Mineral Point weekly tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1859-1868, 1864-08-24

would rather Martin Byington had stabbed
me than spoken those words
And Bvinston, innocently smoking his cigar
on the platform of the lightning train, mar
yelled at the shadow that lay upon the Cap
taIn's stern, set face.
Kate Eytinge was receiving IN sky-D!ue
silk and sapphires-" receiving the gay
world of her acquaintance a. ioyously as II
no pail stretched its black darkness over the
country'S horizon. And Captain VIVIAN stoou
in the recess of a superb bay window whose
blossomed myrtles made sort OF green wall
10 exclude the crowd beyond, and surveyed
the swaying multitude with bitter curve to
his lip.
tbs looks like keeping the pledge" he
said, scornfully, as Byington came up to look
for a dropped fan.
q told you So" said the young man, shrug-
giug his shoulders
Captain Vivian looked toward the door
he was tall enough TO insure pretty favora-
bic prospectus Olive Byington foated in,
the rich folds Of her maize colored silk rip
ping over the carpet like sunshine, while the
point-lace shawl that dropped from her per-
fectlv moulded shoulders was clasped with
/ the golden sparkle of superb Oriental topaz
I Walter Vivian gave but one glance, and
then turned away with a feeling very like
disgust at his heart.
/ Suddenly familiar appellation struck on
his ear, sending the hot blood II torrent 10
/ his sunburnt forehead.
1t IS Clara Meade, with Miss Byington
But what is she wearing Pale-blue silk?H
:. No; il looks like grensdine, and yet it
isn't What can it be India crape?"
" Fiddlestickl !" said plain Mrs Vaudeville.
Don't you see it's blue calico, with little
white check all over it: Now that's what |
call good common sense"
The sbeau monde, gorgeous in moire
Z and -hf hmm aFIu ola cd
and silent Clara Meade quietly moved up
the long room on her fathers arm Calico
And at full-dress reception Why, who
; ever heard of such thing:
And then came murmur of scarcely re
pressed admiration-a spontaneous tribute of
applause to the girls simple beauty. Clara
/ Meade had triumphed over Mrs Grundy,
| Madam Greenback, and Company.
For she looked strangely lovely in the
pale blue dress, with is delicate edging of
! lace at throat and wrists, and the creamy
| water-lily twisted in her shining brown curls,
/ q dream of the Lotus Isles. No jewel spark
ed on her breast, only knot of waxed lily
buds; yet all the pearls of the East could
not have improved that spray of graceful
buds.
calico, ehs" laughed Kate Eytinge,
archly surveying her friend. 81 see YOU
have enrolled your name On the Pledge
" have,' said Clara, calmly " and | in
tend TO observe its regulations"
As she turned away, her hand was drawn
lightly within an arm that trembled slightly
in its Herculean strength. She looked up,
with a sudden blush, through which there
glowed the sunbeam of a radiant smile.
Captain Vivian
- Clara. pardon me but / have only this
| evening TO stay With you, and have so much
| to say
Martin Byington would not have thought
! the Young officers eve stern could he have
/ seen the tender brightness that iliumines the
/ dark iridS And Claras glance fell be
meath it. as you sometimes shrink from the
| welcome intensity of the gentlest sunshine.
/ 81 scarcely know how to thank you for
/ this, he said, inclining his head toward the
folds OF her azure dress; but II is a surety
TO me that your heart is in our cause
1t has given me new hope and strength,
Clara"
lie stopped to pick up the bunch Of lily
buds that had fallen from her bosom.
81 should like TO keep these, Clara"
Keep them, Captain Vivian"
He gave them back to her silently. She
looked up in tiunid surprise, half fearing that
she had unwittingiy offended him.
' | don't want them, unless you will give
me something else with them, Clara"
Something else 2 she repeated, wonder
ingly.
our IeaTL, dearest
She looked downward, rosy as an eglantiue,
and then gathered up the cream-tinted buds
and laid them gently in his hand
So Walter Vivian proposed and
ceDted and the moving crowd of tashiOnables
around him had not the slightest idea of what
was going on And Clara is to be married in
the identical blue calico dress-at least 30
Captain Vivian DEGREES ii, and husbands-elect
generally get their own way in such matters,
And the tro,aseau, greatly to Olive Byington's
horror Is to Be of d" domestic manufacture"
throughout.
1t will be so o,ety,e," sighed Olive; land
yet-I don't kuow-if signing the Pledge
would get me half such a splendid husband
as Clara has won I'd go into calico for the
rest Of my days."
WHAT a DIRTY SET THEY ARE There
was no installing the tones, The words were
scornfullv-alao st bitterly-spoken, and the
speaker pressed the skirts of her costly dress
close 10 her person so to escape the touch
of the boys in blue" Tone, look, and man
ner could not have expressed more, had eaah
soldier as he tTamped YEARLY by, been the
embodiment OF Infection We were anger
Cd az first, and then grew sad as we looked
upon the beautiful and richly arrayed speak
er. Such was not the type of womanhood
hich gave Us the fathers, husbands, broth
ers, sons, and lovers, who trod the wilderness
OF carnage for seven long years that their
children might enter into and possess the
/ land of Freedom She was fair to look upon
/ but We turned from her with pity and loath-
/ ing. With life would end her history. Like
! the worthless bauble that she was she would
/ be forgotten when the Nightingales of our
/ hospitals and the mothers of our Gracchi
/ shall live in the scripture of Fame. The
| costly pin that rose and fell upon her indig-
| naut bosom, was a mockery by the side of
/ the broken plumes of the cavalrymen from
/ the war And, as turned from her cost
/ Iy trapping, 70 the worn and faded ones
of the troopers, each of the latter
! grew into knight of more than king
/ ly mien, and the begrimed blue was touched
with the kin ling halo of the glory of hero
/ ism. They were the weary, worn, soiled
I children of the Republic, scanned in conflict,
/ broDzed in battle glare; the fragments of
\ history whose chapters shall record the high
I est nd hottest sacrifices of heroic devotion
and patriotic martyrdom. Dirty set "
/ God forgive the unworthy daughter of per
He'd Republic. We could have kissed each
I swarthy cheek, and with brow reverentlv
1 bowed in their iron hardened palms, wept our
/ gratitude for what they had suffered. The