The mirror. (Stillwater, Minn.) 1894-1925, 1898-03-10
-ERMs.) $1.O0pe year, in advance
Six Months so cents,

roWful day Philip went into the Cir
cult Court and asked a decree of di-
vorce from Mary and for the care and
custody of the children.
1t was an awful awakening to the
wife and mother, and when the Judge
granted all that Philip had asked she
kissed the little girl and the baby boy
and went out of the courtroom with
despair written in her face.
But she had one hope. The Judge
had said that if, at the end of fifteen
months, Mary Conway could come
back into court and prove that she had
permanently refrained from drink the
decree would be so modified as to per-
NIT her mothers interest in the chill
dren.
"Mrs. Conway is a courageous, good
woman" says Attorney 1. C. Terry,
''and nobody will ever know the char
acter of the battle she fought during
the last fifteen months. She was not
drunkard but the regularity of the
beer habit had fastened itself upon her
and release from it was fight she
might never have won had it not been
for the reward in store. She got po-
sltlon out at the Insane Asylum laun-
dry, and worked there as never woman
worked before. The children were al.
ways in her vision, night and day, and
for sight of them she fought on and
conquered at last So 1 accompanied
her into court Monday, and on the
presentation of testimony the Judge
modified his decree, giving to Mrs. Con-
way the right to see and enjoy the So
ciety of her children at her own home"
1t was signal victory, all the more
pronounced because woman won it
where thousands of men have failed.
During the last fifteen months Mrs.
Conway says she has done laundry
work, latterly at her rooms in Caron-
delet, from which she obtained an in.
come varying from three to four dol
lars week. She enjoyed the labor be-
cause it was hard and cruel. When
the day was passed she sat in her room,
folded her wearied hands and dreamed
of the children. Philip had them and
she knew they were well, but they had
gone out of her life and left her heart
emptied of it's dearest treasures.
She says the old temptations were
not so much from the habit as from
despair. Sometimes she used to lie
awake during the long nights, thinking
over her lost happiness; how, when the
babies were born, she had pictured how
she would clOthe them and what
lunches she would give them when
they went to school and what Santa
Claus would bring to them at Christ
mas and how tenderly she would watch
over them when sickness came.
1t was all gone now-husband, chill
dren, home and everything everything
but the pride of self-respect and the
last hope of beckoning back to her one
Of the smallest of the pictures she had
drawn, the dreams she had had, the
visions she had seen.
There was the courage of an early
Christian martyr in her attitude and it
drew to her side one of the Salvation
Army lassies, Mrs. Mary De We're. The
lassie contriyed to be with her almost
every day. With song and story and
prayer she held up Mrs. Conway's faith
and determination, and when the fit.
teen months had gone she walked with
her into the courtroom and made oath
that the poor woman had not touched
liquor in all that period that had been
fixed by the legal tribunal.
1t was picture of devotion and
courage and helpfulness that might be
put upon canvas-only that there are
so many such pictures still unpainted.
"a I.