The south-western. [volume] (Shreveport, La.) 1852-1870, 1861-02-27
The Old Wifa,s Kiss.


prayer ceased, tears hastily wiped off of wet
cheeks ard long drawn sighs relieved suppressed and
choking sobs the mourners prepared to take leave
of the corpse.
1t was an old man thatlay there robed for the grave
More than three years had whtened those locks
and funowed that brow and made those still limbs
weary of liies Journey and all the more willing to lie
down to rest where WEAKNESS is suffered, and
infrmtes no longer burden.
The aged have but few to weep for them when they
die The most of those who would have mourned their
loss have gone the grave before them; hearts that
would have sighed sad harmonies, shattered and
gone; and the few that remain looking cradeward,
rather than graveyard to fes opening rather than
wards its joai bound to and living in the genera
ton rising, more than the generation departing.
Youth and beauty have many admirers while living,
and have many mourners when dying. Many fearful
eyes bend their confined clay; many sad hearts
follow in the funeral train But age has few admirers
and few mourners.
This was old man. and the circle Of Inourners was
small Two children who had themselves passed the
middle of life and who had children of their own to
care for and to be cared for by them. Besides these
and few friends who had and visited him while sick
and possibly had known him few years there was none
others to shed tear except his old wife And of this
small company the old wife seemed to be the only heart
mOurner 1t is respectable for friends to be sad few
minutes till the service is performed and the hearse ou
of sight 1t is very proper for children who have out
grown the feryent affection of youth to shed wher
an aged parent saws farewell and lies down quic
slumbers. Some recoectens of the past some transi
tory grief, and the paDg is over. Not always Bn
often how little true, genuine heart sorrow there is
The old wife arose with difficulty from her seat, anG
went to the coffin to look her last looko take her last
farewell Through the fast falling tears she gazed long
and ondv down into that pale unconscious face. What
did she there? Others nothing but the rigid fea
lures OF the dead she saw more. In every wrinkle o
that brow she the history of years From youth
manhood; from manhood to old age; in JOY and sorrow
in sickness and health it was all there; when those chill
dren who had Outgrown the sympathes of childhood
we're infants, lying her bOsom-and every year since
then-there it was. TO others, those dull, mute mon
tors unntelisbe; to her they the alphabet
of the heart-famar as household words
And then the future2 "What will become of me:
What shall do:' She did say so; sire did not say
anything but she felt it. The prospect of the old wife
is clouded The house circle is broken up never to be
Pented the visions of the hearthstone scattered
forever ppto that hour there home, TO which the
heart always turned with fondness But the magic tie
is sundered the keystone of that sacred arch is fallen
and now is nowhere this side of heaven What shall
the old wife do now? Go and live with her children; be
pensoncr upon their kindness where she may be more
of burden than blessing; at least she thinks Oh
shall she gather up the fragments of that broken arch
make them her temple and her shrine sit down in hen
chill solitude beside its expiring fires, and die? What
shall she do now?
They gently crowded hefaway from the dead and the
undertaken forward with the coffin lid in his hand
1t is all right and proper enough; of it must be
doneb to the heartmouFner brings kind of shHddt
a thrill of agony when the headSmaR comes orwarC
with the The undertaken stood moment with de
cent proprety wishing to manifest rude haste but
evidently desirous of being expeditions possible
Just then the cid wife turned back and STOPPING dowr
imprinted last long kiss upon the cold lips of hel
dead husband, then staggered to her seat buried hel
faaa IL, md tita frDI
her sight forever
That kissl Fond token of affection and sorrow, o
memory and farewell / have seen many kiss theil
dead-many such seas of love upon clay cold lips, bu
never did purely, 50 simply heart touching
and hopeless as that which looks beyond coftns anc
charnel houses and dark damp tombs the joys of the
home above You would kiss the coldchee OF infancy
There is poetryhcre it is the blasted rose budor the
pald cheek where beauty blushed There is romance
there for the faded flower is still beautiful In child
hood the heart yields to the stroke but recois again
elastic with faith, buoyant with hope. Bat there wa
no beauty, poetry, no romance. The heart of thC
old wife like the weary swimmer whose strength
has often raised him above stormy waves but now ex
hausted sinks among the surges.
Why should the oIdloye the old or kiss thc cold TN
loving lips? All, why shouldn't they? Does the trut
heart feel the nfrmtes of ycars Does grow dull
cold, when the steps become unsteady and the hand
hang down? Who shall say that the heart of the ole
wife was not young and warm in those early ant
brighter days when he woOed and won he? The temple
of her earthly hope had fallen, what despondeney
among its lonely ruins and weep and await the dawnina
of another day when hand divine shall gather its
tered dust and rebuild for Immortality its broken walls
Many the cid wies kiss that linked the living with the
dead be the token of hoer tie that shall bind their
spirits in that better world where tears wiped from
all faces and the days OF their mourning are ended.
Nor BEYOND THE Power OF LovE.-Mr Cough, III
of his recent lectures proceeded oconue the idea
that drunkards far brutcs to be bevend the
power of christian love, saying:
No. they not bruteS. have labored foreighteen
years among them, and have never found a brute.
have had men swear at me; have had dance around
if possessed of devil, and spit his foam in my
face but have found man would give up.
1t NAV take long time to reach his n1anhood but he
is not brute think it is Charles Dickens who says
Away up great many pair of stairs in very remote
corner, easily passed by, there rs door ard that
door is written, "weman." And SO in the heart of the
ves outcast away up great many pair of stairs, in
remote corner easily passed by there door on which
is written ''man."
long time; but begin and knock Don't get tired but
remember Gods long suferingto us and keep knocking
long time if need be- Don't get weary There is
answer remember him whose locks were wet with dew.
Knock on-just try it-you try it, and just so sure as
you do Just sure byandby will the quyering lip and
heart of man. and not of brute. tits because these
poor wretches are men, and not brues, that he have
hopes Of them.
once picked up man in the market place They
said she is a brute-let him alone" took him home
with me and kept the "brue fourteen DAYS and nights
through his dclirium; and he nearly frightened my wife
of her wits night chasing her about the house
with boot in his hand But she recovered her wits,
and he recovered his
He said to me-"You wouldn think had wife and
child?"
''Well, l shouldn't"
II have, and-God bless her dear little heart-mv
little Mary is as pretty little thing as ever stepped
said the brute"
l asked-"where do you ve?p
"They live two miles away from here
''When did you see them last?"
"About two years ago"
Then he told me his sad story.
said-''Yeu must so back again.
81 mustn't 90 back-I won't-p,y wiEeis better with
out me than with ME! I viii net 90 back any more
have Knocked her and kicked her. and abused her. do
YOU suppose will go back againsn
| went to the house with him knocked at the door
and his wife opened it.
''Is this Mrs. richardson
Eyes, sir"
"Well, that is Mr., Richardson And Mr. Richardson,
this is Mrs. Richafdson. Now come into the house,
They went IN. The wife sat on one side Of tire room
and the brute on the other. l waited to see vino
would speak first; and it was the woman. But before
she spoke, she dgeted great deal She pulled up her