The Colored citizen., 1894-10-15
WOMAN AND HOME.
ABBY SMITH AND IAN IDYL OF MOD
ERN NEW ENGLAND"

A Room Especially For the Children-Odd
Things About woman's Age Greater
Love Hath No Mantle Middle Aged
womAn-ksePing the Baby Amused.
The Springfield Republican, printing q
letter from Abby Smith, headed it An
tdyl Of Modern New England" and edi-
torially calling attention to IL said: I'VE
ask every thoughtful man who has the
ballot and every thoughtless woman who
Is in the habit Of saying she doesn't want
Il 20 reAd Abby Smiths story Of the New
Years call paid her by the tax collector Of
Glaston bury. II is well worth reading IL
only for the quaint simplicity OF the
style. This is a BIT Of Defoe's English.
But the matter Is still more noteworthy
than the manner. In refusing TO continue
paying heavier taxes than any other prop
erty owners In Glastonbury, while refused
q voice in assessing and spending them,
Abby Smith and her sister as truly stand
for the American principle as did the oiti-
zens who ripped open the tea chests in
Boston harbor or the farmers who leyeled
their muskets 81 Concord. And they seem
to have very much the same quality Of
quiet, old fashioned Yankee grit. They
don't shrek, Eor wiring their hands, nor
make fuss Of any sort. They are good
nature itself But they are also logic it.
self, and resolution itself, and pluck it
self They simply stand upon their
rights"
Frm this ''Idyl of Modern New Eng.
land" here is a brief extract Abby Smith
is relating their case TO the Springfield Re
publican: My sister went into the yard
20 entreat him (the tax collector) TO leave
two II the COWS together-there were eight
that one might not be left alone. But
she could not prevail. and the little thing
(the poor mans portion) has cried ever
since. The cows were taken to a neigh
bor'A and the neighbor said nothing could
eIceed the trouble they had to get them
into his yard. He could do nothing with
them. These cows will sometimes be very
contrary. when nobody can manage them
but my sister. She will call them all by
their names, and they will come 10 her
upon the gallop. They will follow behind
her In single file, and she can lead them
wherever she chooseI When we had a
new tenant they wouldn't let him come
near them, and she has been obliged to
stand at their head (where they could see
her) every day when he milked for ever 50
long"
The names Of these famous COWS were
Daisy, Whitley, Minney, Jessy, ROXY,
Martha Washington and Abigail Adams
The fame Of the sisters spread 50 far and
wide that the mails Of glastonbury, hith-
erto not very weighty, went loaded down
with letters and papers from all parts Of
the country. Their table was piled with
them, and their time occupied in reading
and answering letters 1t was quaint Abby
Smith who set the ball in motion and
kept it rolling by her unique speeches and
simple, old fashioned ways but back Of
her was Julia Smith, with her Greek and
HEBREW lore and her five translatiOns Of
the Bible. And these and Abby and the
COWS together made a combination and o
fame which, for originality, has been un-
rivaled in modern times
People from many quarters made pill
grimages 10 the old Smith mansion, and
the sleepy town Of Glastonbury, hitherto
without a record in the worlds annals
became distinguished by two women
While Julia raised COWS, Abby raised
the breeze that waited them TO public
attention. But their fame rests equally
on both In the days Of the Millerites"
and their talk about the end Of the world
Julia wanted to learn II there was any
warrant in the original Hebrew for Nil
ler's predictions fixing the end Of the world
In ls4S. So she studied Hebrew and then
went 10 work and translated the Bible
She translated il five times, then put it
Away in bureau drawer and published
IL many years after, when she was SIS.