Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1868-11-21
Hiatofisl.
Histofies
From the Old GuardJ
"And what's her history =
"A LII -. lanI y


"A blank, my lord.
No, long since / was in at neighbor
Smiths while waiting for him TO come
in from the feld-for be Was an honest
farmer-I turned to the family record 10
The old bible lying on the stand ahd read,
"Jobn Smith, born Jan. Sd, 1885," then
,prned over the blank leaves and read,
"Jobn Smith, died May lst, 1866" And
what was HIS history2 All its record
was on the blank pages; what was ms
history2 A blank-a mathematical line
between two points, birth and death q
gasp from too much air, and gasp from
the want Of It, / knew this John smith I;
in spite Of his name and parentiage, he
was dandy, walking advertisement
for his tailor. He could dance divinely,
could flirt lady's fan almost like lady,
and won the heart Of many boarding.
school miss by the grace with which he
lifted his hat Yet this faultless suit oil
clothes, calling. himself man-this was
horn and died. He was born, had that
sublime destiny. life, for more than q
quarter of a century; life in this world
of struggles and temptations, and sor-
rows, and sacrifices, in a place to weep
and pray, and work and love in. This
John Smith had the chance Of Martin
Luther, of John Wesley, of q George
Washington; yes, of patriot battling
against overwhelming odds for the right
He died-and what was his history A
blank. Bah I'd rather be "a cbroni-
cler of small beer" than his same John
Smith.
As for the mere fashionable woman,
who spends her days in slipshod novel
reading, and her nights in round q
misnamed pleasures; the condensed
record of her life would not match that
one sentence commendatory OF Don
Ouixote's lady-love: "This dulcins del
Iobosa was said to have been the best
hand at sailing pork in Lamancha."
The millionsire's history-surely that
cant be q blank--he toiled earnestly and
lste-he made money-wby If his his
torv is blank, what do you call a
record2 he was born and be died
born to cheat and lie, and grasp and
qouge, died to rot under monument
pale as the face of the widow he made
homeless; hard as the orphans pillow
ont under the stars, almost as hard as his
own heart, on which no record OF good
could be craven. Better for him would
it be were history blank. But he lived
his life; be made money.
The professed politicians history, the
rssults of his life, had best be given in
the old picture-writing. THE entering
wedge "a frsgmentary union "a pars-
dox impossible to painO-fercely con-
tending armies-a black mass moving
in solid phslanx to the polls-stop the
wickedest shall net live out half his
dsys." and that record shall not be COM
pleted. Enough has been written to
make him wish to all eternity that his
history had been blank.
The inebriate's history, He was born
a mamie died a brute" 1t was
happy thought of the Assyrisns, the
forming of their drinking vessels in the
shane Of lions or bulls head it was
Git that the spirit that made men beasts
should come from the head of beast.
Much has been written by spter pens
than mine of the flank that many a wo-
mans life must be. ! think must is too
strong a word. Were woman | would
hoe potatoes, pick stones take in sewing,
teach school, turn book-keeper or clerk,
do anything but teach under the Freed
mems Bureau, rather than stagnate In
country or town in "green and yellow
melancholy" till it is even pleasure to
have ones soul stirred by the stones of
gossip cast at an erring sister. Yet 1t
p trne that women have too little room
for the exercise of their energies. There
Is nv Southern friend Miss -. Set
her TO teaching school; as soon tie a
streak of chain-lightning to dog-churn.
Why she has within her the spirit OF
'76" men, and would sign Declaration
of Independence without tremor were
a hundred muskets pointing at her. All
had we few men of her stamp there
would be no whining over "lost cause.
BIT her life has not been a blank-he-
roines and heroes must leave their re-
cortland depend upon IT, now she IS
oenniless. che will not rest in depend
euce, or whine over her sacrifices, but
will find something to do.
Many seemingly blank histories are
crowded records in sympathetIc ink, that
need but the eye Of the Eternal to rest
upon them to make them glow in beauty,
like old illuminated manuscripts. Some
ara palimpsests, with record upon record.
Could that pslimpsest, your mind, dear
reader, be read, as it will one day be, the
Heather, the In6del, the Christian
record, all restored, ! hope that the last
record would be the Christian; the others
out the erased writings OF your dead sell
Your history need not be blank
There is a place somewhere, in some
graveyard. or down in the ocean depths,
awaiting your lifeless body; there is q
Mace somewhere on the other side Of the
river. awaiting your immortal soul; but
now noble deeds are to be wrought; pure
thoughts are to be thought; brave, true,
kind words are to be spoken; and you
are to perform the deeds, think the
tboughts' and sneak the words