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About The gazette-times. (Heppner, Or.) 1912-1925 | View Entire Issue (June 18, 1914)
IIOME AND FARM MAGAZINE SECTION 9 The Neglected Wife HE Neglected Wife was running away! .Running away with the r Other Man into a beautiful world of romance, full of flowers and sunshine and all sorts of other things with charming names. Her pretty face was pale, she had a curious, trembling feeling about the straight line of determination, and it was with determination that sho drew down the blind shutting out the dy ing light of the November afternoon turned up the gas, and let about mak ing her preparations. As she moved round the pretty room which she and the Neglected Husband had furnished together hardly a year ago, she told herself that he would thor oughly deserve what he was going to get. Would he miss her, she wondered, pausing an instant in 'her occupation! JJo her faco .hardened his work was enough for him! Why, for the last niontlis she had scarcely seen him. It was too bad! Not for this had she married!. True, he had warned her' that a doctor's life was a busy and ex acting one, but never had sho thought that things could be as they wore. Work, work, work, morning, noon and night yes, night, too, for of lato he had even taken to sleeping downstairs in the surgery, because he said the night ' calls were so frequent and would spoil her rest. Absurd! If ho had really minded ho could have made some ar rangement, get some one to help him or something. And n the rare moments they spent together he was grave, pre occupied, took no interest in the things that interested her. Oli! it was unbear able! Sho lashed herself into fury, still moving about her task. What did he care for her work! It was his own that was so important. Ho hardly knew that slio had any work. What was her pretty talent for writing, to himt He seldom had time for inoro than indul gently smiling glance over the graceful trifles of verso vrikie umbo day wtis to make a book and their author's name at the same time the Other Alan had said so. As a matter of fact, there was noth ing in them to read otherwise than with smiling indulgence, for in all her but terfly days the poor, pretty littlo Neg lected Wifo had never once seen life at it is. But this she did not know, And the Other Man was prehaps more complimentary than truthful. How about this bracelet! these ear rings, rings and broodiest Sho would like to take them with her. They were all gifts from the Neglected Husband, it is true and did wives who were "running away" tak their hnsabnds' presents with themf She did not know. The bracelet he had bought her in the Palais Royal when they were on their brief honeymoon in Paris. It had cost more than ho could afford, but as he clasped it on her yrist he had said ten . derly that she was worth the expendi ture. Ah! she was, in those days! Those earrings, sparkling on their vel vet bed, were bought out of the earn ings of his first big case after their marriage they had not been cheap. This brooch was a birthday present her birthday; this pendant another his birthday. Theso trifles marked other days here and there, the last not so very far behind her. Sho Bighcd and return ed tho things to the jewel case on the table. No. She decided that wives did not take their jewels when they left the giver. .Tucked away among other belongings sho camo upon a copy of Tennyson. That, too, had been her husband's gift during their engagement. She turned the pages rapidly. Why, how he had pencil marked lines here and therel She had forgotten that! He must have been fowlar of poetry than the had. thought it was a loving hand that made those marks. Well, perhaps he was of other people's. Not of hers! ners was noth ing to him. Sho hardened herself again and put the book back among the things that must be left behind. Soon want of appreciation and neglect would be left behind, too. Sho would be with somo one who could understand and ad mire her, love her as she deserved to be loved, see hor as Bhe was. After all, it was only a handbag that she. could take with her now. The Oth er Man had said that he would boy her all she needed. And later when the big step was taken no doubt tho rest would be sent to her. The big step! What would it feel like to have taken itf ' But it grew late. No more time must be wasted. She took down a dark cos tume, dark furs, a dark hat- and veil. Dark colored thirfgs seemed suitable for a wife who was running away. They undoubtedly were the proper wear. She donned the clothes, fastening them with fingers which had begun to tremble in a most unaccountable man ner, regarding herself in the glass meanwhile with tragically widened blue eves. Now all was done. One last look round, and then to make the plunge. But as she took the last look, a sound in the hall downstairs made her start. Had some one thrust the latch key int Yes. the outer door shut with a bang, a voice called her name, quick footsteps sounded on the stairs, and her husband was in the room. "We've saved her. Ruby!" he said excitedlv; "we've saved her. Shell live, thank God!' And' thank God the strain is over! But we have won. He pushed the hair