The weekly north Iowa times. [volume] (McGregor, Iowa) 1857-1867, 1863-05-27
The Old Wife's Kiss.

| The Old "ife's Kiss.
The funeral services were ended, and a:
the voice of prayer ceased, tears were hasti
ly wiped from wet cheeks, and long drawr
sighs relieved suppressed and choking
sobs, as the ''mourners' prepared to take
leave of the corpse.
1t was an old man who lay there, robed
for the grave. More than three-scor year,
had whitened those locks, and furrowed tia,
brow, and made those stiff limbs weary OF
lite's journey, and all the more willing to liz
down and rest where weariness is no mory
suffered, and infrmities are no longer q
burden.
The aged have but few to weep for them
when they die. The most of those who
would have monrned their loss, have gone
to. the grave before them; harps that would
have sighed sad harmonies are shattered
and gone; and the few that rerain are
looking cradeward rather than to life's
closing goal; are bound to, and living in the
generation rising, more than in the genera.
ton departing.
Youth and beauty have many admirers
while living have many mourners when
dying; and many fearful ones bend over
their coffined clay-many sad hearts follow
in their funeral train. But age has few ad
mirers, few mourners.
This was an old man, and the circle of
mourners was small. Two children who
had themselves passed the middle of life,
and who had children of their own to care
for and be cared for by them. Besides
these, and a few friends who had seen and
visited him while he was sick, and possibly
had known him for few years, there were
none others to shed a tear, except his old
wife. And OF this small company, the old
wife seemed to be the only heart mourner.
1t is respectful for friends to be sad for
few moments, till the service is per formed
and the hearse out of sight. 1t is very
proper and suitable for children who have
outgrown the fervency and affections of
youth, to shed tears when an aged parent
says farewell, and lies down to quiet slum-
berS. Some regrets, some recollection of
the past, some transltory grief, and the
pangs are over. Not always so. But
often, how little true genuine heart sorrow
there is!
The old wife arose with. difficulty from
her seat, and went to the coffin to look her
last look-to take her last farewell
Through the fast falling tears she gazed long
and fondly down into that pale, unconscious
face. What did she see there? Others
saw nothing but the rigid 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 age; in JOY and sorrow, in sickness and
health-it was all there; when those chill
dren, who had not quite outgrown the sym.
pathies Of childhood, were infants lying on
her bosom, and every year since then
there it was! To others, those dull mute
monitors were unintelligble to her they
were the alphabet Of the heart, familiar as
household words.
And then the future! "What will be-
come Of me? What shall I do now ~
She did not say so-she did not say any
thing-but she felt it, The prospect of The
old wife is cloudcd. The home circle is
broken, never to be reunited; the visions
of the hearth stone are scattered forever
Up to that hour there was home to which
the heart always turned with fondness.-
But that magic is sundered; the keystone
Of that sacred arch has Eaffen, and now
home is no where this side of heaven -
What children? be pensioner upon their
Il
den than blessing, so, at least, she thinks
Or shall she gather up the scattered frag
ments of that broken arch, make them her
temple and her shrine; sit down in her chill
solitude beside its expiring fires, and die
What shall she do now?
They gently crowded her away from the
dead, and the undertaken came forward with
the cotlin,lid in his hand. 1t is all right
and proper-of course-it must be done
but to the heart -mourncr, it brings kind
Of shuddcr, thrill of agony, as when the
headsman comes forward with his ak =
The undertaken stood for a moment, with
a decent propriety, not wishing to manifest
rude haste, but evidently desirous Of being
as expeditions as possible. Jus. as he was
about to close the coffin, the old wife turn
ed back, and STOPPING down, imprinted one
long, last kiss upon the cold lips of hei
dead husband, then staggered to her seat,
buried her face in her hands, and the
closing coffin hid him from her sight for,
ever.
That kiss Fond token of affection, and
of sorrow, and memory, and farewell?
have seen many kiss their dead-many such
seals of love upon clay cold lips--but never
did see one so purely sad, so simply heart
touching and hopeless as that! Or, if il
had hope, it was that which looks beyond
cotfins and charnel houses, and damp, dark
tombs, to the joys of the home above
You would kiss the cold cheek of infancy
there is romance there for the faded howel
is still beautiful! In childhood the hear
yields to the stroke of sorrow but rccoil
again, elastic with faith, buoyant with hope
| But here was no beauty, no poetry, no TO
nance. The heart of the old wife was lik,
the weary swimmer, whose strength ha:
often raised him above the stormy waves
but now exhausted, sinks amid the sur
ges.
Why should the old love the old, or kiss
the old unloving lips? All! why shouldn'
they? Does affection grow old? Does tn,
true heart feel the infirmity of years p
Does it grow old when the step become.
unsteady, and the hands hang down p
Who shall say that the heart of the ole
wife was not as young and warm as in thos,
early and brighter days, when he wooel
and won her! The temple of her earthl,
hopes had fallen; and what was there let
for her but to sit down in despondency
among its lonely ruins, and weep and die
Or, in the spirit Of better hope, await tn
dawning of another day, when hand divine
shall gather its sacred dust, and rebuild fo
Immortality its broken walls.
! May the old wite's kiss, that linked tn,
Iliving with the dead, be the token of :
holier tie, that shall bind their spirits il
that better land where tears are wiped from
all faces, and the days Of their mournn!
are ended
| e Among the volunteer Ethiops from
Lake Providence was one who said he wa.
Methodist preacher, and wanted the posi-
ton Of chaplain to his colored brethren ii
arms. He received temporary appoint
ment and forthwith commence a vigorou.