The sunny South. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1875-1907, October 02, 1875, Image 3
[For The Sunny South.]
OVL.V A BIT OF RIIIBOV.
creek. They were not inspecting the log, hut
looking toward the Indian village, and after a
moment they disappeared in that direction.
They might be members of another tribe, or they
might be from the village and in search of the
scout; he had no way of making sure. They
were warriors at any rate, and had they caught
sight of him, his death would have been certain.
They held no conversation, but seemed to be
listening, and this rather went to show that they
were from camp and on his trail, which he had
hidden when he entered the creek. Naturally,
there would have been as much shouting over
the finding of the second body as the first, but
it did not follow that even one shout should be
uttered. By refraining from all excitement, the
Indians thought to lure their unknown foe into
the belief that his work had notyet been brought
to light.
The sun was just setting, and the forest had
been almost without sound for two hours, when
Will lowered himself from the tree and on hands
and knees crept along the bank of the creek
toward the village. The woods began to grow
dark and gloomy before he had progressed far,
and while yet there was a little light, Will
• changed the color of his face and hands by
staining them with berries and then rubbing on
dirt. He might not stand inspection by day
light,- but under the flicker of the camp-lire he
would pass muster as an Indian in war-paint.
It was fully dark before the scout reached the
outskirts of the village, which he found almost
as much excited as on the previous night. War
riors were running about, squaws and children
were replenishing the fires and carrying water,
and all was bustle and confusion. Will had an
irresistible desire to see if the body of the old
squaw had been removed, and he cautiously
crept to the spot, guided by that wonderful in
stinct which made the names of the pioneers so
famous.
The body was there ! He crept near enough
to see that it was in the same position he had
left it, and then he retreated. He could not see
TI .. 11T , , . them for the darkness, but he felt that the dead
Will Boss had said to himself that the Indians ]j a g’ 8 eyes were wicle open and staring into his !
It is only a knot of a ribbon
That I bold in the twilight gloom.
With a tint of rosy color
Like her own cheeks' peachy bloom.
She untied this knot from her tresses.
And bound it around my hands,
And laughing said she had chained me
A captive in silken bands.
1 press it to lips and to bosom,
And sweet are the visions that rise
Of my darling's girlish graces,
And the laughing light in her eyes.
Gently I seem to clasp her;
She yields me a timid embrace;
I feel the quick throbs of her bosom,
I see the Boft blush on her face.
For a moment our heartB beat together—
For a moment her lips cling to mine!
Then swiftly passes the vision,
Leaving my Bpirit to pine.
Only a bit of a ribbon
Has called up this vision to-night.
That memory's fairy fingers
Have painted in hues of light.
[Written for The Sunny South.]
Callie Carson’s Lovers;
OR,
FLAT-BOAT, RIVER ANI> RIFLE.
BY M. (U'AD.
CHAPTER XIX.
could not follow liis trail from the spot where he
had left the naked body of the Indian, but when
he heard their shouts, he knew that they were
going to try.
The village was soon in an uproar, and the
dead Indian's squaw set up a howling and
lamenting which coiild be heard half a mile
away. The Indians must have been sorely puz
zled over the killing. It could not have been
accidental, and if they believed that a white
man had been prowling around, it would be
hard to account for his presence there. He could
not have come from the boat, and all cabins for
twenty miles up and down the river were de
serted.
The scout could tell nothing except by sense
of hearing, but he made out that a number of
Indians had scattered through the woods in
search of his trail. They presently found a
track 'or trace, ami the shouts and yells grew
louder. They lost the trail after a moment, and
their shouts died away. When an hour had
passed without a near alarm. Will felt easier,
and he turned his attention to a new excitement
in the village. The red-skins had come after
Callie to carry out the renegade’s programme of
making her the bearer of a message to her father
and friends.
