Eagle River review. [volume] (Eagle River, Wis.) 1890-1927, 1893-09-07
q MIL and was constantly busy IN

r+ha m1u. and was constantly busy IN
| various ways trying to improve their
| condition. Silas Grounding was the
| CITY partner and received and sold the
goods manufactured at the mill. lie
Visited the factory three or four times
a year, and each visit he sought to
make his coming and stay agreeable
as possible to me. It did not take me
LONG to perceive that his pOliteness
GREW out of something more than
Friendship. so [ could hardly say | was
surprised when he asked my hand In
marriage. While I had no particular
reason to dislike him. did not enter
| tain that love for him that | felt L
should to warrant me in accepting his
offer. I lost no time in telling him 80,
and with real sadness and sorrow L &C
ouainted him with the state OF my feel
ings towards him and we parted.
4 few months afterward | heard NUT
! terings among operatives ABOUT pay
day having passed without their
wages having been handed them.
At this time my mother died, and
after the funeral upon visiting the fac
| tory. T learned that matters were in
worse condition than ever. [ asked
nv father to take me into his cont
dence and tell me all, and he then in
formed me that his partner had in
vested the money in schemes that had
proven worthless, and that the factory
| would have to be sold to satisfy the
mortgage that had been placed on it.
T saw that such proceeding would
! leave the operatives women. and
childre n-without money, without
! food, and with scant raiment, and. in
MANY instances, without shelter. [
knew that Mr.. Grounding was a man
of many resources. and [ was not long
in getting to his Office, and importun-
| ING him to come to the aid of the pen
niless operatives. He did not appear
| hard hearted man. He was a bust
ness man in every sense OF the word.
The world might have called him cold,
| and, it may be, the world would have
been right, but thought detected in
him warm, sympathetic heart. So
when he referred to the love he once
had for me, and assured me that it had
grown stronger with time, and when
he again asked me for my hand. and
gently intimated that we could do to-
gether what [ had implored him to do
for the operatives, I yielded, not for
love, but for humanity, not because of
any affection [ had for him, but that
almost whole village full of people I
loved land loved them all the more
because they were poor and needy
might not be turned out into the world
friendless and homeless.
We were married. The factory
hands were paid all that was coming to
them They never knew that the one
sacrifice a woman can make, for their
sake. [ did not then know myself,
how great the sacrifice was. How bit
terly have learned it all since. A
few months after the marriage my
father died. | think he believed to
the hour of his death that [ had mar
ried a man | did not love to save my
father from bankruptcy. My great
sacrifice bore bitterer fruit than that.
A boy babe was born to gladden. my
heart. My whole soul was enrapped
up in the child There was no one
else for me to love. The father of my
darling boy had continued his specula-
tions and lost all he possessed, and, on
the day my child was born, my hus-
band came to my bed-cfamber and de-
,nanded that [ should sign paper
transferring to him all the property
my father had left to me at his death.
| refused, and the mann who had the
flSuG 10 call me ny lne hOly name Ol
wife, in that hour. If in no other,
angels should guard the mothers
couch, struck me savage blow. and
them passed beyond my threshold, out
into the world, no longer nny husband,
except I'm name. fhe could have then
gone to his grave instead of afterwards
returning to my presence much OF
sorrom [ have borne. and marry tears
have shed would have BEEN spared me.
F0l" seven years he. remained
away. { heard of him frga0 time
to- Time as an adventurer seeking
a liNelihoo by dishonest means One
day he. returned to my home He
claimed my boy-my darling bog- His
boy. Though the father had never
seen th@ child, though he had aimed a
blow at the mother on purpose TO kill
the babe. though he had abandoned
the family and left the mother alone
to care for the child yet the lawyer
told me there was Danger that the law
might take my boy-understamG, my
boy-and give it to his unnatural father.
ITO BE CONTINUED.