Grand River times. [volume] (Grand Haven, Mich.) 1851-18??, 1853-01-12
WINTER EVENINGS.

The long winter evenings are upon us the
sun goes to bed early and gets up late. Scarce
y have we finished dinner, scarcely INDUCED in
4 little pleasant chat over the table, ere his
broad disk dips beneath the horizon, and the
brief golden twilight is followed by the foot
steps of dusky night But these long evenings
are blessing to all classes, abridging as they
do the hours Of labor to most men. The team
ster puts up his horses, and earlier sits down to
his frugal meal while the shipwright earlier
leaves his labor on the eviathan destined proud
ly to carry the stars and stripes over the noun
tain waves of ocean, and thus the commercial
quarters of the city are queted, and premature
ly hushed,
Butthe inhabited parts of the town awake to
q life, stranger more eXharating, more brill
liant than that of day. Gas follows hard on the
heels of sunlight; palace like stores pour forth
their effulgence on the popuous streets; the
roar of carriage wheels shakes the pavements
and the theatres blaze up with sudden ilumin-
alton. The confectionery saloons are very In
viting in appearance lecture rooms yawn and
engulph enormous crowds. Later yet the man.
sions Of the rich become one blaze of light
Through the plate glass windows you descry
fairy forms Of surprising loneliness gliding
through the mazes of the dance, fower-crown-
ed, blooming. laughing, exaltant, to the sound
of music, that might vile away peri from the
gates of Paradise.
STAY What is that pale form that fingers by
the granite doorway, resting feebly against the
huge stone lion that seems to guard the portal (?
The snow is on the ground, yet a torn shoe hard
" protects the little foot from its piercing cold
ness It's a poor little match girl. Weary of
Offering her wares to pre-occupied persons in the
street, she has thought Gn the simplicity of her
young heart y that here, at the door of wealth,
where thousands were being lavished for few
hours enjoyment, where diamonds were glitter
ING in handsfull, and orange flowers bloomed in
the artificial summer atmosphere, few pence
might be bestowed on her who came, not as a
beggar but as an honest vender Of humble mer-
chandize.
Perhaps she deemed that the lady or gentle
man of the house might purchase her whole
stock in trade-it is only ninepence WORTH
and then what nice supper of bread she would
be able to take home to her sick mother and lit
tie crippled sister But, alas all her hopes
have been dashed to the ground. Contrary to
her expectations, the lady of the house is not in
the habit of answering the door-bell, and the
surly footman has rudely thrust her away; while
grim policeman eyes her from the sidewalk,
as much as to say, "You have no business
here" Yet she fingers near that sunny para
dise and thinks how acarm and happy the peo-
pie must be who live there!
Alas! Poor child hearts may ache beneath
satin and velvet, as bitterly as beneath ragged
calico, and you have many time eaten hard
crust with more relish than they have partaken
of the daintiest fare served on golden plates
And sometime, if your little feet again stray
hther, you shall see the windows darkened, and
a mournful procession shall issue forth, bearing
perchance, its loveliest inmate, motioness
breathless, to her last narrow abiding place
And, hereafter, when all these things have
passed away, and the golden gates of a mansion
far more glorious than this, are opened to all
amidst the radiant myrads that throng around
the Throne Of Grace, thou shalt as surely have
thy place as the happest and loveliest thine eye:
behold tonight! Gleasons Pictorial
|
AN IMPRESSIVE FACT.-A vessel was overta
ken with terrific hurricane in the middle o
the Atlantic Ocean. After the most astonish
ing efforts to weather the storm, the awful in
telgence of the captain broke on the ear of th,