The squaws raised their sharp voices to such a
pitch that he made out that the girl was to be
taken out of the village. While it was certain
that they felt revengeful, it was not likely that
they would sacrifice her until the flat-boat had
either floated off the bar or been captured. Pru
dence warned him to remain where he was until
he knew that the girl was in danger, but love
and anxiety forced him out of the thicket. He
heard a crowd leaving the village, and he passed
through the forest on a run, rifle at a trail, to
head them off. His wits returned as he was
speeding through the woods. It flashed upon
him that the Indians were going to make a cat’s-
paw of the girl to aid them in getting possession
of the boat, and he halted in his tracks. Callie
would doubtless be back before noon. If so, he
would remain quiet and make no move until
night. If not, he would soon ascertain the in
tentions of her captors regarding her.
The scout retraced his steps, calculating to
enter the thicket again; but he was not yet
within thirty rods of it when he ran across an
old hag from the village. She was down on her
knees digging roots, and he almost stumbled
over her before he was aware of her presence.
The old woman sprang up with an angry snarl,
and the instant she caught sight of Will’s face
she uttered a fearful howl. He had the dead
Indian’s garments on, but his face and hands
were white, and it needed but a glance to show
any one that he was in disguise. He started to
run, but as the old hag screamed again, he
wheeled, dropped his rifle and bounded upon
her. Grasping her throat with his strong fingers,
he strangled her in a moment. Her sharp nails
tore his face and hands, but he did not relax his
' hold until she was dead.
The affair occupied but a moment, and fearing
that her screams had been heard in the village,
the scout picked up his rifle and ran at his best
speed. It would not do to hide in the thicket
again, the body being so near, and Will passed
it and hurried on through the dense forest be
yond. Striking a creek, ho entered its shallow
bed and kept it for half a mile. Coming then to
a tree which had fallen across the banks, he
pulled himself out, followed the trunk to the
left bank, and ascended a thick-limbed tree,
which offered a capital place of concealment.
It might be that the old hag's body would re
main undiscovered until next day, but the
chances were that it would be found before
night. Securing a comfortable position among
the limbs, he gave all his attention to listening,
expecting to hear a furious shouting if the body
was discovered.
Noon came, and soon after this hour, reports
of rifles came from up the river. The strange
flat-boat had come to the assistance of old Carson
and his crew, and the Indians were seeking to
prevent a rescue of the grounded craft. Will was
much excited while the tiring lasted, or while it
was heaviest. He at first supposed that it was
another attack on Carson's boat, and he had no
doubt of the result, knowing how well armed
his friends were. When the volleys ceased and
the scattering shots came fainter and fainter.
Will suspected that the boat had drifted off the
bar and that the Indians were following her
down the river
The hours dragged after that. There had been
no alarm from the camp to show that the body
of the old squaw had been discovered, but there
was yet plenty of time for such discovery to be
made before sundown. It would not be safe to
invade the village before night, or to leave the
tree until sundown.
Along about four o’clock, Will’s limbs ached
so that he decided to find a hiding-place on the
ground. Having no suspicion of danger, yet
prompted by prudence, he bent his ear to listen
for sounds that any one was moving in the
neighborhood. Not a sound reached him during
the two or three minutes, and he was about to
move, when his eyes caught sight of a rabbit
dashing past the tree at full speed. Something
had frightened the little animal. What was it ?
A long minute passed, and then an Indian, step
ping carefully and glancing around him, ap
peared under the tree, almost halted, and then
passed on and gave place to another, and that
one to another, until seven warriors, rifles at a
trail, had passed under the tree. They had
come without a sound — they disappeared as
noiselessly as shadows.
Moving his head a few inches, Will saw the
standing in a row on the log crossing the
CHAPTER XX.
Will knew that Callie was in the village, and
he knew that he must enter it in order to carry
out his plans of rescue. In his disguise, he stood
a chance of escaping detection, but the errand
was one requiring great nerve and coolness.
Believing that the boldest way was the best
way, and considerably strengthened by the fact
that the old hag's body had not been found, the
scout walked straight into the village, as if re
turning from the river bank. More than a dozen
■small fires were burning, as the squaws were
cooking the evening meal, and old men, boys,
children, papooses, and now and then a warrior,
were collected around the fires.
