The Mellette County pioneer. [volume] (Wood, Mellette County, S.D.) 19??-1971, 1922-11-24

the stern tasks that awaited these Pilgrim folk,
who sought on the bleak New England coast the
right to accept the dictates Of their own con-
science and freedom to worship God"
Perhaps Priscilla felt that to men of such type
women are more or less Incidents" proving the
poet Byron's confession that Love is to men a
thing apart. IT'S wOmans whole existence"
Perhaps she had the fear that in years to come
Miles Standsh might weary of the tameness Of
the Plymouth hearth fire and harken to the call
Of wanderlust once more. John Alden, on the
other hand, was the steady going kind, a student,
of judicial temperament, imbued with the tenets
Of the Pilgrim faith, while Miles Standish as Il
soldier Of the church militant was perhaps not
oyer-troubled with religious theories and. intrica-
cies. a fighting roundhead,' SO to speak, caring
more for the battle like the fighting Quaker Eli
colts of Maryland, who have managed, in spite
Of being Friends, to be in every scrap In which
Uncle Sam has had q hand.
1t may come as a surprise to most people that
the Pilgrim fathers were not "graybeards,' as gen.
orally supposed, but, on the contrary, young men.
Only two Of the whole company were more than
fifty years of age and only nine were more than
forty. Standish was ~thirtysix years old John
Alden was only twenty-one. There again comes
In another reason why John Alden was chosen
by the ~sprightly Priscilla and Standish turned
down by proxy. 1t was youth calling to youth
with Priscilla and John Alden. To her seven
teen-year-old eyes Captain StanVsh was an "old
man."
John Alden was Of her own generation. May
preferred to wed with May instead Of September,
and there's no galnsaying q woman's because"
which In one word sums up any given action of
hers.
Moreover. John Alden offered Priscilla the
flower of a first love; Miles Standish had buried
his heart in a woman's grave-that of his fir
wife, lovely Rose Standish, frail Of body but great
Of heart, who succumbed with fifteen Of the
twenty-nine women who had sailed from England
and Holland to the hardsl.ips Of the first Plym-
outh winter, leaving no child to comfort her sor-
rowing husband.
Priscilla at this time was only sixteen, Just on
the verge Of womanhood. We can picture Pris-
ella not I'm the conventional uniform attire of the
pictured Pilgrim, which with It's gray gowns with
dainty white collars and cuffs with stiff caps and
dark capes is a mere artistic caper, according to
the best authority. Women Of Priscilla's station
In life, and it was of the upper middle class, wore
the English dress Of the period. This was often
full skirts Of silk of varied cOlors; long, pointed
stomachers, often with bright tone; full, some
times pulled or siashed, sleeves, and lace collars
or "whisks" resting upon the shoulders. Often
the gowns were plated or silk laced; they often
opened In front, showing petticoats that were
quilted or embroidered i'm brighter colors. Later
came the dress restrictions, but not in the early
days OF the colony.
Fortune had severe trials in store for Priscilla
Mullins. During that terrible ars. Writer not only