The River Falls journal. (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1857-1861, 1857-07-01
MISCELLANY.
JOHNS WIFE.
BY ". W. HOWE.

L was tuC OluSI CfCiliDS Will lily
friend John at his own dinner-table. His
wife had just left us to our coffee-neith-
er of us drank much wine-and we were
both musing pleasantly, as men are apt to
do after good dinner All at once |
thought of Johns wife-a right pleasant
subject-who, as | said before, had just
left us. l suppose she went to hush the
ulesIsr other blessed baby.
A most lovable woman is Johns wife,
with pretty name-Nelly, and an eye
as clear as trout-brook, and face so
full of beautiful honor and truth that l
never tire of looking at it, and find some
new charm every time I look; and yet
dare not look save with honest thoughts.
l had known her but a short time, and
was curious about her history; so l said
to John quite suddenly:
John, where did you get your wife"
"What 2" said John, starting from his
reverie
"My dear fellow, l do not wish to pilfer
any of your heart-treasures; but really l
would like to know something of the WOO
ing and winning of such noble spouse as
your own. "IshopeI don't intrude.'"
My friend John is methodical young
fellow. With heart as tender as a
girls he unites an intellect as keen and
certain as a Damascus blade; while he has
dreams of purple poesy, he is very exact
and straightforward in action. He is,
therefore, a very successful business law
yer in Wall-street; whereas some Of his
friends, who knew only the romantic side
of bis character, thought him a promising
recruit for enlistment in the "shoe-black-
seraph army" of poor-devil authors. In
reply to my last question, John pulled out
his watch, looked at it carefully, put it
back in his pocket, and said:
ave have half an hour to spare. I
will tell you something of my courtship.
You will excuse me if the story sounds
egotistcaI for you and l, viii, are one in
feeling.
Twas seventeen when [ entered college,
so that had grown to be quite man, in
feeling at least, when my class reached
the dignity of Junior year. used to try
desperately to be a great student, for my
sisters sake more especially but some how
] could never make myself satisfactory
book-worm. Don't you think book
worms are great humbugss know that
if you ransack an old library, you will find
many of the more ancient volumns sadly
gnawed by q, sort of worms which sup
pose our literary ''grubs" get their name
Now good honest people have thought
these worms were sort of literary ghouls
crawling and digging among thought-sep-
ulchres, and gorging themselves with the
exhumed literary remains long after their
cousins, the skln-worlns, have devoured
the poor authors bodies. But modern
entomologists have, am told, discovered
that these worms know nor care very
little about Chronology, syntax, or prose-
dy; that they are not the literary gour-
mands they have been reckoned; that they
do not dine off mathematics and history,
peck at poetry for dessert, and take q
snug siesta In the corner of treatise on
metaphysics. 1t seems that they eat only
the covers of books, and that for the sake
of the leather, for which they have a
fondness inordinate, much preferring calf
sheep, or turker binding to the intelIectu-
al bill-of-fare aforesaid. | think the same
mistake has been in vogue with respect
to book-worms, metaphorically to called.
Honest folks have thought that they real
ly gormandize books that their life is an
intellectual dinner, with each course a
course of reading. This, my dear friend,
| take to be mistake. Like their
namesakes, they only gnaw the covers of
books. They fill themselves with sheep
skins and goat-skins, (fit hning) They
gorge themselves with husks and leave
the fat kernel for the true epicure. But |
am pressing.
One fine day in October of my Junior
year, l was lying stretched out in one of
the cushioned windows of the college-li-
brary pharasaically thanking Heaven that
| was not book-worm, and reading
Coleridge's Geographic Literaria," e
thought then that | understood that
work, when ON sudden the door opened
and in trooped small battalion of bellies
and beaux. | did not notice them es
pecially, for it was quite common for par
ties of visitors to come on College-HIl to
view the libraries and cabinets, and, as
we sometimes fiattered ourselves, to sec
the students. So / read on for a few mo-
ments, when, as the party approached
where | was seated, | looked up to see
whether the girls were pretty, for hold
it as proper and instructive to look at and
admire every pretty woman one meets, as
to study every fine landscape one may
chance to see. Why should we go stare
at eataracts, and sun-rises, and paintings,
and not look at the l0veliest of all created
things, womenO By Jove! as / looked
up, behold my eyes met those of my ideal
woman-the realization of my imaginings
my dreams incarnate. [ had never
seen her before, yet knew her in mo-
ment | seemed to be swept toward her.
| could hardly resist the impulse TIA. told
me to jump up. grasp her by the hand, and
cry out:
"Friend-dear friend-thank God, you
have come at lastf'
But a second thought said that such
demonstration might seem ridiculous in