Hardly turning aside for any one, Will walked
to the centre of the village and sat down near
one of the fires. A squaw was cooking meat on
the fire, but she gave him no attention as he sat
down, partly in the shadow, and began working
at the lock of his gun, as if it needed repairing.
He bent his head to hide his face as much as
possible, and worked away for ten minutes be
fore daring to steal a glance around him.
His boldness had disarmed suspicion, or it
rather prevented suspicion. Men and boys
passed him without a word, and a dog sprang
over his feet and yet did not scent the fact that
he was a white man and an enemy. In a short
time VVill was possessed of the knowledge that
Carson’s flat-boat had been pulled off the bar by
another boat, and that the warriors had followed
both boats down the river, hoping to make a cap
ture during the night. He heard the name of
Laskins tliesrenegade mentioned, but it was
half an hour before he knew for a certainty that
Callie was in*the village.
The men had nothing to say about the girl,
but the squaws were very bitter, and seemed
impatient to <see her tortured. The lodge in
which she was a prisoner was within fifty feet of
where the scoiji sat down, and when he had lo
cated it, he satv that one of the old men sat at the
do ,r as a guard. Seeking to secure some plan
by which he might approach the lodge, Will had
almost forgotten his situation, when he found
that the squaw on the other side of the fire was
attentively regarding him. His heart gave a
gr§at bound as he thought of the danger of dis
covery, but he forced himself to return her gaze
and ask:
“Is the meat cookedV I am hungry.”
He could speak the Indian tongue as if he had
no other language, and his voice would not be
tray him.
Drawing herself up and flashing a look of con
tempt at him, the woman replied:
“I do not cook meat for cowards !”
Lifting his rifle in a menacing manner, he in
quired :
“Dare you call me a coward?”
“You are not with the warriors,” she answered.
“When our chief commands, do not his war
riors obey?” he asked. “And can a wounded
warrior run through the thickets ?”
She made no reply, but swinging the kettle
off the fire, she plunged a stick down among the
pieces of meat, secured a large piece, and walked
around the fire and presented it to him without
another word. She must have known that he
did not belong in the village, but the tribe, split
into three villages, had just been called together
at that encampment and she could not say that
he did not belong to the tribe.
Will ate away at the meat, and the squaw soon
entered a lodge, leaving him alone. The firing
at the block-house down the river was so far away
that no reports reached the camp, and about
nine o’clock there were signs that the village
would be quiet during the night. The women
and children retired to the lodges and the men
stretched out before the fires, and their conver
sation flagged.
Would the old man on guard at the lodge-door
remain there all night ? Or would some of the
others take his place after a time ? There was
but one way for the scout to ascertain,—ask the
guard himself. Bracing himself for the inter
view. he rose up and limped over to where the
old man sat.
“Is not my father weary of his task?” he asked,
as he sat down at the sentinel’s feet.
“I am not a boy!” replied the old man, his
tone betraying that his feelings were injured.
“Far from it; but when the roots of the stout
tree are weakened by age, the tree cannot help
but tremble a little.” answered Will.
He carelessly looked into the lodge, but the
darkness prevented him from seeing the girl.
The sentinel made no reply, and after a moment
Will continued:
“My wound makes me restless and uneasy,
and as I cannot sleep, I will take your place for
the night.”
“No one can take Big Bear's' place,” stiffly re
plied the sentinel. “Neither my ears nor my
eyes will sleep before another night.”
Will realized that his plan was a failure. He
could not insist, and he must be careful not to
arouse suspicion. After a short period of silence,
he said:
“Big Bear is wise; he knows everything;
nothing is too deep for his mind. I should like
to tell him of my dream last night.”
“Big Bear will listen,” replied the old In
dian, in a softened voice, as if flattered by the
scout’s words.
