The Connecticut labor press., 1918-02-16


 WAGMS of domestic duties grew grtevous, and the freside mood ex- panded to a constant protest against It's bleak loneliness, the adventurers from the Southland, in lieu of better, paid the stipulated prices and took unto themselves native wives. It was fOretaste of paradise to the women, for it must be confessed that the white rovers gave far better care and treat ment to them than did their Indian cO-partnerS. Of course, the white men themselves were satisfied with such deals, as were also the Indian men for that matter. Having sold their daughters and sisters for cotton blankets and obsolete rifles and trad ed their warm furs for fiimsy calico and bad whisky, the sons of the soil promptly and cheerfully succumbed to quick consumption and other swift diseases correlated with the blessings of a superior civilization.
 It was in these days of Arcadian simplicity that Cal Galbraith tourney ed through the land and fell sick on the Lower river. It was a refresh ing advent in the lives of the good Sisters of the Holy Cr> ss, who gave him shelter and medicine. Cal Gal braith became troubled with strange thoughts, which clamOred for atten- tion till he laid eyes on the Mission girl. Madeline. Yet he gave no sign, biding his time patiently. He strengthened with the coming spring, and when the sun rode the heavens in a golden circle, and the joy and thrOh of life were in all the land, he gathered his still weak body together and departed.
 Now Madeline, the mission girl, was an orphan. Her white father had failed to give a bald-faced grizzly the trail one day, and had died quickly. Then her Indian mother. having no man to fill the winter cache, had tried the hazardous experiment of waiting till the salmon run on fifty pounds of flour and half as many of bacon. Af- ter that the baby, Chook-ra, went to live with the good sisters, and to be thencefOrth known by another name.
 But Madeline still had kinsfolk, the nearest being a absolute uncle who outraged his vitaiS with inOrdinate quantities of the white mans whisky. He strOve daily to walk with the gods, and incidentally his feet sought short or trails to the grave. When sober he suffered exquisite torture. He had no conscience. To this ancient vaga- bond Cal Galbraith duly presented himself, and they consumed many words and much tobacco in the conver- sation that followed. Promises were also made; and in the end the old heAthen took a few pounds of dried salmon and his hor nd naddled away to the Mission of the Holy Cross.
 It is not given the world to know what promises he made and what lies he told-thp sisters never gossip; but when he returned, upon his swarthy chest there was a brass Crucifix, and in his canoe his niece Madeline. That night there was a grand wedding and pOtlach; so that for two days to fol- low there was no fishing done by the village: But In the morning Madeline shook the dust of the Lower river from her mOCcasins, and with her husband, in a polling boat. went to live on the Upper river in a place known as the Lower Country. And in the years which followed she was a good wife, sharing her husbands hardShiDs and cooking his food. And she kept him in straight trails, till he learned to save his dust and to work nightly. Tn the end, he struck 1t rich, and built a cabin in Circle City: and his happiness was such that men who came to visit him in his home circle became restless at the sight of 1t and eRvied him greatly.
 But the NOrthland began to nature and social amenities to make their appearance. Hitherto, the Southland had sent forth Its sons; but it now belched forth new exodus, this time of its daughters. They did not fail tO put new ideas in the heads of the men. and to elevate the tone of things In ways peculiarly their own. No more did the squaws gather at the dances. go roaring down the center in the good, old Virginia reels, or make merry with jolly Dan Tucker" They fell back on their native stof- cism, and uncOmplainingly watched the rule of their white sisters from the cabins.
 Then another exodus came over the mountains from the prolific Southland. This time 1t was of women that be- came mighty in the land They frown- ed upon the Indian wives, while the other women became mild and walk ed humb!y. There were towards who became ashamed of their ancient GOV enants with the daughters of the soil. who looked with a new distaste upon their dark-skinned children but there were also Others-nen-who re mained true and prOI:A of their abor- iginaI VOWS. When 1t became the fash ion to divorce the native wives. Cal Galbraith retained his manhood, and