The Tiffin tribune. (Tiffin, Ohio) 1868-1887, 1870-01-07
Rra,ns. and the Lack ef Them.

At twenty-one Starr Pastor married
He was the only son of fond, indul-
gent father, who looked upon his hand
some, talented boy as the direc1 gift
of God. for which he must one day
give an account, and so, naturally
did his best with the talent irtrusted
to his charge. And Starr was the
light of his fathers lonely home, from
the time when he stood by that faith
er's knee, to read and spell his daily
task, UP to this morning when he took
a wife to his heart and home, and de.
serted his fathers house forever.
They came together for the fathers
blessing-the stalWart and handsome
bridegroom, with his brave blue eyes
and his stern and steadfast faee-and
the delicate and timid bride, golden
haired and biue-eyed also, and with a
pinky, peach-blOssom beauty in heI
at her keenly, and then his sad eyes
turned upon the noble brow and eX-
pressive face of his only son, and his
heart sunk within him, though his
words were few. He blessed the hap
py pair and babe them adieu, and they
went forth to their own home, believ.
ing that the world would always look
as bright TO them as it did on this,
their happy bridal day. But the old
man, left lonely in his deserted home
looked out toward their future with 9
fearful eye.
BRAINS, and the lack of them," he
muttered. "The boy had but one life
AS fair and brave life as any man
could care to live-and he has thrown
it away for herI That pink and white
beauty viii fade away so very soon,
And then, how viii it end? An, me
and the boy might have been so great
and good manu-
Meantime the boy was happy-re.
manned happy for year or more. A
pSir Of blue eyes, a pair of rosy lips
and cheeks, wealth of golden hair,
and faint, some called it an insipid,
smile, made up his world just then;
and he gave fame and glory the go-by
for the sake of lOvei And then a few
months, and he, in his turn, was a
fatheri Life's greatest bliss and life's
greatest sorrow came to him together
with that precious gift. For it was
while he knelt, enraptured, beside the
cradle of his baby boy that he discOv-
cred, for the first time, how shallow,
and poor, and trivial the heart and
soul of the baby's mother were. 1t
was q bitter lesson to learn. He new
er breathed in mortal ear how much
the effort cost him.
The child whom he would have
trained in high aims and generous
impulses, the mother valued only as
an animated doll, on which she could
best display the achievements of a
tawdry and uncultivated taste. The
home, which he would have made the
elegant retirement of learned and
busy man, she wished to shape into
the gaudy 6OatdOir, where the woman
of fashion receives her Vapid friends.
For time he struggled against the
tide of folly and extravaganza, for his
little sons sake. Button the ripening
age of sixteen, just as he was learn
ing to be q comfort and consolation to
his fathers crushed and disappointed
heart-the child was not, for God took
himi
What then remained for this man,
whose early dreams had all faded;
whose sweetest and tenderest love
had been crushed; whose heart rebell-
ed and struggled against the blow that
broke it?
The bustling life of an eager, ambi-
tious politician became his own. His
name was the watchwOrd and rally
ing cry of a powerful party; his pas
sionate soul dominated and ruled his
subjects; his days and nights were full
of glorious dreams, which were all
fulfilled. The heart lay cherished and
buried in the grave of his darling
child, but the mind was keen, deci-
sive and imperial still. Much power
held he, and many a place. The soft
er hours of his life were dedicated to
those on whom he had no right to be-
stow them-and finally he died; and
left behind him, throughout the rec
ord of his great achievements, this
minor, melancholy chord, that tells
of the ruin and waste Of his nobler,
truest self. Calmly he sleeps now be-
side the child he loved so dearly, and
his wife is far happier in the home of
q second husband, whose name is
never heard beyond the circle of his
own immediate friends. Brains, and
the lack of themI The conjunction
worked a strange and deadly mischief
here.