“I dreamed.” continued Will, “that I stood
looking into a black cave in the side of a great
mountain. I heard a strange voice. It spoke
the Indian tongue, and it spoke the white man's
language.”
“What did it say?” asked the old man, as
Will paused.
“In the Indian tongue it said: ’Tell your
great chief that his tribe shall gather hundreds
of scalps.’ Then the tone changed, and speak
ing like a white man, the strange voice said:
•Callie, lam here and planning to rescue you !’”
It was a bold game, and Will's heart jumped
into his throat as he ceased speaking. If the old
man understood the English language, he would
see through the trick in an instant. When tell
ing what the voice said in English, Will resumed
his natural tone, and Callie would instantly rec
ognize his voice.
"What more did the voice say?” asked the
old man.
He had not pricked the plot, and Will contin
ued:
“It said: ‘The white men shall be driven
from the forest as leaves are driven before the
wind.’ Then, speaking like a white man, it
said: ‘Callie, the camp will soon be asleep: then
you can creep from the lodge, and I will be
ready to join you.’ ”
There was a movement within the lodge,
showing that the girl heard and understood.
“ And was that all ?”• asked the old man.
“No; again the voice spoke: ‘Yourtribe shall
have a great prophet; he is an old man: one
finger is missing from his left hand. He shall
become the greatest prophet the world ever saw.’
Then, speaking like a white man, the voice said:
‘Callie, be brave: follow my directions, and all
will be well!’ ”
“ Is that all ?”
“Then I awoke.”
“It is a singular dream,” continued the old
man. “ I never heard of such a dream, and I
think it will come to pass. ”
He was the old man with the missing finger,
and he was flattered by Will’s words. If he had
been pressed to give up his post for the night,
he would probably have relinquished it; but
fearing to excite suspicion, Will soon moved
away, limping heavily, as if wounded in the leg.
As soon as out of sight of the lodge, he made a
circuit and returned to within a few feet of its
rear, where he lay down, and was soon, to all
appearances, fast asleep. If Callie had the nerve
to raise the bottom of the lodge and roll out, he
would be there to help her away.
Half an hour passed away, and then the camp
was entirely quiet. Every one seemed asleep,
and the fires had- burned so low that the village
was full of dark shadows. It was time for Callie
to move. If she could but leave the lodge, there
was every hope of both safely leaving the camp.
Lifting his head from his arm. Will watched and
listened.
CHAPTER XXI.
The Indians seemed satisfied with the victory
they had won in burning the boats. They had
cut the pioneers off from any escape from the :
block-house, and were content to rest for the !
balance of the night. Not a rifle was fired after
the boat drifted out of sight, and while some of |
them slept, others crept close to the walls and
watched to prevent any of the defenders from
leaving the fort. The pioneers heard them mov
ing softly around, but no shots were fired and
no alarm given.
The breaking of day was hailed with satisfac
tion by those whose eyes and ears had been vig
ilant through the long hours of night. The men
felt assured of the strength of their position, and
the}' believed that no such great danger as the
burning of the flat-boats could menace them
again.
Not an Indian was to be seen, but no one ar
gued that the siege had been raised. The block
house was the only defense standing for fifty
miles up or down the river, and the red-skins
would not leave it until days and nights had
convinced them that the place could not be de
stroyed or its defenders starved into surrender
ing.
During the forenoon, the men moulded bul
lets, cleaned their rifles, and made ready for
what might happen, while the women looked
: over the provisions and planned to make them
: last as long as possible. There was no alarm up
to noon, and the afternoon was half gone before
the silence was broken’. Then a rifle was fired
as a signal to attract attention, and the renegade
stepped into the clearing, in full view of the
block-house, having a flag-of-truce in his hand.
Some of the men wanted to shoot him down at
once, but the majority decided to let him come
forward and hear what he had to say. Waving
his flag around his head, he advanced to within
thirty feet of the logs, and then halted and
called out:
“I want to hold a talk !”
