Willmar tribune. [volume] (Willmar, Minn.) 1895-1931, 1916-06-14
EXTRACTS FROM TIE AUTO
BIOGRAPHY OF
ZANE GREY SWISSE1ELM
First Newspaper Woman OF
Minnesota.
A Remarkable Woman Of Ante
bellum Days-1o16-1e65
CHAPTER XXXIV.
Finance and DesertiOn.

lie f1LtSUur6 0dLuIuSay SAoAICA W.
gan life with two subscribers, and in
the second year reached six thousand,
but was always a heavy drain on my
income. My domestic duties made 1t
impossible I could give any attention
to the business department, and was
glad, at the close of the first year, to
transfer half interest to Mr.. Riddle,
who became equal parner and co-edi'
tor. At the end of the second year
he proposed to by my interest, unite
the Visiter with his weekly and pay |
me salary for editing a page.
Had the proposal been made direct
ly to me, I should have accepted at
once, but it was made through my
brother-in-law, William Swisshelm,
who had been clerk and business man.
ager of the Visiter for eighteen
months. He advised me not to &C.
cept; said the paper was netting f1f-
teen hundred year, and that If l
would retain my interest he would
purchase Mr.. Riddles, get type, have
all the work done in a separate estab-
lishment, and make it a decided sue
cess.
1 was afraid of this arrangement,
but was anxious to keep up the paper
as separate publication, and agreed
on condition that he would assume
the entire financial responsibility,
keep my interest at Mr.. Riddles valu-
alton, and leave me no further risk
than my services. If there were prof
it's, we would share them; If none, l
got no pay, as usual but sunk no
money. To make the changes he de-
sired, loaned him money until had
most of my small estate invested, and
supposed the paper was prospecting
until suddenly informed that the sher-
iff was about to sell it. We trans
ferred it to Mr.. Riddle, with my SER
vices two years in advance, to pay the
debts, and I wrote for the New York
Tribune, at five dollars column, to
meet my personal expenses, as my in.
come from my property was gone.
I forget at what time the Visiter
was united to the weekly Journal; but
very soon after the presidential cam.
paign of '52, learned that my late
partner had endorsed several notes
which were not likely to be paid by
one Of these was already entered as
lien against his interest in the fam.
lily estate. We had had no settle.
ment, so 1 went to my lawyer, Will.
lam M. Shinm, who said that the en-.
fathers will was worth less than my
before his mother, transferred mis-
share to the other heirs. He advised
me, if possible, to get deed of that
share as the only security for which
I could hope. I directed him to pre-
pare it, went Immediately to the office,
saw my late partner, and told him
that if he did not execute that deed,
I would sue him for settlement be-
fore left the city. He did, and I
took it home early in the afternoon.
In March, 81, I resigned my place
on the Family Journal and Visiter,
feeling that my public work was over,
| and that no life save one of absolute
solitude was possible for me.
I had lived over twenty years with.
| out the legal right to be alone one
hour-to have the exclusive use of one
foot Of space-to receive an unopened
letter, or to preserve a line of manu-
| script.
From Sharp and Sly Inspection"
In the latter half of the >nineteenth
century, Pennsylvania court decided
| that a husband had right to open
| and read any communication address
ed to his wife. Living as I did, under
| this law had burned the private jour.
nal kept in girlh0od. and the letters
received from my brother, sister and
| other friends, to preserve their con-
tents from the comments of the
farm laborers and female help,
| who, by common custom, must eat
at our table and take part in our
conversation. At the office had re-
ceived, read and burned, without an
| swer, letters from some of the most
| prominent men and women of the
era; letters which would be valuable
history today; have, therefore, no pri.
vate papers. and write this history,
except a few public dates, entirely
from memory.
Into the mists some rays of light
penetrated, and by them I saw that
the marriage contract by which l was
bound, was that one which had made
and which secured my liberty of con-
science and voice in choosing home.
The fraud by which church and
state substituted that bond made for
Saxon swine-herds, who ate boar's
heads, lived in unchinked houses and
wore brass collars, in the days when
Alfred the Great was king, was such
as would vitiate any other contract,
| and must annul even that of marriage;
but, granting that it was binding, it
must bind both parties, and had been
broken by the party of the other part
through failure to comply with its re-
quirements.
Our marriage had been a mistake,
productive of mutual injury; but for
one, 1t was not too late to repair the
| wrong. He, man in the prime of
life with unspotted reputation, living
without labor, on the income of a
patrimonial estate, to which he had
made large additions, could easily find
help-mate for him; one who could
pad matrimonial letters with those
devices by which husbands are man.
aged. My desertion would leave him
free to make new choice, and 1
could more easily earn living alone.
The much-coveted and long-delayed
birth Of living child appeared to
have barred my appeal to this last "a.
sort, but the mothers right to the
custody Of her infant is one 4 would
defend to the taking of life.
My husband would consent to no
separation, and we had struggle for
my separate, personal property or its