off his forehead with a gesture of relief. "What what do you mean! Who will live?" the girl stammered, her brain working desperately for a way out of the trap in which she found herself. Whq would have dreamt of his returning at this hour the first time for weeks and months! "The case I told yon of. child! Surely you've'ot forgotten! The ease I've been so desperately anxious about this last month. Lord! but I have had a time of it. Over and over again I thought she was slipping through our fingers, and I believe, it would have broken my heajt if she had. But she's safe now. She was such a pretty young thing before her illness, so gay she re minded me of you, and that was one reason why " He broke off and drew back, seeing she was not listening. "Sorrv. littlo woman," he concluded. "I shouldn't talk shop, should If But I'm a bit beside myself. Forgive me Are you going out!" "Yes," she faid, hardly knowing what she did say. "I'm going to the Cliffords. " But the lie hurt lit r, for she was not a bad woman only a vain and foolish one. His face fell. "Must you go! I hoped yon would bq at. home. I've got an evening off. Colqnhonn is back again; going to look after his own pa tients and mine, too, for once. It's such a long lime tince .we've had an evening together. ' Can't you stay!" he asked, wistfully. But his words only helped her to rally resentment to her aid. "No," she answered bitterly. "I can't stay. I'm going out. It is not my fault thnt we've not had evenings together. Bay after day I spend mine alone, and you never even ask how I spend them. And when you do come in all you think of is your patients. I don't count. I've had more than enough of it!" She turned away and began moving blindly about the room again. He looked at her dt edly for a few moments. Then "You are unjust!" he said; turned slowly from her, and went downstairs. Five minutes later she also stole down, handbag in hand, and out into the raw murk of tho evening. The sit ting room door was ajar as she passed and Bhe saw him sittirg there alone. His face seemed to have grown older and sterner than it used to be. A taxi passed her as sho stood hesi tating on the pavement outside. Should she tako it! No! Taxicabs carried one so fast. Ah! a hansom that would be better! As the cab jingled away with her she took a letter from her bosom, long ing hungrily for the familiar thrill with which letters in this hand writing had never failed to supply her hitherto. Their writer was a master of his craft. His charmingly artificial prose and gracefully fantastic poetry had made him somethii.g of a celebrity in his own section of . the literary world. But for once ho failed to hit the mark. The little runaway wife, searching for the-thrill-which ihenld bring her comfort, searched in vain tonight. Searched in vain among the faultlessly perfect sentences and tuneful phrases for something something which an ob trusively insistent thought told her had been in the rough, unpolished lines of other letters, received a year ago short, rugged letters burning with the white fire bf a strong man's love. Her eyes fell on the lines, "So," my bird, my little singer of sweet songs, we will take flight from this land of gloom, and somewhere, far from its cloudy shores, build a nest together beneath southern skies!" Only a few hours ago these very words had filled her foolish little soul with ecstasy. Now, they seemed a trifle vague unsatisfy ing. Somehow the "building of a nest beneath Southern skies" seemed to her at this moment a thing less desirable than the going back into an ordinary homely room in the "land of gloom," where a tired man was sitting lonely and dull, brooding over a fire which he was almost certainly letting go ent. Ah! There ahead glittered the lights of 'the stution. How near they were! The Other Man would .be awaiting her there. Suddenly her hatid shot up; the trap flew open. "I think 111 get down here," she gasped. She left the amazed driver looking wonderingly at just double his proper fare, crossed the road and in five min utes' time was hurrying back over the way she had come, as fast as the fast est taxi would take her. The latchkey was still in her pocket, She slipped it in, crept lightly through the hall the sitting room door was shut now upstairs to her room. How strangely unchanged it looked considering that a century had pass ed since a silly woman had left it and started off on the road to whatf But the sillv woman bad come baei come back home. ' - . She unpacked the little bag with im patient hands, hiding it away. Site tore off tho unsuitably dark garments-,, pot on her daintiest house frock, eomhed out her curly hair, fastened the spark ling earrings in her little pink ears. Then she went down. He was still sitting, where she had left him. The room looked cheerless and as she had expe3ted, tho fire need ed attention. He was gazing into its dull embers listlessly, the book he had been reading lying beside him, face downward on the floor. He did rot look up as she opened the door, but when a bright little vision passed him to go down on its knees, hearth brush in hand, between him and the forgotten fire, his whole face changed. "Childic! You," he