Iron County register., 1885-10-15
( islt very warm friendship for him in

In comparing Ensign with Auuelsey,
as he had naturally done at 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 unconseiously revolving in their
minds some plan by which to remove
the wrongs beneath which they suffered
and writhed.
1t 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 fair
education, and, so the girls said, had
once or twice talked to his fellowwork-
ingmen in public upon questions affect
ing their interests, and there had grad
ually grown up in the mind of John
Parsons a feeling that Ensign was to be
instrumental in some way, perhaps as
leader, in righting the wrongs of the
people.
So long as Lucy had been engaged to
ad
been suppressed, overlaid as it were by
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 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, as he certainly was
a 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 the wretched
pittance 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 a knowledge of the relation which
the young man was likely to bear to
the family, began to take shape, and
once or 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
son-in-law, but as one who mis- ght
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's
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
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 over-abundant
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 a 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 prevent
corporations from ownin' land they
don't need, an can't make no use on,
'cept to make them that does want to
use it pay for the privilege said Mr..
Parsons, as they were at work repair
ing the fence. ''No man can't be real
ally free unless he has home of his
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 film up the
valleys; spiln' the finest lands; chokin'
up the river. an destroyin' the homes
of honest folks jest as eff gold was of
more value than bread. Eve tried hard
to get somethin' ahead agin old age
come a creepin' on to us, and to give
the youngsters start when they left
us, as Jennie is a doin' now, and here's
what it all amounts to; bit of land
not much better than wild on the side
of a mountain. The land God made,
an all the improvements that is on to it
never cost thousand dollars when
they was new, and that amt as much
as my wife had when married her; so
we've got nothin' at all to show fer
lifetime of hard work an savin'
$50 fur as we're concerned, mother
n me mean, it don't make much diff
ference any more. We're gettin' old
and shan't last much longer; but eff
you an Jennie amt no luckier than
we hev been, and there amt no change
for the better in things, Tn afeard you
won't have even sich a shantv as we've
got to die in, and your children won't
be no better than slaves. Ye see it
holds to reason that eff things don't get
no better they must git wus, fur every
year the corporations an the rich folks
is gittin' more an more of the land,
an of everything else, an the more
they git the easier it is to git more, an
by an by they IL hev it all, an them as
hahn got nothin' an can't git nothin'