A Cry in the WildernessWaller, Mary E. (Mary Ella)
General
A Cry in the Wilderness
Waller, Mary E. (Mary Ella)
New York (N.Y.) -- Fiction; Québec (Province) -- Fiction
Well, I don't know that I dare to set down in words, even for my own
enlightenment, what I saw in that Vision. But, suddenly, all the rich
robings, opera cloaks, clinging gowns of silk, velvet and chiffon, the
diamond tiaras, the jewelled necklaces, the French lingerie even--all
dropped from every one in that procession; and there, on a New York
sidewalk, in the harsh glare of electric lights, amidst the hiss and
cranking of their automobiles, the clank of silver-mounted harness and
the champing of bits, the shouts and calls and myriad city noises, I
saw them for what they really are:--women, like unto all other women;
women made originally for the mates of men, for mothers, for
burden-bearers, with prehensile hands to grasp, then lead and uplift,
and so aid in the work of the world.
And what more I saw in the Vision I may scarcely write down; for,
therein, I was shown for these same women both unfathomable depths and
scarce attainable heights, both degradation and transfiguration, the
human bestial and the humanly divine--the Vampire, the Angel.
And I was shown in that Vision the Calvaries of maternity common to
all, whether the conception be immaculate, so-called if within the law,
or maculate, so-called if without the law. I saw, also, the
Gethsemanes of motherhood common to all. I saw, moreover, the three
Dolorous Ways which their feet--and the feet of all women, because
women--are treading, have ever trod, must ever tread, that the seed
which shall propagate the Race may be trodden deep for germination.
Moreover, I saw in that Vision the women treading the seed in the Ways.
One of the Ways was stony, and those therein walked with bleeding feet
for their labor was in vain; the land was sterile. And the second was
deeply rutted with sand, and those therein labored heavily with sweat
and toil; the fruition was but for a day. And the third Way was heavy
with deeply-furrowed fertile soil, and those that trod it toiled long
and late that the seed might not fail of abundant harvest.
Furthermore, I saw that every woman was treading one of these three
Ways; and silk, and chiffon, or velvet gown, opera cloaks of sable and
satin, diamond tiaras and jewelled necklaces could avail them naught.
Trammelled by these or by rags--it matters not which--they must tread
the Ways.
I pressed my hand over my eyes to clear them of this Vision; for, at
last, I understood. I knew that I, too, being a woman, must tread one
of the three Dolorous Ways even as my mother had trodden one before me.
But which?
I could bear it no longer. "Come away, Johnny," I said abruptly.
April, 1909. I am beginning to be so tired of the confusion of the
streets. The work at the Library has become irksome. I am tired of
reading, too, and feel as if my last prop had been taken from under me,
when I have no longer the desire to read.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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