Wilmington journal. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1844-1895, 1855-02-23
A Singular COurtShIn.


The eloquent author Of Later Years." speaking
OF an old country church and the funeral Of an aged
man about to be celebrated there gives this impress
slve incident
Sixty years ago. there was voice in the choir
that thrilled his heart every Sunday morning, so that
he listened TO 1t more than to the words of the song
He was stout, strong man, yet he was a child
IN the presence Of that country maiden and he low.
ed her with exceeding joy. He served her father
not so long as Jacob for Leah yet with no less devo-
tIon and for a while with more success One day
the farmers family had gone to visit friend some
ten miles distant, and not having in their wag
on; they had returned, leaving Lucy to he sent for
And towards evening, the old mantle young man
should say-how strange his youth seems to me who
have always know him old the young man was
sent for her. and having taken her into the wagon
with him, started in return
Five miles ofthe road was accomplished, when the
gloom of a tempest surrounded them. and a storm
burst on them with terrible fury. There was no bet
ter shelter for mile, the old church that stood
alone the hill, and hther he urged his horse with
difficulty and small danger.
They reached the door, which was never closed
for the house of God, in those days always open
and the girl found shelter, while he secured the horse
in safety under the she'd and returned to her.
He had never told her of his love, and now was
fair opportunity. In the wild flashes of the light
ming, the little church cleaned out on the valleys
that it overlooked, like silent, calm mother to keep
all safe in the war of the elements. No one who
caught sight of it that night dreamed that it was
occupied; but there two hearts in it that COM
menced 10 beat in unison that night at the altar
where they pledged their love to each other. They
were not afraid not terrified though the tempest
fearful, and though every window cleaned
uridly in the constant flashes of the lightning
With folded around each other. they kne there
still. 1t was holy night, to which in after years
their souls recurred with never-ceasing Joy.
Yes-sneer-laugh--b -blaspheme that holy love- poor
mis- Of Iphi bo boyo
yer felt the blessedness of pure warm womans love-
but know that during the sixty years of Sabbaths that
man worshipped God at the same altar he never for
got that night nor failed to thank God for that tenn
pest,
And TO- morrow when they carry him nto the church
again. and lay him down prone at the altar's foot
whereby he knelt with the maiden he loved so long
ago. if his old bones revive not at the blessed touch
if his old heart thrill not with the remembered love-
if his old cheek grow not with the balmy
breath if his old eyes smile not with the old love- #
he be there still, calm, dead yet tell you there is
an altar, church, land, where the two will be
kneeling together to morrow, where their eyes will
be radiant with love- where their lips will be eloquent
with rapturous song
The CLIMATE OF THE CRIMEA-I saw foolish
paragraph in a paper the other day, in which some
philosophc idiot had, with greater complacencY,
proved to hls satisfaction that the cold of the
Crmea was not greater than that at Dion, and had
come to the conclusion that, the people of that
interesting city survived The winters in that part of
the world, army would be equally able to resist
the frosts and snow of the Crmea But the philoso-
pher quite forgot that the people of Dion do not
ordinary get up at night, and walk about the hills
around them. or keep huddled up on the bottom of
deep trenches. full of snow, having nothing to pro-
tect them from the cold but great coat and
blanket. An extremely hard frost began about mid
night, JAM 5h,) and the thermometer this morning
was at 81 deg. 10 min, more than 10 degrees Of
cold. The result may be imagined. The cavalry
dread to think of the number of our noble soldiers
who will receive their coup de grace from this
weather, if ii lasts. | credibly informed that
out of one division alone $50 men taken out of
the trenches to hospital tents seized with cramp and
half frozen. not SO much perhaps from the cold as
from the want of proper clothing and inability to
move about to circulate the blood