Image provided by: University of Oregon Libraries; Eugene, OR
About The new Northwest. (Portland, Or.) 1871-1887 | View Entire Issue (Oct. 7, 1880)
KltKK Sl'KECII, FUKK PllESS, FltEE PEOPLE. ' - VOLUME X. NO. 4. PORTLAND, OREGON, THURSDAY, OCTOBER 7, 18S0. ' PER YEAR S3 00. i i "4 I If 4 ADONIS LOVELADY'S CLAIM. BY ABIGAIL SCOTT DUNIM'AY. Why hie mother called him Ailonis, nobody knew; nor would you have ever imagined, to look At him, Uwt the cognomen of Loyelndy was any more appropriate than that of Adonis. Indeed, of all the men Mho had herded cattle iir Brush Prairie precinct since the days that antedated all need of precinct divisions -in Oregon Territory, Adonis Lovelady seemed the least capable of sup porting such a title with any show of consistency. Rumor had it that he had once been a bouncing, roly-poly, well-rounded baby, the delight of his lady mother's heart, and the hope of his aristo cratic father's ambition; but you never would have suspected, had you not known him until I did, that he had been born in the proud family of Colonel Lovelady, of Old Virginia, and that his mother belonged to the notable house of the Ran dolphs. Adonis Ivclady had run away from the re !traints of his aristocratic parental home in his boyhood. I do not know what induced him to run away, but I do know that when he had peregri nated about the country for half a dozen years, ami had grown from a lubln-rly boy of sixteen into an angular and sinewy young man of twenty-two, he Mas very grateful for the destiny that landed him in the Territory of Oregon and settled him squarely upon a Hue donation claim. And I also know that, however handsome he might have been at first, he had been the subject of so many hardships, misfortunes and disappointment gen erally that at forty he resembled, more than any other living thing, the gnarled and knotty oaks that grew as a wind-break in the gap of the Coast Range, hard by his virgin acres. His own mother would not have recognized him if she had met him; but that was of little consequence, seeing there was no prospect of her meeting him at all. His father had long ago given him up for dead, and I do not suppose that he would ever havclieen unearthed for public notice if it had not been for the Allgrace family, into which he was married by the free consent of Gracie Allgrace when he reached the age of twenty-three. Gracie was. as I have been reliably informal, a very beautiful girl in her maiden days; but you would never think it, to see her now, good reader, for he has grown as an.Jou and angular a- her husband, and the eternal unfitness of names in general is even more strikingly illustrated in her cae than In that of Adonis himself. Their union has resulted in half a'seore of really tine-looking children, thereby proving that the parental stoek wa good in the abstraet, however badly it bad been wanted and twisted from the graeeful prom ise of its youth through the hard knocks of a rugged pioneer experience. The donation claim of Adonis Ixvelady con sisted of three hundred anil twenty acres of as beautiful land as ever nestled down upon the clayey sub-oil of the de-arted ages and the dona tion claim lelonging to his wife Mas equal in area and natural advantages to his own, thereby giving the couple an equal start in life, and other things being equal placing them upon an equal road to liberty, prosperity and happiness. Gracie Lovelady M'as not afllicted with any of the modern nonsense that fills the heads of silly women Mith the thought of being supported by husbands. She M'as a tvorker. She planted corn and' potatoes, milked cows, made butter, anil washed, sewed, churned, scrubbed, ironed and cooked for half a dozen bachelors, besides attend ing to the wants of her om'h numerous family of little Loveladys and waiting upon Adonis, her husband, with that sublimity of subservience -which half spoils a sensible man and quite de stroys the proper appreciation of all self-asserting womanhood in the mind of many an otherwise tolerant and tolerable huBband. The neighbors called Adonis Lovelady a shift less fellow. His Mife apologized for his short comings, saying he was a bad manager, but he meant well. He vm not lazy about work, but he was injudicious in its application. Ho often did the right thing, but he almost always did it at the wrong time, no would make mils in 'harvest time and lot the wheat get over ripe and go to waste, or he would build a corral in the threshing season and let the rain catch his grain in the sheaf. He would go a-hunting in the plowing season and a-fishing in planting time. Mrs. Lovelady sum' things differently, and some times essayed a little advice; but Adonis Love lady did not take any more kindly to the idea of obeying the advice of his wife than he had in his youth of his mother. He liked to work by con traries. Had his .wife understood his