Perrysburg journal. (Perrysburg, Wood Co., O. [Ohio]) 186?-1965, 1885-09-25

written from Phippsburg, telling him
where to go for directions how to find
her; and one day, about q week after
the family had taken possession of the
shanty on the mountain side, he came,
having walked out from the landing.
Mrs. Parsons cried little when En-
sign kissed her and called her "moth-
err" 1t reminded her so forcibly of tho
which his coming prcsaged
that she could not help it. But she
welcomed him warmly and made him
feel that she loved him already for Jen-
nie's sake.
From John Parsons he received a
hand-shake which, hardened as his own
hands were by work in the shop, came
near causing Ensign to finch. The
man whose daughter he had married
felt very warm friendship for him in
deed.
In comparing Ensign with Annelscy,
as he had naturally done Mt times,
when he expected both would become
his sons-in-law, he had somehow come
to regard him as kind of hero, con-
tending against odds, as he felt that all
men who labored were forced to do,
and that in choosing Jennie for wife
he had allied himself with those who,
although giving no outward sign, were
yet half unconsciously revolving in their
minds some plan by which to remove
the wrongs beneath which they suffered
and writhed.
-It'w was true that he had lost his pride
in possession and with it all confidence
in himself.
Without much knowledge of books,
inclined by nature to think lightly of
his own abilities, and having failed to
successfully defend what he knew to be
his natural rights to the wealth which
he had himself created, he now felt that
he had no right to offer advice upon
needed reforms in society or the laws.
But Ensign was young, he possessed
cool courage and spirit that would
not allow him to remain supinely inact-
i've beneath great and continued
wrongs. Besides this, he had n fair
education, and, so the girls said, had
once or twice talked to his fellow-work
ingmen in public upon questions affect
ing their interests, and there had grad
ually grown up in the mind of John
Parsons feeling that Ensign was to be
instrumental in some way, perhaps as a
leader, in righting the wrongs of the
people.
So long as Lucy had been engaged to
marry Mr.. Annelsey these feelings had
been suppressed, overlaid as it were by
a fear that in encouraging them he was
choosing between his daughters, who
were equally dear to him, but he had
not been able to prevent n feeling that
Annelsey, being in sympathy with the
cause of the losses which he had suf-
fered, was in some way partially re-
sponsible for them, rs he certainly was
q representative of the class who were
the gamers by those losses, and by the
losses of the thousand and millions of
other men and women who are doomed
to toll all their lives for tho wretched
pttance of enough food and clothing,
and hopes of better times, to induce them
to continue the work OF creating wealth
for others.
The moment, however, he learned
that Lucy had dismissed Mr.. Annelsey,
the thoughts which had before been
but dumb kind of feeling, kept under
by knowledge of the relation which
the young man was likely to bear to
the family, began to take shape, and
once OF twice in talking with Jennie of
the life which she and her husband
would lead in Chicago, he had even put
these thoughts into words, and now he
welcomed the young man not alone as
a son-in-law, but as one who might
some day help to right existing wrongs
and make the people free.
Ensign remained with the family
nearly week, and every day endeared
himself more and more to his wife 5
parents. 1t was in order that they
might become better acquainted with
him, and thus not feel that they were
giving their daughter to one so nearly q
stranger. that he remained. During his
stay he helped all he could to put the
place in better shape, and as the rains
did not fall during the entire week, the
two men were enabled to do much
towards making things look more
cheerful.
A shed for the horses was built out of
lumber bought for that purpose by the
former owner, but never erected. The
broken places in the fence were re-
paired; the grape vines staked and tied
up, and portions of the overabundant
growth OF fruit trees cut away.
1t was really wonderful the change
which these little Improvements made
in the looks of the place. But then they
had the sun, and the sun with very
little assistance in the way of setting
leaning fences and gates upright will,
in a few days. make great change in
any picture first seen when wet and
sodden by long continued rains.
AS the two men worked they talked
talked of the wrongs of the farmers
and the laboring and business men Of
the cities; of the causes of so many loss
es and SO much poverty and suffering
and of the possible or impossible rene
dies.
"There ought to be law to preven
corporations from ownin' land the,
don't need, an can't make no use on
'cept to make them that does want tt
use it pay for the privilege" said Mr.
Parsons, as they were at work repair
ing the fence. mo man can't be real
ally free unless he has home OF hi
own, and here Cover ment has gone an
give half the State to corporations, an
how Is the next gineration to git homes
I'd like to know.
"An' other corporations are washin
down the mountains an tillin' up tin
valleys; spilin' the finest lands; chokn
up the river. an destroyin' the home
of honest folks jest as ef gold was O
moro value than bread. I've tried har,
to get somethin' ahead agin old ag
come creepin' on to us, and to Civ
the youngsters start when they lef
us, as Jennie is doin' now, and here
what it all amounts to; bit of lam
not much better than wild on the sid
of a mountain. The land God made
an all the improvements that is on to
never cost thousand dollars whe
they was new, and that amt as muc
as my wife had when married her; S
we've got nothin' at all to show fer
lifetime of hard work an savin'.
$50 fur as we're concerned, mothe
n me mean, it don't make much di
ference any more. We're gettin' oil
and shan't last much longer; but