“ Go ahead !” shouted old Carson from one of
the loop-holes; “but talk fast, as the boys are
hungry to send a bullet into yer carcass !”
“I want to say to you,” continued Laskins,
“that every post and settlement on the river
clear down to Cincinnati has been captured.
Your boats are gone, there is no hope of aid, and
I come to ask a surrender. I solemnly promise
that every life shall be spared!”
“ Ye are throwing yer time away !” replied the
old man. “We can hold the block-house agin
all the red devils in four States, and we mean to
do it!” •
“I’m sorry,” called the renegade. “I’ve done
all I could to save Callie's life, but if you do not
surrender, the Indians will burn herat the stake
within an hour alter sundown !”
It was a threat which made the father turn
pale, but he'called back:
“She must die then ! Ye’ll never git into this
fort while there's a bullet left!”
The renegade retired, and a volley was ex
pected, but did not come. The clearing was as
silent as before, and not an Indian could be seen
from any of the loop-holes.
“.I smell deviltry of some kind agin,’’saidold
Carson, as the men wondered at the silence.
He made the round of the building, peering
from each loop-hole, and coming to the river
side, he uttered an exclamation which called all
the men to his side. The depth of the water in
the creek was about three feet when the boats
were run in, but the old man, to his great amaze
ment, found the water down to a few inches.
“They are building a dam above us,” he ex
plained, “hoping to cut the supply and drive :
us to surrender.”
In ten minutes more the bed of the creek was
bare, the water having ehtirely ceased running.
Every utensil in the house which would hold
water was full, and the supply would last a
whole week for drinking and cooking; but if the
waters of the creek could be forced in another
direction, it would be a staggering blow to the
pioneers.
That was not the plan of the Indians. Dam
ming the creek half a mile above the house, they
started a new channel down through the soft
soil and helped the water into a natural depres
sion and headed it for the fort, hoping it would
undermine the foundations. Such a volume of
water accumulated at the dam that the new route
was quickly opened. From the loop-holes, the
men saw the water creeping into and across the
clearing, coming straight for the logs. If it
struck them, it would eat its way under and
around, and in ten minutes the fort would be
without a foundation, or topple over into the j
bed of the creek.
Not a word was spoken as the men watched
the water coming. It was a stream ten feet wide
and a foot high, stealing along like some great
serpent. It halted an instant as it struck a log,
but gaining force, it would climb over or creep
around. Jt passed to the right or left of stumps,
rushed over the black spot where one of the
burned cabins had stood, and still the men
spoke not a word. Concealed behind the large
trees at the further side of the clearing, the In
dians uttered yells of exultation.
Nearer crept the stream, but it was not to de
stroy the pioneers. Coming to a sandy spot, the
water disappeared as if pouring into a cave.
Thus for a moment or two. and then it tore its
way through the soft soil and followed the strata
directly to the bank of the creek, into which it
poured and dashed along past the wall as before.
The defiant cheer from the block-house told the
Indians what had happened, and in a short time
the dam was removed, or gave way, and the cur
rent was back in its old bed. In revenge for
their disappointment, the savages opened a hot
fire on the block-house and maintained it for a
whole hour, throwing away a vast amount of am
munition.
When sundown came, old Carson had a talk
with the men, telling them that he intended
leaving the house some time during the night.
He knew that Callie was at the Indian village up
the river, and his anxiety was so great that he
must make an effort to aid Will in accomplish
ing her rescue. The Indians would doubtless
plan and execute some new movement during
the night, but if the pioneers were vigilant, they
could checkmate it.
Night came on with every appearance of a
storm, and within an hour after darkness had
enveloped the clearing, a slow, steady rain began
to fall. The women and children were no
sooner asleep than Carson made preparations to
leave. The entrance on the side facing the
clearing had been permanently secured, and he
must be lowered into the creek. The lights all
extinguished, the door was opened, a rope made
ready, and when the old man had secured his
rifle over his shoulders, four or five men seized
the rope and carefully lowered away until a sig
nal-jerk informed them that he had touched the
water. Standing with the water up to his hips,
he let go of the rope and carefully picked his
way down stream, hugging the wall.
