Grand Rapids herald. [volume] (Grand Rapids, Mich.) 1892-1959, 1892-12-04

- Dflef an1 50 Tar away When once tAe-
srs passed tast We almost doubt II We
ever actually experienced them. or II IN
deed they were no more than one OF
those morning dreams apparently COW
sring hours, but which waking reason
tells Us only tiIled the half minutes be-
tween the servants frst and second
knock upon the bedroom door.
Again, the poets have. - indeed they
generally DO. seized upon tbs true m
wardness Of the situation when they
speak If dream OF delight vision
OF Joy" just thiak OF il. An eternity
of woe" and "dieaEa Of delight" aud
yet both events may, by the measure OF
the clock. have occupied the same length
Of time.
But to return little to our mutfons.
Take tho case Of girl az home-and
dare say some girl reading this VIII
think l mean her, and somebody not
! girl viii immediately lit the cap to the
head Of some friend Of their own, but
really l mean no girl In particular, but,
alas. great many girls in genersi-a
girl. we viii say. whose parents are In
very moderate circumstances, and yet
not poor enough to allow their daughter
to go out into the world to earn her own
living. She must stay at home and "be
subject unto her parents"
She must do the work which II II
were done for stranger would bring
her in q solid income, while at home she
Is paid in food, not such as she could
fancy perhaps: in clothes. each garment
! OF which represents q separate pang or
modification and disappointment, and
I in a good deal Of scolding and fretting
at from = sickly or overworked mother
and a harassed father. The girl feels,
bitterly feels, that the days OF her youth
and good looks are passing by; that she
is losing those chances Of untold pros
perity and joy which every girl believes
-oh, sweet delusions-lie within her
reach If only she could get her hands
free To grasp at them. She knows that
unless some new opportunity Is offered
to her before long the day will come
when she, too, will be peevish and sickly
and fretted into wrinkles and sallow-
ness as her mother is now, and 1t may
well be without her mothers solace OF
having fulfilled woman's destiny and
taken rank as wife and mother.
Perhaps it is even worse than this;
perhaps the girl is actually i'll used; per
I haps the father drinks, and the mother
is vixen, and the rough boy brothers
are allowed to tease and tyrannize and
bully their sister as only rough boys can.
In either case here is life being
spoiled and crushed, and yet capable Of
being saved by the intervention OF some
strong hand and masterful will. But
if this good girl is of Lotty's way OF
thinking. and considers that '.Mum's the
word" is the best rule Of lie, she will
simply refrain from trying to summon
that hand and will to her rescue, and
will, after some years Of desperate strug-
gle, 60 under the waves and add one
moro TO ''the noble army Of martyrs"
each one of whom adds her little item to
4 the account mankind is scoring up
against fate--an account probably to be
repudiated in the end, since it can never
be paid of.
| But perhaps the girl, having stuck to
her motto OF NUNS the word" finds
her release comes through some William
or Thomas or Jack or Joseph, who offers
her marriage. Naturally the poor child
grasps at any means of escape from her
droary life and does not too closely
scrutinizs what it offers instead She
marries in haste and. alasl repents at
leisure. Jack OK Joseph turns out to be
different from the father from whose
grumbling she has escaped, but not, on
tho whole, any better. He does not
grumble or growl so much certainly,
but he laughs and sneers. which is
worse. The father dealt out his money
sparingly for the new gown that could
not be refused, but the husband, il
urged too far, swears angrily that he
has mono to give and bids her make
over her old things or buy them out Of
the magnificent dowry she brought him,
when. poor child, she knows that he
knows the price Of her wedding gown is
not yet scrimped out Of the poor house
hold she has left.
Perhaps, on the other hand, Jack or
Joseph is foolishly careless Of money,
spends what he can get as soon as it
comes to hand, and lives for the rest Of
the month on credit, as she is also well
come TO do il she can get anybody to
give 1t to her, for Jack or Joe of this
kind had as lief be in debt for hun
dred dollars as for ten, since he never
intends to pay either. We all know the
end Of this career--debt. failure, pro-
cesses at law, bankruptcy, ruin, misery
of every sort. The children come, and
their mother remembers in shame and
vain regret her resentment againGt her
own poor mother, now that she finds her
self also growing peevish and complain
ing and aiiing and iachrymose. She at
last learns to understand. now It is too
late, the causes Of that poor mothers
infrmities. of body and temper, and re-
! solves that as her own daughter grows
/. TO woInsnhood she will make her see the
: matter more truly than ever she did
herself.
! She won't do 10, however. and for two
reasons-the first, that it is impossible,
one Of the malicious provisions of fate be
ing that experience is mot TO be trans
ferred." every traveller upon fate's iron
road having to buy his or her own ticket
and not one Of them privileged to enjoy
il without paying the whole cost out OF
his own pocket. and the second reason
being that the motto of Nuns the
word Is righteous ard q decent one
= =. 4