The miners' express. (Dubuque, Iowa) 1849-1854, 1850-02-13
POPULAR TALES.
From Scots Philadelphia Weekly Paper.
A DREAM OF THE OLD YEAR.
By DAVID PAUL BROWN.

From SCOTS fhlladeipma weekly Paper. +
A DREAM OF THE OLD YEAR.
BY DAVID PAUL BROWN.
The Old Year! What mind, however mighty,
can grasp its history? what pen, however deep.
" dipped in wisdom, can chronicle its events?
The mind grows weary in the contemplation,
and the heart sickens at the faintest recital: 1t
Is not our intention, young and inexperienced as
we are, to make even the humblest attempt at
its history; for folly would be perceptibe in ev-
cry line, and a consciousness of our own failure
would be to us us vivid rs meridian sunlight,
or the transcendant glory of an abiding star
But it is of a dream-a vision of the past year
that we wish to relate.
It was upon the last eve of tile by. gone year,
that, weared with the tolls of the day, yet hap
py with bright anticipations of the morrow, that
we sank back upon our couch and fell unresist-
ingly into the embrace of reviving slumber. It
was cold and desolate without; and the dull mu-
sic of the north winds which played increasingly
above the roof of our habitation, seemed to lull
us into deeper and sweeter repose. IA. ~.
Suddenly there arose before our vision the light
Of another world far above this of ours; and from
out the misty clouds which seemed partly to en-
compass it, there appeared a heavenly form clad
with the heecy wilderness of the skies, and the
radiance of whose countenance threw its efful-
gence far around, and lit up those misty clouds
with glory SO brilliant that our gaze was daz-
zlcd by its surprising brightness. At his nod,
we beheld thousands come into existence. Weak,
helpless and frail they were, yet around their
tender brows we behold the shining light reflect
edfrom the countenance of that snow white form
Peering from amidst the glowing 1nists above.
They lay upon the bosoms Of as many guardians,
who seemed to; drink in from their laughing
eyes the sunlight of affection, and to clasp with
feeling tenderness to their hearts the objects of
their trust. And then mutation came gently
stealing over the spirit of our dream.
A thousand palaces of surprising magnifcence,
and thousand novels Of wretchedness and mi
sery, with as many chambers of disease and
death, were before us. We saw the rich man
writhe in the agonies of death, and the might of
intellect stand unavailIng by. We saw the mi
ser clutch his bag of gold with a convulsive eff
tort, and hold it tightly in his grasp till the last
throes of dissolution were over. We beheld the
votary of intemperance roll his blood-shot eye
balls in their hollow sockets, bite his parched
lips, tear with his clenched hands his lacerated
face, and die amid the imagined Kissing Of ser
penis and the presence of frightful demons. We
beheld infancy sink gently into an eternal re-
pose, in the arms of its protector; and the love-
iness of maidenhcod gradually vanish away I'M
til broken wreck, dccayed and rotten huh of
the glorious original was all that remained to dc
termine its identity. And more than this we
saw. We heard the fierce tempest sweep
teclingly through the open crevices of a totter-
ing and decayed cot upon mothers emaciated
form, with three cold, dead little ones upon her
bosom,-with no covering but the shelterless
rafters above her; with no friend to console her
but the shrill whispering of the cold winds with
out-with no warmth to allay her misery but that
which proceeded from few dying embers upon
a broken hearth, which the clustering storm, as
it came sweeping down the dilapidated chimney
kept alive as if in shame for humanity; and thus
exhibited its unavailing sympathy. With no
light of hope to guide her through the 'svalley Of
the shadow of DEATH but the dim rays reflect
ed from dying socket which changed the OBJ
Jects of poverty in that desolate chamber of
death into ghostly shadows, and whose expiring
rays told fthe speedy extinguishment Of the fire
OF life which dimly burned upon the altar of that
frail ones heart. And then we beheld man of
venerable years, afflicted with thousand ills,
gently breathe out his last without pang; and
his expiring words, s'blessed are they who die
In the Lord" fell 50 sweetly on our ear the
zephyrs of summer upon bed of roses; and the
bright serenity which was depicted upon that old
mans countenance seemed to be heavenly.
And then another change came gentle over
the soul of our vision
A thousand shrouds, n thousand pals, and
thousand biers, upon which pressed as many life
less forms, were drawn slowly along to the 81
lent tread of ten thousand mourners, and the
slow tolling of hundred bells. In that mighty
retinue came bier of surprising magnifcence;
and the black drapery ofdeath which hung round
its sides concealed coffin of the costest rose
wood; which held the decayed remains of one of
earth's mightiest ones, whose name, in golden
letters, was inscribed on the glttering tnsel that
gemmed its lid. Slowly it was drawn along to
the slow prancng Of half score of neighing
steeds; and the bright equipage which bedecked
them glowed in the sunlight, and the soft breeze
of that summers day played with their sable
plumes. Following behind, came another, but
the bier was not SO magnificent, the golden equi-
page glittered not so brightly, the steeds pranc-
ed not so proudly-the man was not so mighty!
And still another came, less gorgeous than the
second; and close behind it came another, anoth-
er, and another, until the vision grew dim by
scanning its mighty longitude, and the heart
sickened as it caught faint glance Of the last
bier, the last coffin, the last mourner. A beast
whose lettering step and shadowy form, and
sunken eyes, told that its span of life nearly
over, which bore upon it's tleshless back cma-
ciated form, covered with tatters and rags, whose
lustreless eye-bals were sunk far into their bony
sockets; whose cheeks were pallid with misery,
misfortune and want; whose lips were thin and
pale with the ills oflife; and whose countenance
Dctoheneu MIN 10 De speedy Vlcum 1or ueath
and the grave. With trembling grasp he held
the reins ofhis frail companion, which drew tot
teringly along broken cart, in which, upon its
rough bed, lay a dead form-the last relic of that
frail rider--his last hope-his last friend-his
wife! No tinseled coffin hid her from the gaze
of men! There she lay as she died, with dlshc-
yelled hair, with clenched hands, with coun-
tenance depicting the agony of the mighty death
struggle, of the battle between life and death, of
want and abundance, of food and Starvation
No shroud was wrapped around her lifeless form,
but the thin garb torn into thousand shreds CO.
vered DER with dirt and filth, the natural conse-
quents Of want. There she lay, with her mo-
tionless leaden eye-balls bending their gaze to-
wards the blue heavens. There she lay, an OBJ
ject for the unfeeling humanity of the world
combined into one little whole to gaze upon.
The tread Of the mourners was hushed, the
thousand biers stood still, but still the knells of
death were tolled from q thousand bells.
Another change came over our dream.
field Of death, whose boundary was the dim ho-
rzon, was before us. A thousand new made
graves were there. We saw the coffin which
pressed the bier Of that magnificent equlpage-
the first in the mighty train of death, borne thro
crowds Of weeping friends, and placed beside