disposition when they M-erc first married, she might have had her own way in everything by simply opposing Jiim in that which she most dosired him to do. But she did not know how to "manage him" till it was too late to do so successfully. "I think it would be well, dear, for you to build the house and barn and make the fences and plant the orchards on my half of our claim," she said, when they first moved on to the claim. "For you know, dear, that in case anything should happon to you, like debt, for instance, we would then be sure of a home for our old age, to-say nothing of ,a support for our children,, if M'c should have any.'" Adonis Lovelady, who had been thinking favor ably of the same thing, instantly changed his mind. t "I'll have nobody saying that I live Mith my M'ife I" he said, testily. "The improvements shUll go on my own donation claim." And they did. Things went on very well for half a dozen years. Mrs. Lovelady had an excellent lot of cows, and her butter brought a good price. Her vegetable garden was a success, and her chickens proved a tolerable source of revenue. But after a Miiile her health failed. Too many babies and too much laborious drudgery will in time break down the health of the strongest "supported and protcctqtl" fanner's M'ife in America. I Mrs. Lovelady could no longer cultivate hjsr kitchen garden, and Adonis never had time totlo it. He was always hurried and alM'ays tired. liUui M'ife could never make him understand t hatful day's hunting in planting time, even if successful, was not to be compared, in profits, to a potato crop or a cabbage imtch in the Fall. i The little Loveladys lecanie more and urore clamerous for food as they grew older, and Mrs., Lovelady was compelled to -part Mith a cow from time to time to purchase the groceries and cloth ing Miiich she had always, while in health, pro cured in exchange for butter. "It is like killing the goose that lays the golden egg," she once ventured to say in mild remon strance, when the sale of a favorite com was jH-nd-ing. But Adonis Lovelady was offended at what he called her "meddling," and -he did not attempt to interfere again. The years rolled on, and a mortgage hlhg heavily over the donation claim of tin head othe faniily. Mrs. Lovelady recovered her health, in sufficient degree to resume her lalxir, but thJn terest on tTie mortgage ate up the proceeds of her toil; and Miiile the tenth child Mas an infant of tender age, and her omii feeble strength Mas well nigh exhausted, the hall-section of land which her husband had so prilled himself upon poiWss ing, Mas sold under the Sheriff's hammer for a sum barely sufficient to cover the debt that hung over it. Adonis Lovelady had no heart to begin again, he said, especially if compelled to live with his Mife upon her own acres in order to have a Ijbme. Mrs. Lovelady was sorely perplexed. Ilea older children Mere clamorous for books and drece, and her younger ones required all her feeble strength to provide for their daily wants. "Make me a deed to your claim, (Iracie,. said Adonis at last, "and then I'll go to Mork and im prove it." 4 "If you had put the improvements on iny(Jltiin in the first place, T could always have keptj-y roof over ypur head, you know, dear," was tiny hesi tating reply. Adonis Lovelady whimpered and shed tears and bewailed his hard fate and fretted over hs lack of appreciation by the M'orn-out mother of Jfis ton children, and in every conceivable May made her life burdensome, until, to get rid of his importu nities, and in spite of her better judgment, she alllxed her name to a document assigning t5 him the ownership, control and custody of lie own homestead. I agree Mith you, good lady reader, thajriiu so doing she acted very uiiMisely; but Mn"j until you, under like circumstances, are subjcctajl to a like temptation, and you will see that you-ill do no better. Adonis Lovelady had other debts of which his M'ife Mas not nM'arc One of them Mas a doctor's bill of four years' standing, Miiich had been run M'hen the twins Mcre born, and Miiich somehow made Mrs. Lovelady feel very culpableMiicn it came to her notice, as though she ought to apolo gize to the. doctor for the temerity that had not scrupled to burden her husband Mith so many re sponsibilities M'hen he was a bad manager and unable to meet the expense. "Why didn't you keep your donation claim in your OMn name and compel your shiftless jout of Mrs. Loveladv's land claim was in due time ad vertised for sale under the Sheriff's hammer. This brought Mr. Allgrace, the father, of Mrs. Lovelady, to the front. And I, being in search of a ranch, was driven out to the land claim in ques tion in company Mith the father and mother of FROM "LITTLE RHODYJ 'KKSIAII SIIKJTON" BLABOItATBS HIS TUB WOMAN SUFFKAGB afOVKJ S 0 b"ws of PitoviDBXCK, R. I., September 35, 1880. the supported and protected