Delaware gazette. [volume] (Delaware, Ohio) 1855-1886, 1860-11-09
WRITTEN ZOE THE DELAWARE GAzETTK.
CLYDE PAPERS, NO. vi.
Nellie CIyde's Obituary.


BY KITTY cLYDE's COUSIN.
Reader, I am dead. died last night, and
as knew certainly was going to die, wrote
my obituary. And why not a person write,
his own obituary? DR.. johnson says, at
forty, fool or a physician" l would say at
death fool or selfknowledge. Is it sacrili-
gious2 more SO I wonder than the lying tomb
stones our friends erect, and the quarter of q
column in the newspaper that is correct only
in its dates. Let us pile the sod silently GA
those that are gone, and leave them to deal
with themselves.
Nellie Clyde lie dead!" the news will run
from one to another, but no white lips will
speak it and for fear that an obituary writer
(some people have q mania for these things,
just as Hoods hero had for hangings,) might
not let me rest in peace, l determined to do
the deed myself.
Nellie Clyde was born in Fogtown. so called
by the people of this world. the 10th of June
1876, and lived there the most of her life, and
when she left the atmosphere of her native
place clung to her. As Charles the FIRST was
always getting into Mr. Dicks memorial, so
the fog of her birthplace always got before
her eyes and she could not see as others saw.
Perhaps the fog penetrated to the intellect also,
for those things that seemed clear as the shi-
ming heavens to others were to her incompre-
hensible-what was The object of life. how
best to accomplish that object-the true rela-
tions she held to her fellow creatures-what to
do with the multiplication of contradictory de-
mands made upon her-was it all wrong, or
L ,Lok
right-were the laws of truth and justice
immutable or no, if SO, how account for
the doings of many an honorable Brutus
What was the value of money, position
celebrity, &c.,-had Gunnybags the truth
or was old Diogenes nearer to it2 These
and thousand other things in which
the laws of God and customs of men
seemed at loggerheads, so bewildered the old
lady of Fogtown and led her up and down !;
now under the influence of the 6gments of the
world, and now under the logic of truth that
she was tempted to curse, not her God accor-
ding to Jobs friends, but her plain old father
and mother, of Fogtown, who had taught her
the awful responsibilities of life, and the exa-
tedness of truth and honesty in little things as
well az great; in individuals as well as Bationsi
in buying and selling and the every day hospi-
talities of life as well as in matters Of church
and State-anJ that houses aud lands and well
filed ceffers and adulations are very eonven-
lent appur,enances TO life, but not the thing
itself-that there il difference between
principles and impulse, that she was work
| ing out the will of God and must trust
| him for the result. She was tempted when
/ she saw the nonsense of such preccpfs applied
to life as lived to curse her prcceptors and die
/ But this dying is not such an easy matter; you
may cslll for death and he will not come, as
many love-sick swain and disappointed
i philosopher has proved.
Nellie was educated at the academy in good
old Fogtown and knew her catechism by heart
and could card, spin, wcavt., eiiuru aud make
cheese sang in the gallery, and every sunday
| divided her bunch of fennel with the children
tn gcep them quiet, and taken all in all was as
exemplary damsel as the town afforded -
She never married for the simple reason that
no one had asked her to share his heart and
home. 1t is immaterial to the world whether
this cause of sorrow 10 her or not. L
so, she bore it meckiv, thanking God that tic
vouclisafed TO keep her from the greater sin o
maids, that as Richter says. it is better not to
avoid :. unweddedness by untrnthfulness." and
there is a greater woe than lonely hearth
and chidless heart. The sunlight is pleasant
and flowers, grass, freshness and Joy follow its
way. but better never feel its rays than bt
blinded by its effulgence and thy after-life rem
dered desert, arid, desolate and ruined
There is not SO sad sight as a husbandes
wife; worse by far than the living Roman
bound to the dead is party to these legalizet
compacts, that are no marriages before God.
There were but two events of any impor
tauce in Nellie's life-the coming and going
the beginning and the end. Nellie died, bu
whether of fever or Group apopexy or congo
tion. MATES not. Her spirit slipped out o
its-case about midnight and hoated off alon
in the uncertain vastness of outer space, withou
guide. 1t was conscious of new power,
change of relations, but felt no shock, or won
derful transition. 1t was itself and yet NOR
than its former self. It was ignorant of loca
tiles other than its old world, and hung aroun
the earthly atmosphere, as a new hedged bir
fingers around its nest before poisng its wing
y for flight towards the sun, until other spirit
!, came floating along from whom it learne
!, something of IFS new situation, receiving thei
= ideas directly, an impression from spirit
spirit, somewhat as picture is daguerreotype
on metal. 1t found itself in different localitit
; where it wished to be in second of time, an
rambled off in the near and distant in scare
!, :, of those il knew on Garth. 1t looked in val
in the lower regions for Heinrich Heines RAJ
!, ges. where Jews and Christians were boilin
in huge pots while the fires were kept brigl
Z By fallen angels continually stirring the coal
aud searched there unsuccessfully for Parker
> Brother Zcrabable Bandbox, that type of Ne
: England hypocrits, and learned in momei
y :, the vanity of mans theories, and fallbility
u his judgments. 1t found in the regions of Il
y Everday those who in passing on earth it hs
W gathered up its skirts from contact, thankir
God it was not as they, and saw those wi
once it believed grounded in truth and justie
torn by earthly passions, all of which TIN
es had brought with them from their former Ii
VS. leaving all of its good behind 1t float
US back to the earthly atmosphere, through t
k, strata of light and darkness caused by t
n shadow and intervening space between t
be suns satellites, down amid light air and gold
or feeecy clouds skimmering in sunlight, to t
ry heavy, damp contracted earth bounds, a
he rested in air above the bed on which lay
10, old tenement, wound for the grave, and loc
q ed upon it much as one person would look u
il on another, wondering that the mirror
he never reflected the deformed thing correc
ed with its large mouth, high cheek bones, i
IN, forehead, straight eyebrows, and project
,e- upper jaw, uneven shoulders and sunken che
. Kitty and Minnie sat one on either side of
his bed, their cheeks were stained by recently 81
nd tears, but just then their eyes were dry, a
er- both were looking at the white hollow face
an tween them.