Clarksville chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1857-1865, 1859-06-03

Inc dream is over ana again she glide
amid the giddy whirl of the ballroom
echoing the hollow laugh and participat
, ing in the heartless Jest of fashion
: throng.
"Where as hy victim ?" demands tn,
still, small voice of conscience that viii
be heard above the shrek of violin anC
trip of dancers feet He no Longer
shares her smiles or fingers for a single
token of her appreciation on which to feet
his feversh hopes. Experience answers
'He is seeking to Danish retrospection
in the midnight bowl; to quench the
singing remembrance of thy fality in
the lethe of intoxication. But for thee
happiness might have been his and peace.
full content in some cottage home with
that fair girl who would fain have been his
ministering angel"
Whom the Gods love die young"
and earth's fairest flowers are oftenest
found amid the sheaves death gathers for
heavens garner, so that young and lovely
creature in the first flush of youth, was
bound up with the harvest of ripper years
ere the tender bud had fully blown.
And he around whom the tendrils of
her pure young heart had twined them
selves bore about a crushed and stricken
heart seeking at the gaming table or the
midnight banquet a temporary oblivion
from the remorse and anguish which
wrung his soul.
But the night wanes and the tired
pleasure seeker wearied with his ceaseless
search for happiness that like the brood.
ing partridge ever eludes his grasp yet by
short flights still lures him onward, seeks
his inviting couch. The toil-worn laborer
has long since forgotten his working
world in dreams of sweet reposc.
The early moon has waned and night
has drawn her sable curtain around the
slumbering world the measured tramp of
the night-watch alone awakens the echo
of the solitary streets. The pale stars, no
longer eclipsed by their brilliant rival
light, creep in slow succession to their
azure throne. A faint light still CLEANS
from the draperied windows of an upper
room in Fifth Avenue. Costly flowers
crushed and broken, strewn upon the
velvet tapestry shed their dying fragrance
on the oppressive air and circlet of gilt
tering jewels illuminates the corner where
they were tyssed in the tired wearers i'm
patient haste to rid herself of their aching
weight. A few of starry brightness still
glitter amid the disheveled braids of her
glossy hair. Who, in this pale exhausted
/ girl, would recognise the brilliant beauty
that earlier in the evening was the envied
and admired belle Of crowded ballroom ?
Her pearly teeth are tightly pressed upon
her quivering lip and the broad, white
brow rests heavily upon the jeweled hand ;
while the trembling fingers of the other
clasp nervously an ivory miniature.
And Oh how mourDful is the expires,
sion of her violet eyes deepened to jetty
hue by the expiring freight, on whose
smolderng ruins they are fastened, while
memory speeds back through the vista of
long years to the buried past.
"What was l once, what am now ?"
bursts from her lips in agonizing mur-
murs.
| Would that | had died in infancy
Calm would have been the sleep Of in
nocency in the quiet grave. But now,
Oh now, where shall l seek relief from
torturing thought? From vain regret
And thou, my friend, in whom l trusted
with a childlike faith, thou vert the cause
of this All well have l repaid thy
faithessness. As thou vert false to me
have | been false to others As thou de-
ceivcdst me, have | deceived again; until
my sickening soul revolts at the ruin it
has wrought. vainly imagined once that
/ happiness was nine, but as L raised the
delicious cup all sparkling to my lip, the
relentless hand of doom snatched it brim-
ming from my grasp, And Thou vert
the instrument Could there have been
deeper stab than this? Even now
memory recalls those rosehued hours when
thou vert all the world to me- Vainly
have l tried amid the pleasure seeking
throng to Danish recollection, beneath the
blaze of jewels beat wretched heart.
dare not seek retirement in the coun-
trys soothing scenery for thy memory is
indissolubly linked with forest shades and
flowers, The winding stream, the bios
soming dell, the beetling cliff here thy
protecting hand guided me through the
rocky paths shielding my venturous feet
from danger, were all mute witnesses of
thy cruel ialsity. All little did l dream
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