M'oman, whom wo To thk Editor ok tiik Xkw Xojitiiwist: found in tears and destitution. "Women arc blasted idiots in money matters !" said Mr. Allgrace, desperately. "What in the name o' common sense did you sign over your claim to Adonis for, Gracie? Didn't you have sense enough to, know he couldn't keep it?" "You forget yourself, sir ! Adonis Lovelady is my husband !" said Mrs. Lovelady, Mith an impe rious gesture in ill keeping Mith her angular form and grim visage. "That hasn't prevented him from being a darned fool !" was the father's apt rejoinder. "Then M'e're M'ell mated," said Gracie, Mith a bitter smile. "Well mated ! I'd say so ! Half a score o' clamerous young ones, and not a rood o' land to bless yourselves Mith !" "I deeded my claim to Mr. Lovelady because he wouldn't go to M'ork on myt land, father. It Mas too humiliating to his psjdc. A man ought to be the head of the family, you know." "Stuff and nonsense !" retorted Mr. Allgrace. "A man that's worthy to be the head of a family never bother's his head alnjut his imaginary dig nity. How much is the indebtedness of this para gon of conceit and incapacity that you oall the head of the family ?" "I don't know." "Then ask him, and find out." "He won't tell me. He thinks it isn't my busi ness to know." "I'd like to know Miiose business it is, then, Mith all these mouths to feed and nothing to go upon !" Adonis Txvelady entered at this juncture, look ing creM alien and sheepish. Hot words passed for several minutes U'tMeen the father-in-law Riid himself. I shall not repeat their language. Suf fice It to say that each consigned the other to places where fhe thermometer M'oaKl hardly indi cate the heat. "I shall bid high enough upon this land claim," said Mr. Allgrace, "to free it from encumbrance, and then I'll turn it over to my daughter for her inheritance, retaining the control of it in my omii possession till she gets sense enough in her head to know that she's somebody on her omii account." "Anil compel me to live Mith my Mife?" asked Adonis Lovelady, Mith a lugubrious look that T regret my inability to transfer to mper. "You can live with your Mife or go to thunder!" M'as the contemptuous response. "I Ifhve no pa tience witli anv such nonsense. If you'd been man enough to make a living and be somebody, in your own person, you'd never have been in this fix. I always notice that the men of smallest mental caliber and greatest incapacity to get on in the M'orld are the greatest sticklers for their imag inary rights !" I had good reason, as the reader knoM's, to re frain from bidding when Mrs. Lovelady's claim Mas sold under the hammer. Mr. Allgrace kept his word. He bought the claim and paid the debts, and gave his daughter an order upon his account at bank for money to fence and plow and build and plant an orchard Adonis Lovelady M'as very indignant at first, but he gradually became accustomed to the new order of things. It never will bo possible to make a good manager of him, but he has learned in these later years to rely upon the superior judgment of his Mife, and has altogether given up the idea of ever again owning a donation claim on his own account. Mrs. Lovelady has regained her health and spir its, and is driving ahead Mith lier business in a practical, quiet, Momanly way, bringing health and prosperity to herself and family, and causing her husband to prosper in a manner that, under the old regime, would not have been possible. I Mish every Mrs. Lovelady had a father like Mr. Allgrace. But, as very few women in like circumstances are blessed with parents who can or Mill assist them, my next desire is that the in herent individual rights of married M'onien may hereafter be respected, and that men and women Mill learn at once that both sexes -will be largely benefitted by granting to both the liberty that is noM monopolized by one class. a husband to chop cord-wood to pay thoibill?" bluntlv asked the practical doctor. Mrs. Lovelady shed tears of bitter humiliation and did not answer. How could she? The rickety cabin which Adonis Lovelud erect ed on his wife's former property served for a time as a shelter: but the family could not cafebr wear it. nor would creditors grant the ncrnlowd hus band and father another year of grace. x The death in New York is announced of Elisha Bliss, M'ho brought out Mark 'Twain's "Innocents Abroad" after all the other publishers of note in Ncm York, Boston and Philadelphia had refused it. Bliss' Company, the American, made $70,000 with the book. t Miss Nellie Holbrook has made a Republican campaign tour of Connecticut, and reports the en thusiasm as great. I have just read your recent scolding libout "unfragrant lilies," and will enlarge upon my vieM's of that great question, the suflrage move ment. I do not believe in suffrage for either man or woman, with no limitation but that of a certain ige. I