New Britain herald. [microfilm reel] (New Britain, Conn.) 1890-1976, 1927-04-06
oadgc Gathers Up the Broken
Threads OF Her Life


CHAPTER l
Only the einbers OF love are now
n.y portion.
out OF the wild. rapturous kappi-
MS. the passionate devotion, the
high ideals which invested nay mar
rage and which are now but MEM
cries. | have left but heap OF
ashes - almost wrotc-but ashes
are wholly dead, while there IS a
glow at the heart Of embers, which
il carefully tended can burst into
rosy flame again. Deep in my heart
is the knowledge that mine are not
ashes, but emD.rs in truth.
But
DO 1 wish 20 ,enI That glowing
entire in order that NY marital hap
piness may burs. into fiery lie
again?
Is the end worth the labor and
the sitting OF my own individuality
which must face in order TO
achieve Il?
/. Madge Graham. wife Of Dicky
Graham, am on 'he porch OF The
eastern Long Island farmhouse
which has been our Summer home
for so long, and look out over the
meadows. woodland and farms'"ads
dipping gently to the distant ocean
the familiar view I love so well.
As sit poudering over my prob
lens the fancy comes 70 me that l
am but one Of a large sistefhood OF
women, who. bending over the en-
bers Of their married happiness, are
debating whether that final labor 20
blow them to flame before they SINK
into gray dead ashes is worth while.
| 10 not mean the hectic feminine
spirits Of hasty weddings and quick
er divorces, who. TO paraphrase the
Old masculine comparison, value
their husbands a little higher than
3 cigarette, but infinitely less than
a bridge tournament. l am claim
ing as spiritual sisters the members
OF that army OF modern Intelligent
cultured high principled women
who are trying conscientiously 10
make their trained and Independent
personalities fit into that yoke call
ed marriage. That it is yoke, ar
chaic. like other furnishings OF TINS
world. such as birth and death and
love and hate, but unavoidable Tor
those who wish to inclose them
selves in the magic circle Of home
snd family-this is something every
woman knows.
Before the tired eyes of my spirit
rs | sit here an endless procession
OF these, my comrades, seems 10
pass. Some OF them stride JOY
ously, triumphantly along. secure IN
their marital happiness. little AFRO
giant because Of it. They are the
women who because OF their own
wisdom or their good fortune IN
bi1.bands-or both--have solved
their problems and earned their re-
ward of blissful wedding amy
Others creep dejectedly past me WIN
HOMELESS eyes and bent shoulders-
the women who have only hears OF
gray ashes 10 stir and are crulhea
Nv the knowledge. Still others WIN
squared shoulders and brilliant eyes,
s. little nara. SDo" ~ '4l'i'
attitude that they are no. even sur
ring their heaps of ashes, but have
lcft them behind with little sorrow
Then there are the women VINO
share my own problem, wondering
If it is worth while 10 stir the en-
lers TO lie again, only to risk the
ordeal Of seeing the flame die down
again under the sodden weight OF
pickering and unfaith.
But Of them all, ] wonder II there
Is one who carries with her the aw-
fun memory that I possoss-that OF
my husbands hate-blazing eyes
when he told me that he had found
out was trying 10 poison him Ihat
Dickv could believe that OF me -
Dicky, the husband whose love for
me was once as idolatrous as mine
FOR hirn-this is the knowledge
which lies coiled around my heart
like a clammy serpent.
True, ] know that his suffering
over his awful error is equal in IN
-ensity to mine over his lack OF
Faith. From the moment he found
that my old, malignant enemy, Grace