Gloucester County Democrat. (Woodbury, N.J.) 1878-1932, 1892-12-15

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 it may
well be without her mothers solace of
having fulfilled womans destiny and
taken rank as wife and mother.
Perhaps it il even worse than this:
perhaps the girl is actuallyil used; per
haps the father drinks, and the mother
is a vixen, and the rough boy brothers
are allowed to tease ana tyrannize ana
bully their sister as only rough boys can.
In either case here IL 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 life, she will
simply refrain from trying to summon
that hand and will to her rescue, and
will, after some years of desperate strug-
gle, go under the waves and add one
more to ''the noble army Of martyrs, Z
each one of whom adds her little item to
the account mankind is scoring up
against fate-an account probably to Be
J repudiated in the end, since it can never
be paid off
But perhaps the girl, having stuck to
her motto Of ''Muin's 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
dreary life and does not too closely
scrutinize what it offers instead. She
marries in haste and, alas repents at
leisure. Jack or Joseph turns out to be
different from the father from whose
grumbling she has escaped, but not, on
the whole, any better He does not
grumble or growl so much certainly,
but lie laughs ana sneers. which il
worse. The father dealt out his money
i sparingly for the new gown that could
not be refused, but the husband, if
urged too far, swears angrily that he
has none to give and bids her make
over her old things or buy them out of
the magnificent lowry She brought him,
when, poor child, she knows that lie
knows the price Of her wedding gown il
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 vel
come to do if she can yet anybody to
give it to her, for Jack Or a 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 III shame ana
vain regret her resentment against her
own poor mother, now that she finds her
self also growing peevish and complain
ing and ailing and lachrymose. She at
last learns to understand, now it Is too
late, the causes of that poor mothers
infirmities of body and temper, and re-
solves that as her own daughter grows
to womanhood She viii make her See tile
matter more truly than ever she did
herself
She won't do it, however, and for two
reasons-the first, that it il impossible,
one Of the malicious provisions of fate be-
ing that experience j. mot To be trans
+ ferred," every traveller upon fate's iron
road having to buy bis or her own ticket,
and not one Of them privileged to enjoy
it without paying the whole cost ont of
his own pocket. and the second reason
being that tile motto IF NUNS the
word" is u righteous and decent one
when Il mothers discomfort with her
husband j. the topic and his own child
the auditor. Few women, think, would
deliberately transgress this uuwritten
law, although the impatient word, and
the eloquent silence, and the glance Of
the eye. and the toss of the head gener-
ally suffice to give the children at least
an inkling of what the mother Things
She il 50 honorably keeping to herself
But there are other women IA other
walks Of life who may have use for Lot
tvs favolite motto, W who put ~ them
selves the cynical query:
Is it better to shut up or pay ups
Households are there where sordid
questions Of want are not raised since
money il abundant ana tine Injuries al
4 life assured. But few people nowadays
feel contented to follow Paul's edicf,
Having food and raiment Herewith be
content not even when houses and
banLbooks are added, for these modern
rebels. especially the female half Of
them, contend that the lUxurics Of one
aye are the necessities VI the next, and
that SO far from being content with food
and raiment, houses aud bankbooks
they count al those as naught and less
I than naughti If they are not accompanied
by sympathy, delicate consideration.
harmony of temper and taste, and that
peace ana sweet content only to be
4 found iii congenial companionship.
These women. having married M IDEAL
hero OF their own imagining, and sud-
denly waking to tho consciousness that
they have PLAYED upon themselves Just
such i trick ~ ala Titania when She
crowned an ass head with flowers. when
their sdream Of bliss all Of sudden
resolves itself into AN eternity of woe.
naturally seek to case the shock of tho
discovery by an outcry more or less
audible. and it is very natural that they
should.
Do you happen to know that the sur
geons aver the deadly effects of pain
4 to be very much mitigated BY outcriess
One IF the most diabolical refinements
of torture in the inquisition was ~ gag
the victim 80 that he remained per-
force mute. Men have thus died under
suffering they might have sustained ma
nature been allowed her free course.
4 And 50 with the woman who feels
that life has become too complex and
too painful to be governed BY the girls
motto IL Nuns tho word Matter