The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1851-01-30
For the National Era
LIFE ON PRAIRIE DE- LA FLEUR. No. 3.
BY MARY IRVING,
THE ROMANCE OF SOCIETY.

' Il may be that thy brothers. eye
Sees not az thiue which turns
In such deep reverence to the sky,
Where the rich sunset burnsW
There is romance in the early life of an indi-
vilual or a nation. There is romance in the his
tory Of an infant colony, planted, as were the
English Colonies in America, "amid the bowling
wilderness" surrounded by unspsring foes in hu-
man and elemental shapes. There is sublime ro-
nance in the story of the worlds infancy.
Do not frown upon the "anti-ciimax," when
speak Of the "rOmsnce of immigration" 1t may
well hide its head in such company, and be silent,
as child before its elders. Yet its humber tale
may sometimes claim listeners, when dazzling ira
ditions and visions of old baronial castles have
fitted solemnly back to their dark corners in an
tiquity and left Imagination to her pastime amid
present realities and future foreshadowings.
AMI nowhere on our Continent, nowhere on
the Earth, are the Present and the Future 30
nearly EMBODIED, 30 clearly given to the realizing
sense of the spirit as in this western half of
America The "present moment" that feeting
second, never finds half its Importance, it has
sometimes seemed to me, eastward of our blue
Lake boundary. Consequently, "the Past finds
little room for intrusion.
All here is haste and confusion. The necessity
of providing for the material wants Of human ma
ture, in despite of obstacles generally more disa-
supply the stuff that dreams are made Off
Sometimes you find yourself wondering whether
these strange, hurrying, obstinately practical peo
pie about you were really born on the same planet
with yourself and can really trace their pedigree
10 your far back ancestor of the Ark. II the
same smother Nature nursed their spirits and
your own how is it that their ears are deaf to her
whlspers-their eyes blind to her soul-wakening
glances nom
reople have strangely varying ideas of beauty
ID Nature" by the way. Once, when tossed up
ana down the hill-waves of gloriously rocky re-
gon In mountainous State, was thrown into
the society OF sensible, sociable, elderly gentle
man, who commenced making himself agreeable
by remarks upon scenery in general and that of
the Western State of his adoption in particular.
US conrasted with that around and below u.s.
-"'Iis BEAUTIFUL country, isn't it, exclaimed he,
with good degree Of animation, upon finding
that his andtress had once paid it visit,
involuntarily opened my eyes little wider
than was necessary for purposes of vision for
what spell could throw an imagining of beauty
over tract where all irregularities were swal.
lowed up in dull, dead leveln of surface. | did
not comprehend at once.
without without noticing my vague reply, my compan-
Beautiful! A paradise for farmerw
suggest AN''N ''"'uiy "
US hard picking up living among the rocks
anu mis- Miss" he answered with a polite stare
w. a y, me- to the West - the glorious
g S 10 reasons and feels many an inhabitant of
me glorious WestD
very nearly the same idea escaped the Ins of
one OF Its daughters, who had been on a visit for
parents "0"' VI MGR granu-
,;... ne hilisW | asked her, rather too enthu-
NN.sncaliy Did you not fall in love, with our
New England hills %
ara WY no" she replied, indiferently; "they
49,, ureadiul hard on horses. | tired out of all
ra.,snce with 'em. This ERE, now, is what |
s,sa prettier country she added, giving one
,nI from her knitting-needes to the level
ps ape that stretched away from her window
nal 90 not think to despise those brothers and
nsv s OF humanity, into whose souls Enth usiasm
f.,' fer ereathed new life, to enjoy-and to sui.
H. Many heart Is moulded OF Natures ster.
as ore, that has reflected scarcely q CLEAN of
aSg'9ation. The lightning has not played
rsniD, u, 10 dazzle or to seattle; but the common,
Ss aa sunshine Of Heaven may have warmed that
I, ,aeo trnest benevolent philosophy.
MIS- Hemanss words be truth
" there he one Who Ger the dead
Hath Ia thy grief borne part
watched In sickness by thy bed,
'ai hi, kindred hearth
bos,,I ind many kindred heartsp upon the
,bop", hearth-stones Of Prairie de Ia FIsur.
own 80 lev that win "leap up" as may your
.r "A rainbow In the skyp
y@ a atch string Of every cabin hangs out 10
Bp, I.s every indweller waits to be hospitable.
anc. a. me warn you to beware OF giving utter
to yon, Comparisons which will instnctively rise
eoa,rs., Ups, as your past sxperisnce wakes M 70
Itself with present realities