exclaimed. "1 thought it was one of the maids, Yon've come back I am glad! What happened!" "Nothing nothing happened," she said, rather breathlessly. ' ' I jvst eame back. I thought you would be lonely and and cross and f knew you'd let the fire out and " But tears were splashing on the hearth brush and the shovel, and the fire was not getting made up properly after all. So the neglectful husband leaned forward and drew tho Neglected Wife up bodilv into his arms. "Look here, little woman," he said, "vou and I have been going the wrong way and work lately, and it's got to be different. I've been seeing it all sinec you said v.hat you did just now. I've been a thoughtless brute, very likely, wrapped up in my owe profession. Bnt you haven't troubled as you might to enter into the difficulties or under stand what tho strain of it is some times. We've been drifting toward shipwreck, dear, but there's not going to -be any shipwreck if my wife will help me steer. See, little one. Will you help me steer!" . , Oh, I will, I will; yes, I will!" she sobbed hysterically, windisg her arms tightly round his neck,' and" wtmdermg whether she would ever have the cour age to tell him how very near they had been to the shipwreck of which he spoke. And it was not until a maid came in to lay the table for dinner that the fire (which really was neglected) got the attention it needed. But on the following day the wife who was not neglected had another kind of fire, attended to by nobody but herself. And in it sho burned, besides a, great, many beautifully expressed let ters full of exquisite sentiments, a quantity of poem not Tennyson V. Farm Manure to Give Best Results BE SLOW in purchasing high-priced commercial fertilizers. Farm ma nure gives better yields, accord- ng to experiments at the Nebraska sta tion. The agronomy department advises that economic results from the use of expensive commercial fertilizers can not be expected until the normal soils of the farms arc kept in the best physi cal condition by means of proper and timely tillage. The vegetable content of the normal soils in many places is low and the farmer can improve them in this respect before attempting any costly commercial fertilizers. Many farmers who applied various high priced fertilizers and combinations thereof last spring failed to obtain any results for , their extra labor or financial outlay, possibly partly due to the dry weather, ' PROHIBITION AND THE HOP FARMER. T The Hop Growers ' Convention at : Aurora on Saturday, June 6, discussed ; aa article which appeared in the "Ore gon Statesman," and admitted that the statements made there were true. Here aro some of the things which the brew ers and hop growers who dominated, fie ' convention admitted: Less than two per cent of Oregon hops are used in . Oregon. More than half of them go out of the United States. Prohibition would not hurt the hop market. The largest brewery iu the state lias been advertising imported nops. J i the state went dry and no new market wr.8 found for hops, only two hop pickers out of a hundred would lose their job. Or, to put it in hours, the average bop picker gets in about 14 days' work; so he would lose about two and a half hours work if .Oregon went dry. ' '.. . . c Hops aa exhaust the land. The crop and the price - is uncertain. Raising hops is gambling with the plow. Be cause it exhausts the land, it is tho rn est expensive crop that can be raised. Only ground that overflows can raise " hops year after year, and it costs so much to fix up a hop yard that you cannot rotate the crop. The largest hop growers in the state have gone bankrupt. Others are getting out of the business and putting in more stable crops. Washington state was first in hop growing; she is now sixth, because her soil is exhausted. Milk tho Farmers. AVe might add to this that the hop buyer milks the grower, just as the grower milks the land. lie contracts for hops at 25 per cent below market, advances 20 per cent to pay the pick ers; and skias the fanner. Brewers and bop buyers arc running the growers' ; organization. They do all the speaking, plan all the moves; the farmers only put up their dollars. These hop growers are getting well paid for doing their work of organising the farmers to pull the hop buyers' chestnuts. The farmer pays for the privilege of being a cat's paw. Brewers' Best Servant. " The crowning act of service, however. is done by the farmers, their wives and their children on election day. Oregon stayed wet in 1910 simply because the farming people did not go to the polls. In eleven rural counties less people are registered now with women voting thari registered in 1912 without them. If the farmers stay at home Oregon goes wet. The farmer and -his wife are the chief reliance of the brewer, who ex pects them to stay at home on Novem ber 3. He is basing his belief on what happened in 1910. Hatch the Goose Eggs In 1914. Oregon voted wet in 1910 because half of ns stayed home. (See Cut). 400,000 Voters in Oregon This Tear. , If 300,000 vote, Oregon is dry. If only 200,000 vote, Oregon is wet. Talk Tour Neighbors Into Voting. , , Voto DRY and EARLY. November 3rd, 1914. (.faid Advertisement.)'
