The Press., 1891-02-26

RINGS, CONN FEDRI
 W. c. T. ,. DErAkTMRNT. HOW THE LIQUOR TRAFFIC nTERFERED
 WITH MRS. RAI.sroN.
 "But the liquor traflic has never inter- fered with ms personally answered Mrs. Judge Ralston, raising her fine eyes t0 the speaker, and smiling with just little nm conscious arrogance. 1T cen understand how those whose husbands or sons are being drawn away by such influences, can wish to give their time and energies to the work but aa for ne. why, it would be pure affectation to present an interest which I do not really feel. To one in my position, the dangers you speak of seem 90 exaggerated thet can hardly believe them real, or understand how they cen affect me or mine in any way"
 ssThe ways are 70 many insiafed little Mrs. Dr. Seabright spne cannot read the annals of crime ContaSnedt in ouf daily without seeing how often the innocent are made to suif6r fhrounh thia fearful curse. II seems 10 me the evils and dangers of the whisky traffic can hard. lySbe exaggerated, and she looked up in. to the elder lady's face . little nervonsly, but still with determination in her brown eyes, and in the firm lines of her pretty mouth.
 s'I am quite willing toiface your imagin. ary danger" laughed Mrs. Ralston, placid ly folding together her two white hands, decked with their spaFkhng rings, and viewing them complacently as they lay in delicate leisure against their background of crimson cashmere.
 Just then the heavy curtaina behind hel parted, and eight year old sstdle soft ly in and laid chubby hand on her moth. ef's shoulder. Instantly the half supercil. ious smile faded from the lady . race. the proud, dark eyes grew suddenly soft. and she drew her only daughter close to her side. Surely no loveliex vision of child. hood ever blessed mothers eyes. The fair. oval face, shaded by long, light curls the perfectly moulded childish figure, dsintily robed in it's rich but simple coe. tune the gentle patrician air of the tiny woman, all combined to make her, whas her mother we'll knew her to be, araIe pos session that many woman might envy.
 SWhat is it, my daughter ?" asked the fond mother, after the little girl had been duly presented to young Mrs. Seabright and Mrs. Seth Twenably, ahe Baptist min. ister's wife.
 S''May I go now, mammal It is almost three o'clock.
 ooh, certainly, dear; had forgotten your engagement. Have Sara fix your hair, and come directly homo after yonY lesson" and she bent forward with sweet motherliness, to press z kiss npOn the round, rosy face urturned to her own.
 "Jeesie goes to take her dancing lesson. p she explained, as the child left the room. shocked again, but yon see we can't all is composed of little 9irls, and they meet good for her. and I an4 h0t nftnid fhnt any proud smphasis. .upon tlss lase NO xords. allow that little naughty tone to creep into her speech, for she was lady by birth apd breeding, but generations of blue blood and long line of ancestry. whose eecutcheon showed no blot, had produced in Mrs. Judge Ralston woman in whom family pride was . dominant passion and to intimate to her that one of her Kindred could, by any possibility, bs subject to the same temptation, or led away by the sanae evil influences that assaiied =ennanon was to insult her nnpardonably. Neither of her visitors made any direct re- ply to her renaxk, but the heightened col. or on little Mira. Seabright's face showed that she felt keenly the tone of implied su. periority in the manner of the speaker.
 Mrs. Seth Twomhly, whose long experi. ence in the temperance work had inured her to many sorts of rebnffs, only answer. cd, rising quietly and drawing up around her her old fashioned black cashmere shawl, "We are sorry; both for yonr own sake and ours, that you do not sec fit to join us in our work. However, I am sure that you will see this matter in different light by and by.'
 ''When ! see it as you do, i" answered Mrs. Ralston, rising, and smiiing little incredulously, q, will give my hand to the ". 0. T. U. Until then must be ex- cnsed from taking any active interest in the work"
 Never from the minds of the two ladies, who left Mrs. Judge Ralston standing in the doorway of her beautiful parloT, will the vivid picture fade Such picture oi proud, self reliant, ambitious womanhood She stood with one white hand holding back the heavy p0rtiere, the delicate lace of her sleeve falling back from the fine wrist, clasped by it's costly bracelet. Rich dress became her, for she was 0ueenly woman, and she knew well and glosied in the knowledge, that her fine presence commanded universal admiration. She had no need of other strength than hel own, or to pray weakly as other women might for divine guidance What could God give to her more than shc already had, and it had been honorably won He would not take 1t away.
 It was we'll enough for these other wo. men, who, by virtue of their husbands professions, were brought into contact with the low, and vicious, and depraved, to take up this SO called christian work. Nay, it was proper and becoming thing in them but for her, who was by nature so well fitted to enjoy life and as1orn sooie. ty-why should she give up thess things for qnixotic notion of eleyating class ol people, of whose existence she was hardly aware?
 Probably their dirt and vice, and deera. dation, was as dear to them aa her pride oi birth and refinement was to her, and they were far from relishing the efforts of the philanthropic labofers who sought to lifl them out of their natural clement. ssAi least," falling back into her first eaay ati tude of mind, 'sthey have never inserfered with me. and why should I meddle wish their lives?D
 With this thought in her mind. sft