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About The west shore. (Portland, Or.) 1875-1891 | View Entire Issue (Feb. 1, 1878)
February. THE WEST SHORE. 89 me while the others were at play. I was congratulating him upon the prog ress he had made in his studies. When, as if to make a clean breast of it, and let me know just how bad he had been, he made the following confession : " I have always been a bad boy in school, Miss C. I believe the teachers heard of me before they came here. They always acted as though they expected me to do something bad and I never disappointed them. I was the coach which bore the bad deeds of the whole school. If there was any mean sly trick played, why, Albert did it, of course. Oh, how our last teacher whip ped me ! lie was determined to make me cry, and I was bound I wouldn't, and I didnt either," added he as a gleam of triumph shot from his eyes at the recollection. I endeavored to show him the neces sity of doing right told him by so do ing we would promote our own happi ness and the happiness of others. That a good name was more to be prized than fine gold. That it was in fact the greatest prize we could secure in this world. That I knew some thought our fellow creatures were rather prone to give us a bad name when we deserv ed something better. But as far as my observation went we usually got the reputation we deserved. That the ver dict of the public was more likely to be just than otherwise. If we did that which was not right good people would despise us for it but if we showed in our intercourse with men that we wished to do right for right's sake, they would give us all due credit. I wished no better recommendation of a stranger than to hear those who had known him well, pronounce him a good, honest man. That we were the architects of our own characters, and if we built upon the foundation of right, the tongue of slander could not prevail against us. That good people would not believe evil concerning those who were known to be good. The term closed and I left the town of F , to commence a school with one scholar. Three years had passed. In the interval 1 had seen the subject of this narativc but once. The civil war had commenced and the call for volunteers to defend our country's Hag had been sent throughout the length and breadth of our land. My father and sister were one day returning home from a neighboring town, when they came upon two strip lings seated by the wayside apparently resting from fatigue. They wore the soldier's garb, and father being a great friend to the boys in blue, accosted them with : " Boys, would you like a ride?" They gratefully accepted his invitation and were soon seated in his carriage. My sister, upon glancing back, discov ered that one of their new friends was Albert. She made herself known to him and some pleasant conversation followed. He was not of the age required by law to act according to his own incli nations. To go as a soldier, he must lirst gain his parents' consent. He had enlisted, and then going to his parents begged their permission to join the reg iment to which he had attached him self. They hesitated, he was 60 young and their only child. What if he should fall a victim ? They laid all these things before him telling him of the hardships he must endure, how lonely they would be, of the anxiety thty would continually feel concerning him. He answered that many must go, and some must fall, but for his country he wished to risk all the dancers war brouuht with it. His parents seeing how unhappy a refusal would make him, finally yielded. He was now returning home from camp to pay his last visit before leaving for me aouth with his regiment. He enquired of my sister conerning my welfare. Asked her how I was situated ? He lingered a few weeks and died. Then a letter came telling of his calm, peaceful death that his last thoughts were of his friends in his far off home. Uthki t:.i r t i. -1 . .. ..... ui a man i nail i ne cnautni winter his remains were married ? &c. And said to her : "I brought home and interred near his have great reason to respect your sister, native village. Death soon kindly re- She was the first one of my teachers united the broken family and now fath- who treated me as though I was a er, mother and son all quietly sleep in good boy, and I have tried to be a good boy since." This, then, was the secret of my suc cess. Albert had, by yielding to his fun-loving propensities, acquired a bad name. His teachers had treated him harshly, and, perhaps, at times unjustly. This he had resented, and paid princi pal and interest in mischief. I had acted as though I had expected him to do what was right, let others do as they would, and by giving him a few ad monitions at the right time, had awak ened in him an ambition to do light. You may imagine I felt quite happy over the result. I paid Albert's mother a visit after he went South. With much apparent pride- she read me the letters she had received from him. In one was a piece of poetry that would have done credit to an older head. In another, he gave a description of a visit to a mansion once occupied by Washington. In this he wrote : M I can hardly tell you, my the same churchyard This short story contains a lesson, or I would not have written it. I hap pened to understand human nature well enough to know that if I wished to se- iim iii.u unruly ooy l cu-upciuliun in keeping good order in school, I must do it through the use of mild measures but did not hope the plan I took would cause him to so entirely change his course ; or mouse in him such an ambition to do right. It has been my experience that noth ing but the carrying out of disinterest ed friendship, pure and Christ-like, will leail the erring into the path of right. Obedience given through fear will never awaken desires which must elevate and make better. The better nature will remain dormant, while the opposite course, if it can be made suc cessful, brings into play those elements in our natures, which, if perfected in our lives, would almost or quite redeem humanity from its follies and iinperfec- mother, the sensations