Reaching the end of the house, he crossed to
the opposite bank and made his way down the
river, knowing that it would not be safe for him
to leave water until far below the clearing. The
current ran so swiftly and had such strength
that the old man could hardly keep his feet
under him, and his progress was very slow. He
could not see a foot from his face, and the sigh
ing of the wind in the trees above his head, with
the steady pour of the rain, would have dead
ened the sound of any footstep on the bank.
He was just fairly out of the creek, and was 1
feeling along step by step, when his outstretched
hand fell upon an Indian’s shoulder. His hand
had scarcely touched the damp buckskin when
his situation flashed across him, and the fingers
shot forward and clutched the red-skin’s throat.
It was not an instant after the hand touched the
Indian before the fingers were fastened in his
throat. There was no cry, but as old Carson
sought to pull him down, the savage grasped his
hair, and a fearful struggle took place.
(TO BE CONTINUED.)
[For The Sunny South.]
THE LONELINESS OF GENIUS.
BY 51. C. T.
There is something pathetic in the isolation of
any being from its kind. The prisoner in his
dreary cell, cut off from all intercourse with his
fellow-man; the settler in his lonely cabin on
the frontier of some new country—the advance
guard of the civilization that is to follow; the
man or woman cast out from society for their
misdeeds, shunned and dreaded by all; even
the fierce animal, taken from the jungles of his
native land and confined in a narrow cage that
is to be his home until death shall come to set
him free, are objects that excite the pity of every
heart not totally devoid of sensibility.
And yet there is a loneliness more pathetic,
I more painful because more complete, than any
I of these. This is the perfect isolation of the
I true genius from the crowd that he meets and
passes day by day, who look upon him in the
body, while his soul is as far away from them as
is the cloud-encompassed summit of Mt. Blanc
from the traveler who stands at its base, and as
invisible to their dull eyes as are the gold-paved
: streets of the celestial city to the lost spirits who
dwell forever in the dominions of Pluto.
For every gift that God has bestowed upon
man a penalty has been added, and he whose
mind has been created to soar beyond the com
prehension of the majority of his fellow-crea
tures, must be content to stand aloof from their
common joys and pleasures, for in them, for
him, there can be no compensation.
The spirit borne aloft on the pinions of genius
and inspiration, after basking in the full light
i of the sun, cannot return and mingle with the
common herd, for he would be as incapable of
descending to their level and being interested
in their pleasures and pursuits, as would they
of understanding his grandest thoughts and ap- f
preciating his most, beautiful ideas.
Of all men to whom it has been given to as-
: cend to those bright realms
“ Where Fancy’s golden orbits roll,”
none have perhaps more fully understood and
accepted this penalty attached to genius than
that “bard of brief days and deathless fame,”
the “ unhappy White;” and none have resisted !
it more bitterly or fought againstit more fiercely t
than Lord Byron. The former, recognizing the
fact that he had been “placed upon an eminence
above the crowds who pant below in the dusty
tracks,” feeling his superiority, did not seek
pleasure or congeniality in their companion
ship; but the life of the latter was one long
struggle with destiny— a fruitless search for
spirits such as could understand the heighth
and depth of a mind that could call into exist
ence a Manfred holding communication, on the
wild and lonely mountain, with beings from the j
shadowy world qf hereafter, or a Sardonapalus
lighting his own funeral pyre.
In youth, he vainly thought to satisfy this
hunger of his soul, this longing for congeniality
with love. His unrequited affection for Mary
Chaworth has been said to have been the cause
of his giving to the world such a poem as “Childe
Harold,” but it was only the effect of that vague, j
unsatisfied desire for mental companionship
that proclaimed him one set apart from his fel
low-men, the possessor of a rare and unsurpassed :
genius.
