Democratic Northwest. [volume] (Napoleon, Ohio) 1869-1894, 1889-06-27
ONE MORE UNFORTUNATE.
BY LOUISE STOCKTON.

Martha Clarkson, the widow of fist.-
erman on the Jersey coast, told me the
greater part of this story. 1t has always
seemed to me full of significance, espe-
cially to women, who, more than men,
lack the dramatic power of putting them
selves into another's place. For this rea-
son we fail to help each other as we
might if we understood how the long un-
broken pull of detection and misery
wears out even the desire for better. If
the rising sun renews only the monotony
OF deprivation, if it sets upon days made
of negations, what avails the sun to us?
There are those of us who can fight bet
ter than we can endure, and BY whom
violent suffering is preferred to passive
misery. And it would be well if we
would understand how to go out and
help the ones who are in this plight,
knowing that the great fact to recognize
is that these are the victims who will
never come asking for succor.
The story concerned Agnes Jerome.
When it begins, Agnes was about thirty
years old, and under many troubles had
grown worn and weary. While she was
still young girl she had married against
the advice of her family, and her conse-
quent unhappiness ought to have salts
fed the most revengeful in it. If her
husband had justified her faith in him,
and she had prospered, she might have
been forgiven, but she was so persistent
ly wretched that it was uncomfortable to
even think of her. Her brother resented
being called upon to go bail for her hus-
band, her sisters did not like their Sc :
wants to see her forlorn figure conf :
into the house; she always had the aspece
of a beggar, they said; and indeed this
was true; but it was not of them she was
forever craving help, it YVES of life, Of
death, of the Lord in heaven, sometimes
of the devil himself.
In the first years of he marriage she
used to think she would oc happy il onIy
Barney would reform; then she despaired
of his reformation, because all their sur
roundings were so abject. They had los
their comfortable home, and were livi
in back room in the lodging house.
the morning she used to get up and
her coffee over smoky little oil larsi,
in tin cup, while Barney was still asleep.
AS she sat eating dry bread and drinking
poor coffee, wrapped in shawl, because
the people below stairs kept the heat
turned down until their rooms were
warmed, she used to think that if any
thing would excuse man for living in
saloons it was the alternative of living in
room such as her own. She did not
realize that Barney cared nothing for the
dreariness of his home. He never
thought of it except as a place where
there was bed to sleep upon, and where
possibly something to eat could be OBJ
tanned. If he came home late, at night
and found his wife sewing, he was salts
fed, because it was evident that she had
work, and there would be some money
if he folnd her asleep, he said little, be-
cause he was always sleepy and stupid,
and he didn't want to be talked to by
her. If he had any treasons to which
his heart or thoughts turned, they were
not in his home. He never abused
Agnes-that is, he never struck her
but he never thought himself responsible
for her privations, her hunger, sufferings
or notifications. They were both poor,
and that was all there was of it. If the
landlady turned them out-of doors he e..
pected Agnes to find new shelter, and
this she had to do, because no one would
have trusted him for the rent of room.
And if people had known how entirely
penniless and destitute she always was
when she sought new home, no one
would have let her in. But she hat
some bravery and the breeding of lady
and her gentle manners carried her oyci
many hard places, And she sank lower
until she was quite out of sight, and tl;.
was comfortable for her relations. X
have c skeleton in the closet is
enough, but one in the front hall i,
worse. =,
After tine Barney disappeared. Ag
nes expected him back day by day, but
lie did not come, and she began to hop,
lie was dead. 1t seemed so much bette
to think of him as asleep in quiet grave
than wandering drunken about tn,
streets. She sewed very constantly il
these days, and as she could keep, It's,
and manage what she earned, she wa
able to rent q room with stove in it
and now and then cook herself littl
cheap meat. But the long hours of cheer
less toll, the want of fresh air and ven
tilation, brought on a slow fever, and sh
had to go to hospital. Here she la,
Tor several wgeks until she was discharged
as cured. And she was cured of the fe
yer, but she was sick, suffering woman
when she went feebly out of the hos
| l,ital gate and stood at the street corne