I experienced I while traversing those halls. As I re-! mcmbered it had once been the home of Washington, each nook and corner; MRS. ABIGAIL SCOTT DUNIWAY. Foremost among the representative women of the age, who are making ovihwi . , . . .:.. If ... .... Mini Um v III UIG IMMVII I I1MWI Vt UinUI seemed dear from association. J hese , ,. , . . , . , ' , .... . , ,. . v t the subject of tins sketch, who was horn l ia , ' . T!in Tazewell county, Illinois, October where I stood, his lect had pressed. I; n resolved, while there, to strive to imi- . , ,. ... . . Mrs. Duniway, then Miss Scott, re late him. All mav not be as great as , ., , ' - , ... , . . ,, , . moved with her father to Oreiron in Washington, hut all mav be as manly, . e q i i n as brave." Noble resolve ! No won der the mother felt proud of the son from whom emanated such thoughts. the summer of 1S52, and shortly after became the wife of our townsman, Mr. It. C. Duniway, with whom she has lived happily to this day. Time passed on. The battle of An., The .first nine year of Mrs. Duni tietam had been fought, and among the way's married life were spent on a farm list of dead and wounded, Albert's in the then wild regions of Clackamas name was found mortally wounded it county, where she devoted herself as was said. Oh those death lists ! Those 1 siduously to the usual avocations of a living on the Pacific coast knew noth- farmer's wife. ing of the dread and anxiety with i After this she engaged successfully in which we waited for the list of those teaching for a term of years, in the who had fallen in battle, after the tele- towns of Lafayette and Albany. From graph informed us that regiments had teaching she passed into trade, and was lccn engaged in which friends were for several years a successful dealer in enlisted. millinery and fancy goods. Hut none Albert was taken to a hospital near f these occupations suited her ambition, by. I taw the letters sent by his nurse , IIcr natural abilities led her into litcra to his parents, in which he tried to rec turc. anJ frum timt to ventured oncile them to their great loss. M I die ( "' W'W f wi only par- for my country. Life, at best, is short.1 tial success, till, in the spring of 1871, I am ready ami willing to go. Do not "'n her Sew Northwest, a racy, grieve for" me. In my last momenta I "auc.v ad independent journal, sprang think of vou, realizing how sad and suddenly into existence in this city, lonely you will be. This alone causes : where it has flourished ever since, me anguish, but God will sustain you.' A ago, while Mrs. Duniway was visiting in New York, she sub mitted the rude manuscript of a poem she had written during her journcvings, to the criticism of a number of literary friends, who at once decided that it was worthy of public attention. The well known publishing house of S. R. Wells & Co., 737 Hraadwav, un dertook the publication of the book "David and Anna Mattson," of which Mrs. Duniway has already received the second edition. The poem, which is a historic one, is quaint, sad and peculiar, sometimes running fol pages In smooth and regu lar rhymes, and again breaking upon the zigzag edges of resisting rhythm in a way peculiar to itself. The theme enchains the reader's interest from first to last, and he will not willingly Uy it sown till finished. Mrs. Duniway enjoys even wider dis tinction as a lecturer than an author, few ladies having attained such honor nb'.e celebrity in so short a time. Whatever may be said of her hobbv of woman's enfranchisement, there is J but one testimony in rcirard to hi!! ability, energy and high moral char! PORTLAND'S 1 Our Coqulllfl City (Coos Co.) cor respondent sends the following: Trade here is exclusively with San Francisco, but I am Informed that a small coasting steamer from Portland will trade along the Coast next sum mer. If so, and she touches here, (in the Coqulllfl river), it will give us two ways to look. Notwithstanding the magnified misrepresentations of the dangerous character of the entrance to this river by parties interested in its dis paragement, it is as safe and as easily entered for vessels suited to its depth ot w ater (7 to S feel) as any harbor on the Coast. The steamer Cordelia which has run here for several years, is reported lost in the late storm, and if true, leaves us without a vessel, and goods must be shipped via Coos Bay, at greater expense and inconvenience. A vessel trading to this port direct which could be relied Off, would build up Considerable trade here, and if Fort laud can compete with San Francisco, considerable trade can be turned that way. TIMELY mints. As the season advances, a desire to beautify grounds in both city and COUn try naturally arises. We therefore pre sent in this issue a group of some of the most desirable decorative plants and ornamental grasses. Seeds may Ik ob tained of any of the seedsmen whose cards appear in our columns. These grasses can be cultivated without any trouble, and will add greatly to the beautiful appearance of a flower gar den, will be found especially valuable in arranging bouquet, and when prop erly dried will make up splendidly with "Immortelles" for winter bouquets, ft tabling their graceful appearance for three or four yearn. The Amarauthus, of which we show the three most desir able varieties, are very showy; their habits are coarse, requiring no care; once the seed in the ground) they will grow like any weed, and in fact most generally hold their own when grow ing amongst weeds, in the very poorest of soil. One or two plants, of each variety, 011 a nice green lawn, will look very beautiful. The Ahutilon, other- I wise known as Flowering Maple, 1 makes a very handsome tree, and after ; obtaining a fair start, will grow as much I as ten feet in a single season. They I are perfectly hardy here in Oregon, but III is rather difficult to start them from the seed. There are several varieties differing but very little from each other. The bloom, which is an exact shape and appearance of a bell, hangs in a very graceful manner from the branches, aim can be had from a pure white to a very dark brown.