St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1882-01-20
RsHsions Rsading.
o What a Wife Did.

About forty years ago there dwelt,
on one of the fine agricultural towns of
Central New York, a man of much
worldly prosperity, farmer, with
broad acres whose productiveness al
ways filled his barns with much plen-
ty. When a little past middle age he
lost his wife by death, and not long
after returned to his native East to
marry one of his old schoOlmates in a
town where he had been brought up.
She was a pious woman; but he was
not religious, and had been in the
habit of doing Sunday-w work on his
farm whenever he conceived it nee
essary. This his old schoolmate was
ignorant of.
In few weeks after bringing his
new wife to her new home, the hay
ing harvest came on and one Sabbath
morning, as the wife was superintend-
ing the preparation of the breakfast,
she heard an unexpected noise outside,
as the grinding of scythes, and other
indications of the usual assembling of
the labOring hands; and stepping to
the door to see, behold there they
were, ready for the lead of the master.
Turning on her heel and reentering
the house, she sought directly her hus-
band, and looking earnestly i'll his eye,
she said to him in respectful, but firm
tones, "Mr. Marvin, did you bring me
here to break my heart 7"
The strong man looked at the feeble
woman in silence for a moment or two,
as though in prudent self-cOnsultatiOn,
and with no direct reply to her, turn
ed himself to the door, and passing in
to the yard waved his hand to his men,
and said, 81 think we will do no more
to-day, boys; but come early to-mor-
row morning"
Thus the weak woman conquered /;
winning not so much Il conquest for
herself as she did for the Sabbath and
its ever-afterward supremacy i'll that
household and on that farm. And so,
like the wise woman of whom Solo
mon speaks, she '.builded her house,
and did not foOlishly "pluck it down
with her hands"
And as she did, so can woman i'll
general do in all civilized and Chris
tianiZed countries, if she has Il heart
and skill to use i'll this direction her
weakness or her strength, whichever
we may call it. Comparatively few
husbands would brutishly override the
conscientious scruples, or tyrannlcally
deny the prudently-eXpressed requests
of II pious wife. And in this line of
things who can set bounds to the bene-
ticent and reformatOry influence of
woman
Take, for example, the great rail
road evil of our day, which, by its
needless Sunday trains, prOtanes the
Sabbath, violating therein the civil
statutes. and so teaches our youth to
violate them. and scOrns all the re-
straints of the institutions of religion
around, and needs no respectful petit
tions and protests to the contrary.
Let every woman refuse to patronIZe
these Sabbath breaking trains, and not
many of them would long after con
tinuc.
Or let the WiueS of the directors of
our railroads take decided and earnest
ground against the running of Sunday
trains, eXpostulating with their hus-
bands about them, or, if necessary, be
seeching them, as wife knows how to
beseech, for their own sake, and for
their children's sake and for their
neighbOr'S sake, that the Sabbath may
be kept by them according to the law
is it probable that such trains would
be run much longer?
Or, turn to the hands that operate
these wicked trains the engineer, the
fireman, the brakeman, the conductor,
and the ticket-seller; and let their
wives, mothers, sisters, or lovers, set
their faces, their hearts, and their wise
and gentle tongues against such Sab
bath breaking, and how long, again |
ask would it he before they would quit
itq
Let the wife say, Husband, will
share with you poverty, any amount of
it, that may flow to us from our duty
done to God and man, but as for bear
ing such sin and iniquity with you, 1t
breaks my Heart" Where is the hus
band, ask, that could long stand that
If he is anywhere, he is not worth go
ing far to see, nor does such man do
any credit to the name of husband.
Mothers and sisters, are you awake
to an adequate sense of your power 7
And if you are, why not dedicate that
power to the cause of God, your cOun
try, and your race 81 American Mes
senger.