The Tacoma times. [volume] (Tacoma, Wash.) 1903-1949, 1917-03-12
A Broken Heart
EDITOR THE TIMES:

IA LII OhCIx AAV0AS
EDITOR THE TIMES:
have read all The Times has
printed signed May" and you
people wonder IL there are any
more like her.
say yes, MANY.
believe every word she says. ]
am an old woman so years old.
My hair is gray. l have raised a
family Of nine, four boys and five
girls.
/, too, married before | was 16 /;
IL | hadn't | would have known
better. | come from the Far
North here, but spent most of my
life there. | blindly loved the
brute married.
had never known anything but
work. | was deserted by a brute
OF a father before l was born, and
my mother was never we'll.
She had two of us to care for
and 1t was more than she could
do and she died.
| So much for that man, and as
far as l ever learned he ruined
another life. COULD l LOVE
HIM?
Then l married. l thought
would be happy, but have never
been at peace since over 40 years
ago.
Do you think there is that man
living would suffer constantly
that long?
At first l fairly worshiped him,
will say, for about 10 years.
then ! began to see. When my
first baby came he called a doc
tor, but the doctor and he were
nearly drunk and baby nearly
died.
| loved it, so I prayed it might
live and God spared it to suffer
almost as much as | have.
Before 1t could walk another
came. The night it was born he
was at a tavern drunk.
l was alone till near the time,
when he come Keeling home, and
some way he summoned a neigh
Dor woman.
After | was comfortable as she
could make me and she had put
the other baby to sleep, 1t was
morning. and she was going to get
breakfast.
What did she find to cook? ]
will tell you. Just what we had
eaten all winter, with once on a
while few beans-flour and a
little soda.
l only had by this time one 5
cent calico dress.
had used everything I had to
make over for my children, and he
would cut an armful of wood and
go out to look for work. l never
went anywhere. Sometimes it was
all day, sometimes longer, but
there was always an excuse.
Then, another baby came but
no doctor and no help. In -four
days | was obliged to get up foI
there was no one to see to my
poor little children, not much to
eat and only one dress for each
child. had to put them to bed
and wash and dry these at night
rather than have them go dirty.
BY then | was going barefoot.
He planted half an acre of pota-
toes and half an acre of beans. l
hand-picked the beans. Then he
said he would sell them all and
buy as we needed and get few
clothes.
He sold them and spent it in
a sporting house, then because he
was afraid he had got some dis
ease he told me what he had done
and wanted me to help doctor him.
That was where my heart died.
had three; no one to turn to
and nothing but him. l didn't
know what to do. A friend took
him and talked to him. He prom
ised to do better, but he paid for
nothing, was turned from place to
place because he wouldn't pay his
rent, till at last the people took it
lup.
But he would go away to work,
Ibe gone weeks and even months;
how l lived l don't know.
AS the children grew up I got
along better. Although more came
and there was no doctor and no
help furnished, and when was
sickest l was neglected most, yet
lived, for had my children and
they were always good to me.
Later he got a disease when on
one of his trips, and l lived in
torment. He was so ugly often,
shutting me and the children out
doors and using language to us