Deseret evening news. [volume] (Great Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1867-1920, 1901-08-17

Then came the incumbered farm IN
California, the large family OF chill
dreh, the unremitting toll known only
TO farm women whose husbands have
mortgaged not only their ground
but also the life and strength Of both
themselves and their wives. The out
| look for such women is scarcely less
dreary than that Of the slave In chains
in Siberian mines
The hapless California farm wife
struggled on as she could, doing often
a mans work as well as a woman's, the
! grinding toll the brain crushing debt
| the flock OF children hanging to her
| iust the same. The only thing that
moved was time That az length brought
her freedom, but It was the freedom OF
a pauper. The children grew to ma
turity and went their way, the mortgage
that pressed upon her was foreclosed
at last and she was driven off the farm
/ and out into the world without a penny
TO show for all her effort. Helen VIII
mans the farm wife, was getting some
more education.
When she was schoolgirl back In IL
| llnols. Emerson had leciured In her
town and singled her out among the
pupils because Of her large, noble look
ing head, which he commented on, say
ing that he thought she might be heard
from some day During the years she
MIXED COWS and hoed cabbages her
mental horizon was not bounded by the
COWS and cabbages. Even then she day
dreamed of writing and Of living her
own life, life, above all, free. She
probably would never have done II,
however, II the farm had not been sold
over her head. When the very last
prop on which her hope had leaned
broke beneath her, again the day dream
OF writing returned. She was foot loose
now and homeless.
Helen Wilmans took a resolve which
showed at once how brave and how ig-
norant she was. She would 90 to San
Francisco and earn from her writing
pen that living she had not been able
to secure from the profits OF the pig
pen. She had not money enough to pay
car fare to San Francisco. The VII
! lage tailor lent II to her. Away she
went, punging into deep waters with
out an idea how to swim. She wrote,
wrote thoughts bold, sharp radical,
| free. Some editors saw the stuff that
was in them, but most who saw refused
| to buy for that very reason. The song
OF the free is not what the average
reader wants, though he perhaps thinks
he does A very few editors bought her
illusions, and a very few people read
/ them.
Starvation looked Helen Wilmans.
| the dauntless, In the eyes and rattled
/ his feshless fingers In her face She
herself has told how in those days she
seriously meditated suicide II she
| could not live, then she would die, die
| like a brave woman, at once; not spin
out agony. II does seem that nearly
all who achieve anything uncommon
are squeezed by the fates till they cry
out in their torture and burst their
bonds.
Do things merely happen or are there
! telepathlc wires connecting persons and
! events that I'm space are thousands Of
miles apart? Among those that had
read Helen Wilmans' writings was
Chicago editor who appreciated them.
In the nick Of time just in time, per-
| haps, to save to the earth this remark
able, inspiring life, he wrote, asking
Mrs. Wilmans to accept a small place
on his paper She did so Immediately.
II was just when the wave Of Mental
Science so called was beginning TO rip
| Pile.
II struck Helen Wlmans, struck her
/ hard To make a mental picture Of
| your high desire, to hold 1t in your
mind day and night, TO win and work
toward It, hustling perhaps none the
/ less because you are inwardly willing