Nashville patriot. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1858-1860, 1859-04-19
A Melancholy Conclusion.

A Young, beautiful and talented woman,
named Louise Reeder, died in this city on the
9th of this month, from injuries received by
the explosion of a camphene lamp. There is
something in the history and fate of this
Young woman, which is full of warning and
instruction to the young, giddy and dissipa-
ted of her sex especially of that class OF stage
struck damsels who. without regard TO their
capacity and talent, and relying upon the eff
fects of personal beauty and a vivid lmagina-
ton. force themselves into a profession for
which they are not adapted, aud where dis
tinction can only be won by great devotion,
labor and constant study. In not few cases
their intrusions are due to certain prurien-
CIV of mind. an ungovernable desire for APP
plause love of intrigue and an Impotence
of those healthy, social restraints, in suhjec-
ton to which woman finds her chief happi-
ness and her proper sphere of usefulness.
These unguided and ill-disciplined females
bring discredit and shame upon an honorable
profession, and usually terminate their ca
reers by too frequently illustrating on the
worlds stage that vice whose "deiOrmity' II
is one of the great aims of the Drama To hold
up to scorn and detestation. The untortun-
ate Young woman, whose uutimely decease
we have now to chronicle. was early drawn
from the sphere of life which she was adj
mirably fitted to adorn, by this insane pas
sion and these corrupting influences, into one
where even her high talents, great endow-
ments OF mind and person. only served TO
render more conspicuous her unfortunate
choice and her great faults. She was remark
ably beautiful, graceful. witty and talented;
wrote with n certain wild yigor and earnest
ness conversed with an inexhaustible flow Of
feIcitous ideas and reckless wit; could de-
mean herself with dignity aud modest pro-
priety, and vet put no bounds to her capri
ciousness: her passion for dress, display and
admration-her love of excitement, and her
reckless disregard of the wholesome eXac-
tions which our society imposes upon women,
were her undoing Twice married, she soon
weared of what, 10 her imagination. seemed
a commonplace mode oflife. and contributed
largely to precipitate the ruin of her hus-
bands. One of them-who, three years ago.
entered upon the possession and enjoyment OF
a handsome property, bequeathed to him by
his father, tan eminent physlcian,) who de-
voted long life to the accumulation of an
estate, which, within few months after his
death, was squander. d in dissipation and
vice-is now an inmate of the Penitentiary
for henous crime.
But we need go no further with the details
of n career which has just closed IN SO dis
tressiug and yet impressive a manner. 1t Is
consoling to know that the poor woman 5
last hours were soothcd the bitter memories
of an ill-spent lie, misapplied talents were
assuaged by a sincere penitence and the con-
solutions of religion. May her life, her fate.
her sorrowfui end, be a terror and warning To
all young women who are induced to aban-
don the walks of domestic life and yield to
the allurements of dissipation and vice,
To the appetite for display aud parade, the
love OF excitement, aud the ambition To CON-
mand the homage of gross and sensuous
minds IN. o. Della.