The times. (Owosso, Mich.) 1882-1897, 1894-09-21
WOMAN AND HOME.
ABBY SMITH AND IAN IDYL OF MOD
ERN NEW ENGLAND.n

A Room Especially For the Children-odd
Things About Woman's Ago Greater
Love Hath No Man-Thc Middle Aged
Mountaineering the Baby Amused.
The Springfield Republican, printing
letter from Abby Smith, headed it IAN
Idyl Of Modern New England" and edi-
torially calling attention to it said: 1--WE
ask every thoughtful man who has tho
ballot and every thoughtless woman who
is in the habit Of saying she doesn't want
it to read Abby Smiths story of tho New
Years call paid her by the tax collector of
Glastonbury. 1t Is we'll worth reading If
only for tho quaint simplicity of tho
style. This is bit Of Defoe's English.
But the matter is still moro noteworthy
than the manner. In refusing to continue
paying heavier taxes than any other prop
erty owners in Glastonbury, while refused
n voice in assessing and spending them,
Abby Smith and her sister rs truly stand
for the American principle as did the citi-
zens who ripped open the tea chests in
Boston harbor or the farmers who leveled
their muskets at Concord. And they seem
to have very much tho Same quality of
quiet, old fashioned Yankee grit They
don't shrek, nor wiring their hands, nor
mako 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"
From this ''Idyl of Modern New Eng
land" here is brief extract. Abby Smith
is relating their case to the Springfield Re-
publican: my sister went into the yard
to entreat him (the tax collector) to leave
two Of 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. Tho COWS were taken to neigh
boris, and tho neighbor said nothing could
exceed the trouble they had to get them
into his yard. He could do nothing with
them. These COWS will sometimes DO very
contrary, when nobody can manage them
but my sister. She will call them all by
their names, and they will come to her
upon the gallop. They will follow behind
her in single file, and she can lead them
wherever she chooses. When we had q
new tenant, they wouldn't lot him como
near them, and she has been obliged to
stand at their head (where they could see
herr every day when he milked for ever SO
long"
Tho names of these famous COWS were
Daisy, Whitley, Minney, Jessy, Roxy,
Martha Washington and Abigail Adams
The fame of the sisters spread so 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 1t rolling by her unique speeches and
SIMPLE old fashioned ways, but back Of
her was Julia Smith, with her Greek and
the Bible And these and Abby and tho
cows together made combination and o
fame which, for originality, has been I'M
rivaled in modern times.
People from many quarters made pill
grimages to tho old Smith mansion, and
the sleepy town Of Glastonbury, hitherto
without 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 if there was any
warrant in the original Hebrew for Mil
ler's predictions fixing the end OF the world
in 1S43 So she studied Hebrew and then
went to work and translated the Bible.
She translated it five times, then put it
away in q bureau drawer and published
it many years after, when she was IS.