Daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, Va. [W. Va.]) 1859-1865, 1859-12-31


ohet u ders of tie l1teliigen-
I.esr; new tFanst6tion written. for us, OF
Jean Paul 70 New ears Night THEREIN
dering is more faithful to the original, we
believe, than that of the old translation:
An old man stood in the New Years
midnight, at the window, and shivering,
looked out upon the infexible, eternally
brilliant Heavens, and down upon the pure
white silent Earth, where woke that night
| none so wretched or slcepless MS he. For
his grave stood near to him his head was
white with the SHOWS of age: yet from ont
!sof all hisswholosrich life..h he had brought
nothing but failing aud crime, a shattered
body, desolated soul, a heart full of
malice, aud an old age of remorse. Yet
bright vision before him. He stood again
by his fathers side in the dear morning
where the two paths of Life cross. Upon
the right, tho sun-lit path of the Right,
stretched far away into a land of rest,
filled with bright and cleaning angels; but
the other path rendered through the dreary
waste into deeper, blacker depths, full of
sultry vdPours. And now, tonight, with
the. poison of those lost abodes in his
heart, he knew which path he had chosen,
and trodden to its end. Mad, with an unut-
ternble agony, he cried to Heaven aloud,
"Give me but my childhood once againi-
Let me stand once again, oh, my father, at
the crossing of the paths, that l may
choose my wayw But his childhood was
long since gone. He saw the swamp-fires
dancing and shining upon the graves in
the churchYard, and he sighed, sThcy are
my wasted days" A star fell glittering.
from Heaven, and in its fall faded and van
Tahn 81 L.,
ruined soul, and the wound throbbed
sharper in his heart. Far over the fields
a wind mill lifted its weary arms in dreary,
dumb supplication to the skies. In his
terror stricken eyes, horrid shadows crept
towards him on the thatch, aud skull
which lay below in the church yard began
to clOthc itself i'll his features. Suddenly,
in the midst of his terror, there broke
from the church tower u peal of joyous
harmonv-a mighty anthem of thanksgiY-
ing for the New Year. 1t died softly
away, it rose and swept With reYerberating
harmony out over the white still earth, to
the horizon. Then he remembered the
friends of his youth, and thought that now
they were teachers in the world, strong
loving men, fathers of happy children, and
he cried bitterly, 81 also might have look
cd on the New Year with dry eyes.
also, oh my Father, might have been as
they"
In feverish fancy the memories of his
youth arose; the skull glowed and freshen-
cd into the soft rosy face of his boyhood;
the bright smile he wore when he left his
native village for the far Off city. He
could look no more; he hid his face with
his hands, burning tears streamed down
his checks; he only could sob out wildly,
"Come again, oh my youth, come once
again ]" And it came again, for in the
New Years night he had but fcarfully
dreamed; he was still youth. But his
sins and errors were no dream. Then he
thanked God that he was still young; that
he could yet turn from the path of vice and
enter the sunlightcd road that in the dim
land of rest and angels ended.
Then, too! Thou who standest in the
early morning where the paths divide
his dream may become 10 thee one day
reality, and the hour may come when thou
shalt cry with the bitterest mourning,
Come again, oh my youth, return but
once again !" But to thee it shall return
no more forever.