San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1892-06-11
THE SCARLET LETTER
By NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE
CHAPTER |.
rE MARKET PLACE.

in Prison lane. on certain summer
morning not less than two centuries ago,
was occupied by pretty large number
of the inhabitants OF Boston, all with
their eyes intently fastened on the iron
clamped oaLen door. Among any other
population, or at a later period in the
history of New England, the grim rigid
ity that petri6ed the bearded physiogno-
mics of these good people would have
.augured some.awful business in hand
1t could have betokened nothing short
of the anticipated execution of some
noted culprit, ION whom the sentence of
"a legal tribunal had butsconfrmed the
verdict of public sentiment. But in
that eayly severity of the Puritan char
..cter an inferenee of this kind could not
so individually be draws. 1t might be
that sluggish bond servant, or an I'M
dutiful child, whom his parents had
given over to the civil authority, was to
be corrected at the whipping post.
1t might be that an Antinomian, a
Quaker or other heterodox religionist
was to be scourged out of the town, or
an idle and vagrant Indian. whom the
white mans fire water had made riotous
about the streets, was to be driven with
stripes into the shadow of the forest. 1t
might be, too, that 8 witch, Ike old
Mistress Hibbins, the bitter tempered
widow of the magistrate, was TO die
upon the gallows. In either case, there
was very much che same solemnity of
demeanor on the part of the spectators:
as befitted a people among whom religion
and law We're almost Identical and in
whose character both were so thorough
ly interfused that the mildest and Sc
verest acts of public discipline were
alike made venerable and awful.
Meager, indeed, and cold was the SYM
patty that transgressor might look
for, from such bystanders. at the scat
fold. On the other hand, penalty,
which in our days would infer degree
of knocking infamy and ridicule. might
then be invested with almost as stern
dignity as the punishment Of death it.
self
1t was a circumstance to be noted, on
the summer morning when our story be-
gins its course, that the women, of whom
there We're several in the crowd, APP
peared to take a peculiar interest in
whatever penal infection might be ex-
pected to ensue. The age had not so
much refinement that any sense of i'm
propriety restrained the wearers of pet
ticoat and farthingale from stepping
forth into the public ways and wedging
their not unsubstantial persons, if oc-
casion were, into the throng nearest to
the scaffold of an execution. Morally
as well as materially, there was coarser
fiber in those wives and maidens of old
English birth and breeding than in their
fair descendants, separated from them
by a series Of six or seven generations;
for throughout that chain of ancestry
every successive mother has transmitted
to her child fainter bloom, a more del
icate and briefer beauty and slighter
physical frame, if not character of less
force and solidity than her own.
The women who are now standing
about the prison door stood within less
than half a century of the period when
the manlike Elizabeth had been the not
altogether unsuitable representative Of
the sex. They were her countrywomen:
and the beef and ale of their native land,
with a moral diet not whit more re-
fined, entered largely into their compo-
sition. The bright morning sun there
fore shone on broad shoulders and well
developed busts and on round and rudy
cheeks that had ripened in the far off
island, and had hardly yet grown paler
or thinner in the atmosphere Of New
England. There was moreover a bold
ness and rotundity of speech among
these matrons, as most of them seemed
TO be, that would startle Us at the pres
ent day, whether in respect to its pur.
port or its volume of tone.
"Goodwives," said hard featured
dame of fifty, III tell We piece of my
mind. 1t would be greatly for the pub,
lie behoof. if we women, being of mature
age and church members in good repute
should have the handling of such male
factresses as this Hester Prynne What
think ye, gossips? If the hussy stood NJ
for judgment before us five that are now
here III knot together, would she come
off with such a sentence as the worship
full magistrates have awarded? Marry
1 trow mott"
People say" said another, that tn,
Reverend Mr.. Dimmesdale, her godl,
pastor, takes it very grievously to hear
that such scandal should have COM
upon his congregation
The magistrates are Godfearing gen
tlemen. but merciful overmuch-that i
"A truth, added a third autumnal ma
.tron. "At the very least, they Shout
have put the brand of a hot iron o.
g., I