do believe, and always have done so, that, the same conditions being complied with by each, one should be allowed the privilege of voting that is accorded to the other. The fact of negroes' being allowed to vote .without restriction is by many considered as overMiielming argument in favor of woman's being granted a like privilege at once. Aside from enfranchising unregenerate rebels, I consider the full and unrestricted enfranchisement of the negroes the greatest mistake of the ag. I do not believe in perpetuathiglunders. Neither do I believe in following precedents, when to do so is to the possible detriment of our future wel fare; so the fact that man has for all time voted "early and often," without educational or (in many States) any restriction, would not to me fe an argument in favor of continuing that plfen. It is never too late to improve, and there is no time as precious or opportune as to-day. I would re strict the coming voters, each and all alike, and with as Mise restrictions as possible. When the ' inbecile and ignorant voters -die off, let not the coming politicians stumble darkly aiuLjgnorar tly through the very ruts left by them. "The world moves." Let us move also, and not lose the Uea- ures of life by our sloth. The equal rights movement has brought to jpul- lic view much heretofore unsuspected "brilliancy and Misdom" from both sexes. An attempt was made before our Legislature last Winter to drive the "entering wedge" i. r., that women should be allowed to vote upon all school questions. One of the "wise men" sternly opposed it, as being dangerous and liable to cause untold woes -but he professed loudly that he vwo&n eetfy iq-tlavor of full suffrage, yet to allow the daughters f Eve Mhy not of Adam, too ? don't they earn their liv ing by the sweat of their brows?) a voice upon certain questions only wouki cause would cm use well, after all, words failed him to depict the fu ture state of society, under such unwise conditions, that Mas revealed to him. Wise seer, Mhat was it thou didst see? It is hoped that he has recuperated during the Summer, and Mill exhibit as much brilliancy as ever the coming session. Did you dream that the small State of Rhode Island could contain such trength of intellect ? Well, he does live near the Massachusetts line, and perhaps breathes in cul-, tureand judgment during our frequent "northers." You know Miien Butler gets to spouting there is considerable throM'ii upon the breeze, and if at that time our Mise man should be setting on the much- disputed line, Mith face turned northward seeking inspiration for AVinter use, he might soon be filled to repletion. In Massachusetts, women have been granted the "privilege" of voting upon the school question, uid it M'ould be interesting to knoM Miiat propor tion of women that have talked "women's rights" have availed themselves of the right now granted. Some say, "We don't care for that tid-bit," "We have no children," or "Our children are now out, so mc have no interest in schools." What, no in terest in schools? For shame, I say; it mhs well said that selfishness is the bane of the M'orld. The woman m1io has M'hined, or ranted, or has deco rously pretended that she thought she M'as M-roiiged by the deprivation of a voter's privilege, and now refuses to avail herself of the opportunity even of partial suffrage, should hide her head and seek some secluded spot Miiere she may never be heard of more. Partial suflrage is tho "entering wedge," and each and every Misely-east "woman's vote" is a telling blow that strikes home and opens theM'ay for more and greater liberties to fol low. Every woman that has talked woman's rights and now ignores even tills partial privilege granted in some States, docs now deliberately block the M'heelof progress that she has been pretending to help along. One of the most effective argu ments against school suflrage for women In our State Mas that although many signatures "prayed' our Legislature for the right, yet in reality it M'ould prove, as in other States, that hut few cared for it after all. It is inconceivable to me how a M'oman who "M'ould talk the legs off an iron skillet" when once started upon the subject of woman's wrongs and woman's rights, can, M'hen asked if elie has been "enrolled," assume a look of astonishment and make evasive or contemptuous ansM'W : u 'I pray thee have me excused,' for I do not care to vote until I can vote upon all questions." " don't care M'ho is on the School Committees. I don't want the office, I am sure." "7 never eared to vote, but petitioned to help those that did." "7 think the poll tax should be abolished. 7 shall not pay to vote." "J am too old ; couldn't vote-iona anyway." "Jam young; there is time enough." And so on ad U6itum, ad naitscum. Parden. if I nave oiiemieu any one. I love sincerity, tnith ana 1UUIS, honor. Kbsiah SnrON. 4