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

has dawned for woman in America
within the last fifteen years. She has
come to the front, and she has come to
stay. 1t has taken thousands Of years
to do it. but she has at last been recog-
nlzed as a reasoning. thinking human
being. 1t is an era that we should all
be proud of. We should all be glad to
acclaim her as mans equal, and yet
dangers Turk in the path. There is a
fear that woman may 60 too far and
WELD her influence in the wrong direc-
ton.
10 the wives present l wish to recall
the name Of Christopher Columbus.
We all know what he did. but very
few of us know that he would have ac-
complished the same thing at least ff-
teen years before but for his wife. He
had got it into his head that there
We're other countries to discover, and
he was thinking and planning. When
he told his thoughts and plans to his
wife she put her foot on them. She
wanted him to stay home and milk the
COW and split the wood and make gar
den, and she raised such a row about
1t that he remained and did not get
away until after her death. Had she
lived on thirty years more where would
this country have been? Who would
have heard the name of Columbus to
remember 1t an hour? He would new
er have got farther than the city hall.
and he would never have been heard
Of outside of his own ward.
Columbus came at last and discov-
Of 100000 people, but suppose his
wife had let him come fifteen years be.
fore? We'd have had at least 300 more
trusts by this time. and the present
financial stringency would have been
a thing of the past. We'd have also
known whether Mr.. Roosevelt was 60
ing to run again OF not.
And l call your attention to the case
Of Benjamin Franklin. Mrs. Franklin
was a good soul. and no doubt she
made the best pumpkin pies in Phila-
delphia, but she didn't understand am
billions in a man. Just when Benja-
min was forging to the front she want
ed him to turn in his tracks and open
a shoe store. She not only wanted it,
but she insisted on it, and the hired
girl says they had Il regular row Sup
pose she had carried her point. Sup,
pose the great and wise Franklin had
foregone his ambitions and become a
boot and shoe man and squeezed No. 1
shoes on to No. 3 feet. We stand APP
palled at the idea of it.
When George Got Married.
When George Washington got mar
ried he had his future pretty we'll map
ped out. He knew what he wanted
and was going for it.
It wasn't Il week before his wife be-
gan to butt in. She wanted him to
become a farmer and go around in his
shirt sleeves and with patches on his
trousers. She wanted to see him milk
Ing cows and pounding oxen and start
Ing off to market with a roll Of butter
and a dozen of eggs. That was the
measure Of her ambition. and when
George couldn't see things that way
there was Il GOODNESS lasting a fort
night.
Great Scott. but suppose that Wash
ington had given in! Suppose he had
been a man without an iron jaw! Sup
pose he had laid aside his aims and
ambitions and gone to raising squashes
and pumpkins and gathered a family
supply Of catnip in the fall! l see the
most Of you are pale faced and trem-
bling Mt the thought. Had he done so
this country would have had no father.
It might have had no liberties.
What name stands out on the Dec
laration OF Independence like that Of