The River Falls journal. (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1857-1861, 1858-11-03
Mistell
THE NEW SOUL Of JOHN
MARKHAM.

7 MARKHAM.
/ SIXTEEN years have rolled away
/ 10 since last L stood in the market
place Of the city of Hartford. l left il
when the turf was green, and the thrush
es were making music in the eIms; the
turf was green, and the birds were sing
ing now. I saw staid man in black 90
by, gravely smiling to the children, and
knew he was the settled clergyman, but
not the one l left there There were
countrymen standing by their carts in the
market; women chaffering with penny
worth purchasers in the stalls; carriages
driving into the street filled with ladies
on an airing from the watering places
pear by; old men and young men, wo-
men and girls--the manner of life was
even as when [ left it; the forms and the
faces of that once familiar life were for
ever gone.
Oh! fifteen years make great difference
in q returning man. Wherever he may
have passed them-in home as cheer
full rs the one abandoned, amidst the ca
resses Of the beloved, surrounded by plea
SAINT prospects, fondled by prosperty-if
he will go back to the oil place, let him
remember that chilly pain in the heart
awaits him there, when he shall see trees
and houses, and the very street stones
stay, but the living pass away, and are
forgotten. ae aau egse -tla- ae9.t 1.sd
But when man has spent his absence
as | spent mine-forI had not been on
the continent, listening now to Rose Chr
RE, now to Thalberg, now to the cathe-
dral cadences of Nelimo. where the floods
break from his resounding lips under the
ever blue arch OF. q resounding sky; |
had not been waited to the upper cata-
racts, bathed in the nepenthe of that air
which lulled the old world Memphis gal
lants--which lulls the Howadji now; /
had not been living with friends, who,
shoulder to shoulder, worked with me
hopefully in the daytime, or welcomed
en- at night to a glowing household hearth
N room where my children sat upon
my knee, where the rosy fire light danced
with the shadow,o on the WALL where
woman beloved, ,hushed down the business
e.hoes of my heart with rich old ballad
in o soft young voice. .gss.a az a.eIei 81
lido not often call up these fiftcon years,
for they are melancholy, madning ghosts
But when / do, TIE music with which
they stalk into my thoughts is such as this !:
moaotonous sound of hammers-clink,
clinky clink,-always in the same measure,
and broken only by the fall Of stone frag
mentsl A heavy clank ofiron doors mer-
cilessly shut in .reverberating corridors,
with nothing butrhy own pulse, coming
afterward; and | spent my fifteen years
in prison. ~ s,,.a,..:t., B
Do you ask how | came thcre.i The
story is not long one. / wasla junior
partner in the banking house of my elder
brother near Hartford. One evening.
about nine o'clock. as / was leaving the
steps of my lodging, q heavy band fell
upon my shoulder, and l turned to see a
sheriff's officer, with his assistant, stand
ing close by me. On the opposite side Of
the street the lights shone merrily from
the window of the woman | loved. L
was on my way to answer my invitation,
and felt, as every true man feels on such
an GRAND, gentle towards all humanity.
So | did not roughly push aside the inter-
loper's hand, as ordinarily as l would
have done, but quietly moved out from
under it, and said, my man, there is
1E8F TEtTElU4s III ITO = .tHfB -
some mistake here. You have taken the
wrong person" .7is ,o1"
ANY one who knows what tits to lose
so completely, in fearful dream, the
selfpossession on which he would steady
HIMSELF that he can no longer say, g lis
only dream," but begins to knoD that
it is actual, will realize how the awful
truth broke on me in an instant as the
officer answered: -eseasr rs sev /; tat
"That won't doioyou are John Mark
ham, of Hartford In the name of the
Commonwealth, I arrest You for for
1 I'D E,,d3gam Cd bEA IS sA@ 1905 $50
gerry esgH ad1 4o1 b9iog hua sIs0Q ad.. G
Just then on the opposite side. Of the
street, the curtain went down at the light
cd window, and knowing in my soul that
it dropped forever between imeland the
one being who in her hands held all
things for which ]. lived, Iafelt a quick,
cold shudder of agony run through me,
and my knees smote together like cow
ards. / said no more, but went with
my captor. le'a d9se
The first night in jail Alb, that was