Idaho County free press. [volume] (Grangeville, Idaho Territory) 1886-current, 1893-07-07
OUR FORE-MoTHERS.



FOR THE F..5E pHEssl
Come. let us tune our pNttiotic lay.
In a new key, this Independence Day.
For our fore fathers. tho of sternest stuff,
Have certainly. ere this. been praised enough.
Why they were bold. we well can understand
With such brave wives and sweethearts near
at hand.
Puny indeed our colonies had been,
Settled exclusively by lonely men:
And never lacking woman's cheering word
Would they have grimly faced King George III
And put him down. In council, and at home
Woman was still the power behind the throne.
And how she helped to save this glorious land
'Tis time that all began TO understand.
Let not the incredulous themselve deceive,
But answers true unto these queries give
Who sewed our fathers buck'skn clothes to-
gether,
sThat shrank in dry and stretched T.. rainy
weatherlY
Who kept the hearth fires glowing. whilst. our
sires
We're vigorously enkindling other fires9
Arornd those dreadful witches, who on broom
Did whisk abroad at night,when low the moon
To work their evil spells on man and beast.
But some escaped. To-day. to say the least,
We've myriads of their descendants. witches all
Whose bright eyes east a spell that doth en-
thrall
Young men to their undoing.
Who did teach
To prattling babes that liberty of speech
And to serve God as one may choose. is right7
Whilst the stern Purtans were busy quite.
Exiling Quakers to the wilderness.
Not thatth loved religious freedom less,
But loving their own mode of worship more,
Would tolerate no other on these shores,
For why should they such perils undergo
To reach this alien land. I'd like to know?
Sweet Liberty Ito please themselves and force
Others to please them too-or leave-of course.
Who weekly sat in church, with freezing toes,
whilst the long-winded parson, hours did
prose
In dreary style, about the sons of men
All being sharers in old Adams sin)?
Nor dared to fetch along pan of Goals
Les. they ilnperil their immortal souls;..
Nor even to murmur at the cold, withal,
Because that crusty bachelor, St. Paul.
Had once for all ordained with wisdom Deep
That women. in the church, should silence
keep.
Poor old st. Paul Il always have believed
That he by maid coquettish was deceived;
Tilted outright, perhaps, for some young sprig,
Who couldn't cut figure half so big.
And while her treachery his soul did vex,
He took wholesale revenge upon her sex.
II he could leave of absence importune.
And revisit the pale glimpses of the moon,"
How would his eyes with holy rage expand,
To see bold females in the pulpit stand
Conducting sermon, sacrament and prayer;
And worse than all, conspicuous at church
Managing grab-bags, lotteries anything
Within the law, that revenue will bring.
But to resume. Who vast, with aching backs,
Did card long woolen rolls, and "hackle" flax
And weave and spin, and knit, and brew and
bake,
And children rear, and seldom rest did take,
While the men folks, havnt the least doubt,
Sat on the fence and whitfield, and planned out
Such odious laws, that hardly, for his life,
sDared one on Sabbath day, embrace his wife,
Nor could with wife or sweethear walk
abroad
For pleasure only to the house OF God?
And last, when revolution swept the land,
Who helped our cause with willing heart and
hand?
Cheering the minute men to stand for right;
Dressing their wounds when worsted in the
fight,
Giving from store and basket without stint;
Yielding their best and dearest without plant.
All this they did, but not to make name.
Twas dutys star that guided our fore mothers
And "gobble" all the glory?-Our Forefathers
MARY G. BELL.
'Blue laws of Connecticut.