The river press. [volume] (Fort Benton, Mont.) 1880-current, 1908-04-22

WIN A1uuCOch! lie WAS Il S!It eCseu
patriot from the first. Mrs. Hancock
wanted the colonies to be free. but she
didn't want .;o..l's coattaiiS burned
In he loia-, OF it. When he started
for that meeting in Philadelphia that
was to result in a catac!ysm she
sought to keep him back. She finally
threatened to go home to her mother
If he went to Philadelphia. and what
was his reply? You may have never
read 1t, as a great many historians
have deliberately left it out Of their
pages. but it has cor,e down to me
from an authentic source. He told
her just what any patriotic husband
should tell his wife under the circum-
stances. have a picture of him in
my minds eye as he stood facing her.
AS she gives him her ultimatum he
draws himself up. folds his arms. and,
looking down on her with the pride
and scorn of a king, he replies:
"Then go and be hanged to you!"
He went to Philadelphia and signed
that declaration and got others to sign
it. and you know the result. Suppose
he had stayed at home and gone hue
kleberrying instead!
When Fulton began working on the
steamboat that afterward voyaged on
the Hudson and revolutionized the
worlds transportation. Mrs. Fulton
told him that he was wasting his time.
She had the idea of the patent wash
ing machine in her mind. and she in.
sisted that he drop his idea for hers.
She was at him night and day to do
this. She had 1t all figured "ut how
much soap and starch and rubbing
would be saved. and as a matter of
fact she did haul him off his own work
for a week or two. When he went
back to 1t there was a family row. and
she wouldn't speak to him fer Il month.
Even whel he had finished his lj..
and she was moving majestica1ly up
the majestic river Mrs. Fulton was
so mad about things that she denied it
was a success. I see that chills are
running up your backs and your hair
standing up at the thought of what
this world would have lost if Mrs. Full
ton had been permitted to interfere
with her husbands ambitions. We'd
have had a washing machine warrant
ed to a V 10 per cent of elbow grease.
but what of the thousands Of steamers
that come and go?
Not a Washington.
Take my case for another. l am not
a Washington. a Hancock or a Column
bus, but l have always had my aims
and ambitions just the same. l wasn't
ten years old when l decided to take
the lecture platform. My mother tried
to spank it out of me, my father tried
to CAD it out of me, and my school
teacher, who was jealous, tried to cuff
1t out Of me. but it stuck. 1t was there
when I was hoeing corn for so cents a
day. 1t was there when I was in Jail
for licking a lightning rod man. 1t was
there when finally got married.
AS o o as I told my bride what fu-
ture I was working for she insisted
that l become a hog driver-buying
hogs Of the farmers around and driving
them to market! Some young men
would have given way. but l stood
firm. We parted almost at the altar,
but where is that woman today? Who
has eve heard of the next man she
married and insisted on his opening a
hen farm? They are not known from
the sands of the seashore, while l
stand here before you tonight with the
laurel leaves browning my brow.
Wives, beware! Hands off! Every
husband in the country has an am
bition. You see yours sitting on the
fence by day and down at SINNERS
grocery at night and you abuse his lazi-
ness. 1t may not be that is all. He may
simply be nursing his ambition-wait-
ing till the time comes for him to make
his mark in the world. BY jawing
enough and by threats of the rolling
pin you may stir him up to cut suf-
f1cient wood to last over Sunday-even
to get himself into the potato patch or
the cornfell-but in the doing of it
you may destroy a future president of
the United States and topple down the
bulwarks Of American liberty"
nj. OT1AD