Would he have been a happier man if this pre
cocious affection had been gratified by a union
with its object ? Could the mind that could cre
ate such companionship for itself as that of Man
fred, Cain, Sardonapalus. and that counterpart
of his own stormy and defiant nature, the Cor
sair, have found any congeniality, any affinity
of soul in one of such coarse mental calibre as
Miss Chaworth? No: no more than it did later
in life, when he sought it in friendship that he
cast recklessly aside, in the love of a wife whom
his harshness drove from his home, or in the
abysses that he sank into afterwards, from which
he shrank back at times, seeking, and finding
in a degree., society in inanimate nature, as he
tells us in some of his most beautiful lines:
come noted for their domestic troubles as well
as for their offerings to the fabled Nine.
Yet when we think of these men and women
as returning to the petty jars and trivialities of
their households after long hours spent in asso
ciation with and contemplation of the beautiful
ideals of their own creation, we can scarcely
wonder at them for turning away from it all
with disgust -perhaps a hasty word, that rankles
in the heart of husband (or wife) and children
long after they, happy once more, lost in the
realm of fancy, have forgotten all about it.
Of the scores of men who have made of them
selves shining lights to the world of literature,
science and art, Sir Walter Scott possessed per
haps the best balanced mind, the most perfect
character. Though the greatest novelist of his
time, and one of the most admired, he yet had
that rare tact and adaptability which made it
possible for him to descend from his haunt on
the Pierien hill, and mingle with his friends
and family, as bright and cheery as a child. The
same mind that could revise all the gray old tra
ditions of the hoary past, and invest them with
such a peculiar charm: that could leave to pos
terity such fiction as “Ivanhoe,” and such po
etry as the “Lay of the Last Minstrel,” could
also find pleasure in the society of the Scotch
peasantry, or even in playing with his favorite
dogs as he rambled over the heath-covered
moors,—
“ Finding tongues in trees, books in the running brooks,
Sermons in stones, and good in everything.”
His compatriot, Burns, though endowed with
a goodly amount of the same keen Scotch humor
that characterized his more gifted countryman,
did not possess this faculty. Following his
plow over the unfertile farm at Mossgiel, wrapped
in his own beautiful yet sometimes crude imag
inings, he was as completely isolated from all
intellectual companionship as is the hopeless
prisoner in his cell. Ah !
“ Lament not ye that humbly steal thro’ life,
That Genius visits not your lowly shed,”
for of all great gifts, the penalty attached to this
is the surest and yet the hardest to bear. What
thought or feeling did Milton have in common
with those by whom he was surrounded?
Standing within the portals of the sublime tem
ple of inspiration, while before him passed an
gels whose garments were bright with the glory
emanating from the presence of the Most High,—
the grand and God-like yet fallen Lucifer, ser
aphs and cherubs, beings only to be created
by a mighty and God-given genius,—could he
have left that beautiful province, over which he
had been made king and ruler, and found the
level of the gay cavalier and close-shaven puri
tan? Why should he have done so when, by
turning away from them, he could stand face to
face with such angels as Raphael and Michael;
or could evoke from his brain Ithuriel with
his spear, or see, with his sightless eyes, Uriel
descending from heaven on the slanting beams
of the sun ?
One by one, from every age and country, rise
before me types of this mental isolation. The
blind old bard of Scio’sisle: the gifted Italian
who has left us such a record of his mighty ge
nius and of his stern defiance of his exile and
loneliness, in the “Divine Comedia;” the great
master of art, at the wave of whose creative wand
the domes and spires of St. Peter’s sprang up as
if by magic; Beethoven, Mozart, Handel, wrapped
in the divine strains that seemed emanating
from the choirs that strike their golden harps
beside the river of life; Bruno, the martyred
philosopher, who, like the Chaldean of old,
. “ Had watched the stars,
Till he had peopled them with beings bright
As their own beams;”
Napoleon, following the laurel-crowned spectre
. of glory until the sun that arose in such cloud
less splendor at Austerlitz, set in defeat and
blood at Waterloo; the unhappy boy Chatterton,
whose soul scorned the narrow prison walls that
held his body, and whose hand
“ Rashly dared to stop his vital breath;”
and those two, who sleep their last long sleep
in the little Protestant burying ground under
the shadow of the walls of the imperial Roman
city, far away from the blue skies of their native
land, are one and all but a sorrowful illustration
of the fact that those to whom God has given the
glorious heritage of genius, must perforce accept
with it the loneliness and isolation that the gift
brings.
