The Providence news. (Providence [R.I.]) 1891-1906, 1901-08-20

Then came the incumbered farm ia
California, the large family OF chill
dren. the unremitting toll Known only
to farm women whose husbands nave
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 we'll as a womans, the
grinding toll, the brain crushing debt
the flock OF children hanging to her
Just the same. The only thing that
moved was time. That at length brought
her freedom, but il was the freedom OF
a pauper The children grew TO ma
turity and went their way, the mortgage
that pressed upon her was foreciosed
az last and she was driven of the farm
and out into the world without penny
TO show for all her effort. Helen VIII
mans, the farm wife. was getting some
more education.
"a
linois, Emerson had lectured 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 SIZE
milked 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, a life, above all, free. She
probably would never have done IT,
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 go 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 it TO her. Away she
went, plunging into deep waters with
out an idea how TO swim. She wrote
wrote thoughts bold, sharp, radical,
free. Some editors saw the stun that
was in them, but most who saw refused
70 buy for that very reason. The song
of the free is not what the average
reader wants. though he perhaps thinks
he does very few editors bought her
offusions. and a very few people read
them.
starvation looked Helen wilmans,
he ND rat III
his fleshless fingers in her face. She
herself has told how in those days she
seriously meditated suicide If she
could not live, then she would die, die
like a brave woman, at once; not spin
ont agony. II does seem that nearly
ali who achieve anything uncommon
are squeezed by the fates till they cry
out i'm their torture and burst their
bonds.
Do things merely happen or are there
telepathic wires connecting persons and
events that in space are thousands of
miles apart? Among those that had
read Helen Wilmans' writings was a
Chicago editor who appreciated them.
In the nick of time, just in time, per-
haps, 10 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.
It was just when the wave OF Mental
Science, so called was beginning to rip
Pile.
1t struck Helen Wilmans, struck her
hard To make a mental picture OF
your high desire, TO hold IL in your
mind dey and night, TO will and work
toward IL. hustling perhaps none the
less because you are inwardly willing
and steadily thinking yourself already
what you wish 10 be-ths appealed ir-
resistibly to the powerful woman who
had endured so much. Given only room
for her feet 20 stand she accomplished