Kenosha tribune and telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1855-1855, 1855-04-19

Of business, of hustle, and of strife, deny it
but, assuredly, silence has her own peculiar
voice. The holy hear it, and it enchants
them the wicked hear it, and it appals
them-its voice, its words are fashioned
according to the heart of him to whom it
speaks. We have heard silence.
When the marriage feast has passed,
when the bride has gone. when the guests
have departed, when the shout of merri-
ment had ceased. as we gaze alone upo n the
fragments Of the feast, as we stood alone in
the loved ones chamber. silence spoke, and
said, This day breach has been made up
on this house; branch has been stripped
off to grow, perhaps, elsewhere, in glory
of its own, but it hath been torn from the
parent stem, it hath been cut from thee!'
When the worshippers have left their
temple, when the last sottharmonies OF their
anthems have died away, when the voice
that prayed and taught is hushed, silence
spoke, and said. In after ages, how many
Of those who have just departed hence, who
swelled the chorus of sacred song, who
heard the words of amending life. shall sing
in angelic choirs, shall be at peace?'
When the crowded streets have become
lone and still, when every glimmering ia
per has faded from our sight, when we feel
ourselves now really alone to keep long Vi
gils with the dead, have we not heard a
rushing in our ears as though a thousand
wings were hurrying pasta thobbing as
though thousand pulses were merged in
to one then silence spake, and said, Thine
earthly life is fleeing, fleeing fast. Thy
blood is speeding on in haste to fulfill its
destined course: as she is. over whom thou
watchest. so shalt thou, the watcher, swift.
ly be- When we have not driven her away
how often has she not reminded conscience
of forgotten n-toucheda chord of tender.
ness so fine. that, had any other silence
been present, it would have been lost-len:
us passing thought ofpeace so exquisite,
that in any other atmosphere it could not
have lived.
Thus has she spoken to some, but SO ter
rible has she been to others. that they could
not bear her even for the slightest time
The tyrant has summoned forth all his in
struments of music to Danish her. The
guilty have hardened with intensest earn
estncss to the breathing of a child slumber-
ing peacefully beside them, to dispel her.
Solitary men have spoken aloud to cast her
off. SO terribly did she Cypress them.
In almosta all places we have met her; in
the palace and in the hut; in the cities of
the living, and the chambers of the lead;
at morn, and noon. and eve, by day, by
night. in summer heat and winter coid;-
and our testimony is this that silence has a
voice, if we have ears to hear.
w.
Strange things did silence whisper now
to Herbert Courtenay; she seemed to pro-
phesy to HIM, that like the setting sun, the
glory of his day had gone. Strange things,
also, did she say to his sister Edith, remind
ing her of the past, and telling her that the
future, which lay before her, was stern
and solemn change. In that one hour, as
they gazed on the setting sun, she taught
them both their destiny. Herbert rose from
his seat prepared to strive, and Edith nerv-
ed patiently to endure.
Herbert was man, and it is the glory of
a man to strive. Edith was a woman, and
it is the glory of a woman to endure.
The sun which set so gloriously that ev
ening. rose with equal glory on the NOR
row, and Herbert led forth his mother and
his sister from their home. He had sud-
denly become man, and so no tear stood
in his eye,as he rolled through the old arch
way of the manor-house 1t is true there
was flood gushing through his heart, but
the service into which he had been impress
ed, commands, that, although the heart
may bleed within, no one must discover it
from without.
And this dispensation proves one ofmer-
cy now. His mother and sister had need
of all his help to sustain them, and how
could he help them with fearful eyes? No!
Herbert felt that he must not give way. and
SO, as they rolled on. he drew visions of
future happiness for his mother, and for
his sister, and in outer speech for himself
also
Why should not they three be happy?
If young men had ruled kingdoms, master
ed science, attained to fame, there was no
reason why he should not earn bread. And
bread Herbert was determined to earn; it
might cost him toll, health. an utter sacri-
uCo Vi SCH, Out Wlds n1o Hoe HiS hoehCa
done for him!-who could tell how dear
his sister was to him!--they should never
think of it, but still it was precious tho't
that he would be their staff and stay, that
it was on him they were to lean, and that
under Providence he alone was to be their
support.
And who would not support widowed
mother? Who that bears in mind how she
administered to his weakness in infancy,
would not do the same to her in her old
age? Who, that thinks how often she kiss
ed the tears from his cheeks, when he wept
for some childish sorrow, would refuse, man
though he be, to kiss the tears from her
aged cheeks, and catch them ere they roll
their scalding stream down the channels
which sorrow has so deeply furrowed? A
widowed mother is a sacred deposit; join
ed as she still is in heart unto the dead, and
Joined as we are unto her, she seems to us
TO be encompassed with sacred, arever-
entail awe, and to be almost a connecting
link between the world of spirits and our
selves!
V.
A small lodging in back street in Lon