The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1902-09-11

mucn mOVeu-Sn& luouSnt VI Tic ii'eA os
home.
Mrs. Shacklett ssy for some time thinking
OF description she had read In a home
paper of a flood coming down the Des
Moines river, which the ice had damned,
throwing the waters out over the fields
until the natural dam finally broke
| under the strain and turned
deluge of water and great blocks
of ice into the Mississippi, that
was sent to a great eclipse, so that
| part of the current ran directly up stream
| for hours. AS she sat there, stunned, her
mind turned to this newspaper description
and wandered in reverie from that to the
| subject of mems wives, and then back
again to the tumult in the river, which was
| typical of human life to a greater degree
than anything that hade come within her
view for a long time. The majestic. great
river was flowing calmly to the sea,
when a slighter stream opened the Hood
| gates of its passion in the mists outside the
reach Of vision and turned the stronger
river current back upon it's normal direc-
ton, at the same time tearing out the bonds
of ice and warming It into swifter, greater
| action.
Many a strong man, she thought, has
been pursuing the even tenor of his way
| quietly down to the eternal sea, when
slighter. feminine current has Joined that
| of his own existence and changed him en-
tirely. The smaller current came from the
msts of womankind beyond the myopic
vision of man, and sent down torrent of
love that proved stronger than the calm,
masculine strength that had generations of
inherited inertia behind IL.
The current of the mans mind and soul
was turned back upon its source, and ran
up stream, swirling in great eddies that
formed one immense ellipse, the focal
points of which were duty and ambition.
Calm, superior strength succumbed before
the possibilities of action. The man awoke,
Samson unshorn, and accomplished won
ders while the world looked on, did him
homage, and talked about him for gen.
Grafton or two at least. The ice melted out
of his nature. and the big, cold dam that
had INSTRUCTED his advancement broke
away. And as he went on to the sea, blend
ed with him was the smaller, slighter
stream that caused 1t all, but the world still
called him by his former name and saw
nothing of the other stream that had met
him farther up, so perfect was the CO.
alescng of minds and souls in a God-per-
formed marriage.
She knew of such instances in the history
of the world. annals of the country. biog-
raphies of the West; and some of them
came to her mind while Mrs. Shacklett
thought of the description of the cataclysm
in the Mississippi written by the reporters
for the paper at home. In this manner her
thoughts ran on without much self-control,
the automatic reflection of the wish dearest
to her heart that she might be a wife like
some of those others of whom she had
often thought-like those women who re-
ceived the credit in inner circles at Wash
ngton, If not in history, Of having made
their husbands famous in spite of the fact
that the husbands had deficiencies in early
educational advantages.
She had designed to solve a problem
which was vexing her husband, and had
thought that he would, in the end. be
pleased that she had taken the decision out
Of his hands. If not she supposed that he
would deny her right to speak for him and
would act as he chose. But Shacklett had
made 1t very clear that he would do any
thing whatever, and suffer anything, before
he would admit that his wife was In the
wrong and before he would refuse to de-
liver goods already paid for by the Times,
which relied upon her word. His wife
should not break an obligation he said, If
the political heavens were rent into little
pieces. She had not looked at it In that
way before, thanks to the prudence Of Col
Baker, who had seen thus far into Shack
let's character. and as she sat motionless
: in the library that night she saw many
things she had almost forgot.
She had done all she could to keep her
husband in the Senate. He had worked
for long years to get there, and that he had
worked only for her had been abundantly
proved in the past. When she had writer
once that she could not marry him he had
thrown up certainty Of election because
he did not desire the office unless she could
: share its pleasures with him. How clearly
! she remembered that letter just then, wher
l the day before she could not have repeated
a line of it! She had been afraid that the
r practical politician, who planned and car
} ried out all kinds of deals, would grow into
r the man without any principle at all; and
l then she could not love that man, she
I wrote, whether he was her husband or not
So he would better not be her husband
She remembered how she had sat on the
I bluff at home and studied the matter over
asking the oracle on the broad plain of the
, Mississippi river for hours and had finally
decided to marry him to keep him from
going too far into iniouity by her constan,
: influence and her own life.
In watching Shacklett she had forgot tc
look into the mirror until then, and ths
{ change in herself came as a great shock
, After five years Senator Shacklett was the
same Shacklett as of old, with his owr
ideas Of honor and his own ideas of dis
! honor, drawing a line about himself which
he could not be induced to cross. But Mrs
r Senator Shacklett, as some of the people al
home called her. was no more like the Mary
Stoddard who resolved her doubts there by
' the river than a snag is like an anchor
What would be the result of all this? Was
r it not better, after all, to enjoy life In
Washington instead Of entertaining clubs
2 and church societies at Warsaw? The Mis-
E sissippi was useful in the warm summer
with its activities; what did it amount &c
$ when 1t was frozen over?
r Often she had sat on the point at home
and looked down on the river when all thai
r was to be seen was motionless ice The
: | currents were rushing beneath, but no one
5 ever thought of that until it was too late
! and the searchers had to look for the bod,
] miles below. But the ice did not stay al.
!, ways, and the river showed it's greatest