Time, standing far back in the shadow of for
gotten ages, while one by one through his with
ered fingers drop the golden links of the passing
years, assures us through history that it has ever
been thus since the days of the earliest philoso
phers; and as we are told history only repeats
itself, we may conclude that it will thus con
tinue until Time has ceased “and the wide fir
mament is rolled up like a scroll.”
Is there then “no balm in Gilead ?” Can man,
the creature, imagine a life more perfect, a com
panionship purer and more ennobling than God,
the creator, can give him ? Is there no compen
sation to be made for these lonely lives—these
sad, untimely deaths? Perhaps our best and
only answer to these questions that will intrude
themselves upon us lies in the one word, “Im
mortality.”
A Wooing Not Long a Doing.
It is told that Abernethy, while attending a
lady for several weeks, observed those admirable
qualities in her daughter which he truly esteemed
to be calculated to render the married state happy.
Accordingly, on a Saturday, when taking leave
of his patient, he addressed her to the following
purport: “You are now so well that I need not
see you after Monday next, when I shall come
and pay you my farewell visit. But in the mean
time, I wish you and your daughter to seriously
consider the proposition I am about to make. It
is abrupt and unceremonious, I am aware; but
the excessive occupation of my time by my pro
fessional duties, affords me no leisure to accom
plish what I desire by the more ordinary course
of attention and solicitation. My annual receipts
amount to , and I can settle on my wile;
my character is generally known to the public,
so that you may readily ascertain what it is. I
have seen in your daughter a tender and affec
tionate child, an assiduous and careful nurse, and
a lady-like member of a family; such a person
must be all that a husband covets, and I offer my
hand and fortune for her acceptance. On Mon
day, when I call, I shall expect your determina
tion; for I really have not time for the routine
of courtship. ” In this humor the lady was wooed
and won; and, we believe we may add, the union
was felicitous in every respect.
“ There is a pleasure in the pathless woods,
There is a rapture on the lonely shore,
There is society where none intrudes,—
By the deep sea, and music in its roar.”
The main causes of happiness, as far as human
relations are concerned, is association with those
who can sound the depths of our intellects, un
derstand the workings of our inmost hearts,
and sympathize with ns in all our joys and sor
rows as our equals; in fact, a perfect congeni
ality.
Perhaps this may partially explain the note
worthy and lamentable fact that talented men
and women hre apt to live unhappily in the state
of marriage. Shakspeare, Milton, Byron. Shelly,
Bulwer, Dickens. Mrs. Hemans, and L. E. L.,
are only a few of those whose names have be-
Persons with weak eyes must not stop off at
Rio Janeiro if they happen not to have their
goggles with them. A letter in the New York
Post says: “The light in Rio Janeiro is from
the sun, which often you do not see, but from
everywhere. It is all-pervading, subdued, but
diffused, and it makes everything beautiful. If
the weather be fine, the clouds are simply rolled
up into round, fleecy masses of an intense bril
liancy and a perfect whiteness, and these in
turn pour down a mild, mysterious light which
as yet the eye is hardly able to bear. Some
times, when one of these illuminated clouds
hangs over a narrow street, blotting out the
shadows and blurring the outlines with its
strange white glare, I feel like the live creatures
in the box of a microscope, subjected to the
action of a powerful condenser. In fact, I sup
pose that is just what these illuminated clouds
are.”
The man who blushes when a lady acquaint
ance sees him coming out of a saloon is not en
tirely lost; he may be found most any time after
ward going into the back door of a saloon.