession and took great interest in
their pupil, wrote that they would
get her an engagement TO play the
part Of little girl in o comedy by d
famous author. Faithful to his rule
of consulting his children's interests,
Mr.. Harkwcll readily gave his con-
sentj so Jenny came out and her
debut was kindly noticed by the
newspapers as one Of promise. The
piece had q run OF three hundred
nights and Jenny earned about 9150;
after which she got another engage
mcnt at 99 u week. Stimulated BY
this example, Harkwell's fifth daugh.
ter, Lucy, declared that she would be
an actress, too; and; as her sisters in
struetors said they should be happy
to take her In hand, she went to Lon
don likewise. But hereupon some
truly good people began to murmur
aloud. It was said that Mr.. Hark-
well intended that one Of his daugh-
ters should become circus-rider, an
other bar-maid, and that the young.
Test child, aged three years, was al
ready being trained by her mother to
balance herself on tight rope. One
or two charitable associations which
had employed Mr.. Harkwell as their
solicitor, dismissed him from his post
Of confidence, drawing other charita.
bic clients away with them; and the
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