Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1919-07-18

August 20, 80
Dear Margery: Your letter found
me eating ice cream. I'm glad l
make you laugh now instead of cry.
L laughed wickedly when you wrote
how my first letters rude prelude
made you weep. Oh, Marge, you
who thought you knew me so we'll
don't know me at all if you could
believe that joke well enough to cry
over me like that. l didn't dream
when penciling it your tear drops
would rain down on my words! Nor
that you'd really believe I'd "for-
to use your expression. wrote a
beginning like that to your mother
in-law and, she, too, wept, which
proves she loves me, Marge. Her
old hearts broken. She loved you.
dear, only she just didn't realize
ever thus. She had to leave her old
homestead in Spratts where her
hearts entwined in every nook and
corner and every shrub and tree
is monument of love left behind
her. There it was she raised her
hood and her heart and soul grew
into that old farm home. But when
the time came and ner husband took
notion to SELL he sold 1T out from
under her, never consulting with her
nor asking nor caring for her
opinions. He is living example of
the Spratt's county system. She's
a bfoken-hearted result of that same
time-honored system! And a sys-
tenn she herself helped uphold quite
lectured you to obey AL in every
small particular and never to cross
him in his determinations and plans!
Obey! That the man is the mead OF
the house lit depends on the man
and if he's so worthy and the, wife
must look to him for counsel ana
trary to his will! Many wives there
be in Spratts who oare not visit
neighbor without first asking her
lord and master, do you care II l
go to see Nell this afternoon II
he cares (and he usually does) she
remains to work in the cotton and
the corn! She hoes her row. Many
hoys in Spratts consider it an i'm
portant factor in the future scheme
of things whether or not certain
girls who smile on them are good
"field hands" or otherwise. 6eing
good hoe hand is a prime requisite.
Or a nifty cotton picker, or If Dame
Rumor has it the girl was seen
blowing, so much the better re-
member how AL wouldn't allow you
to work in the city. He had a spell
graceful work as office work, yet you
hoed your row and you picked bales
of cotton in the fall. remember
singing in "Nellie Gray" Thusiy'
s'They have taken her to Georgia,
there to wear her life away, as she
tolls in the cotton and the corn an aa
I was seeing my Margery hoelng ner
row. It's not a disgrace to DO any
sort of honest labor. The disgrace
lies in the Spratts county system
of slave wives! Some of 'em know
about as much about freedom as q
pig in his pen. Abandon nope all
We who enter here"
The pitiful thing Is they follow
nlindly along and because mother
trod that path smooth before them,
thew never question the unjustness
of it, but carry on. Marge, I've often
thought you and 1 alone or all our
near neighbors, constituted the nun hal-
her of really new women" PACK
there. I believe Al and his mother
sort of realized this fact, only they
didn't know just what 1t was nor
what it all meant. People thought
| had fool notions. They thougnt
of Mrs. Marsh, too. she was olue5
7 gloried in her spunk! While other
| women reviled her modern-day meth
DDS, She was up-and-doing. A Wom-
an after mine own heart, ana hau
more sense than those who were stu
h pid enough to scott and slave on.
it's impossible to attempt to make
folks back there understand the all
ference in a wideawake country ana
stupid place. / wrote Aunt MAD
describing how I love the west, us
privileges, it's freedom for its Wom-
en- vote and are mems pals ana
comrades instead of slaves and foot
stools. How wondrous the sensa-
ton to do as you please (of course
always understanding / please to 40
right and not fear they saids'
criticizing you as you pass along
your way. Come to think of it,
was partly raised on they said and
people will talk" Out here they
talk, but on higher, nobler plane;
try to lift you up instead OF pull you
down. Boost instead of drag. But
Aunt Nab didn't get me at all. She
fired back at me thusly: Eve always
done as I pleased. What they say
never worries me, and I'm as free as
I want to be- and so on. l smiled
to remember myself as a little girl
In pinafores playing outside her yard
on the street. She called, Come in,
Dearie, people will talk if l let you
play outside the yard" And, / must
dress so and so, according to the
verdict of Cherryville. I'd walk
along the streets feeling the eyes OF
people peering out from behind WIN
dow curtains at me, giving me the
s|S>SN5g 1917 = 80 Ss7S$HIM