The Richmond palladium. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1855-1875, 1859-07-21
The Old Wife's Kiss.

voice OF prayer escaped, Tears were Hastiv
wiped away from the wet cheeks, and long
drawn signs relieved suppressed and choking
sobs the inourners prepared to take their
leave of the corpse.
1t was an OLD man that lay there robed for
tn" grave. More than three score years had
whltened those locks. and furrowed that brow
and made those stiff limbs weary of life's
journey, and al! the more willing TO lie down
and rest where WEAKNESS is more suffer
ed, and inirmites no longer a burden.
The aged have but few TO weep for them
The most of them who would have mourned
their loss have gone to the grave before
them; harps that woulI have sighed sad
harmonIes are shattered and gone; and the
lew that remain are looking cradleward rath-
er than gravewsrd-to life's opening. rather
than to lite's closing goal; are bound TO and
living in the generation rising, more than the
generation departing.
Youth and beauty have many admirers
while living; have many mourners when dy.
ing. Many fearful ones bend over their cot
fined clay, and many sad hearts follow in
their mourntul train. But age has few ad
mirers. few m turner's.
This was an old man and circle of mourn
ers. Two chilIren.who themselves had pass
ed the middle Of life. and who had children
of their to care for, and be cared for by
them. Besides these. and few friends who
had visited him while sick, and possibly had
known him tor a few years. there were none
other to shed tear except his wife. And Of
this small company, the old wife seemed the
only heart mouraer. Il is respectable for
friends TO be sad for few moments till the
service Is performed and the hearse Is out of
SIGHT. 1t Is very proper and suitable for
children who have outgrown the fervency
aud affections Of youth. to shed tears when
An aged parent says farewell, and lies down
70 quet slumbers. Some regrets, some re-
collections of the past, some trsnsitory grief.
An | the pangs are over. Not always so. But
often how little true genuine heart sorrow
there isl
The old wife rose with difficulty from her
seat. and went to the coffin to Look her last
look-to take her las. farewell. Through the
fast falling tears. she gazed long and fondly
down into shat pale and unconscious face
Whom dIi she sec there? 9th rs saw moth
ing but the Iigii features of the dead she
saw more. In every wrinkle Of that brow
she read the history of years. From youth
to manhood; from manhood to old re - III
Joy and sorrow, in sickness and health - ii
was all there; W zen those children. who had
outgrown til. sympathes of childhood, were
infants lying on her bosom, and every year
since thcn---here it was! To others, those
dull. mute monitors were unininrelliyible, to
her they were the alphabs, Of the heart, ia
mIiar AS household words!
And the future? What will become ef me?
What shall | do now? Sne did not say so =
she did not say anything - but she felt it.
The prospect of the old wife is dark and
clouded
u
united The visions of the hearth-stone are
scattered forever. Up to that hour, there
was a home, to which the heart always turns
with fondness. Bat tha, magic is saunder-
Ell; the key stone oil that sacred arch has
fallen, and now home is nowhere this side OF
heaven!
What shall tie old wife do now? Go and
live with her children? be pensioner upon
their kindness, where she may be more of a
burden than a blessing ? SO at least she
thinks. Or shall she gather up the scattered
fragments of that arch; make them her tenn
pie and shrine; sit down in her chill soli-
tude beside its expiring fires and die p
What shall she do nowe
They gently crowded her away from the
dead, aud the undertaken cam forward with
coffin in hand. l. is all right and proper
of course it must be done; but to the heart
mourner it brings kind of shudder
thrill of agony as when the headsman comes
forward with the axe. The undertaken stood
for moment: decent propriety. not wishing
to manifest rude haste, but evidently desi-
rous of being as expeditions as possible
Just as he was abnat to close the coffin. the
old wife turned back, and STOPPING down,
imprinted one long last kiss upon the cold
lips Of her dead husband. then staggered to
her seat, buried her face in her hands, and
the closing coffin lid him from her sight for
ever.
That kSsl Fond token of affection. and
Of sorrow. and memory, and farewell, /
have seen many kiss their dead d-msny such
seals on cold clay lips--but never did see
one purely sad, SO purely heart touching.
and hopeless as that Or. if it had hope. it
was that which looks beyond the coffins, and
charnal houses. and dark tombs, to the joys
of the home above.
May the old wif.'s kiss, that linked the
living with the dead, be the token of holier
ties. that >hal bind their spirits in that bet
ter land, where tears are wiped from all IA
ces, and the days of mourning are endedl