The Emporia news. [volume] (Emporia, Kan.) 1859-1881, 1870-01-07
oTT1L1As PILGRIMAGE.
BY JUSTIN MCCARTHY.

Ottilia Westfeldt was a Swedish
girl who might, indeed, have been fairly
taken as a feminine symbol of Sweden
and the fair-haired North. think il
an artist were to- seek for q tyre and
emblem of Swedish womanhood lie
could hardly find a purer and Nnore
charming representative of 1t than this
handsome girl. She hId smooth golden
hair, not of the tawny tow which has
grown to be such a favorite just now !;
but so smooth and yellow that il really
looked like dead gOld-Ieaf Oh each side
uf her white forehead. Her face had a
clear, decided outline, with features
regular. but somewhat large; and her
eyes were deeply blue, genuine and
nmistakable blue. One finds it hard to
think of a Madonna. in & northern CHI
MAZE; but If there could be such a
thing conceivable, Otiilia might lave
passed as IA fair embodiment of Il Stan
dinaVian Madonna. She lived in
Stockholm with her father, and had
now no mother, brother or sister. Her
father had married very young, and
Hvas still so far removed from any ap-
pearance of age, and was SO constant a
companion of his daughter, that people
said he might have passed for her elder
brother: and he was always pleased to
hear this said, and rather proud of it.
Ottilia's father had one or two marked
peculiaFities. He was, for one thing.
an ardent republican. Not that he had
any objection to the government OF
Sweden or to the decendent of Berna-
dotte-Oscar the First-who sat on the
throne during the early manhood and
prime of Christian Westfeldt; or to
Charles the Fifteenth, who succeeded
him but that he has sincere and i'm
FASHIONED voiary of republicanism.
Being a votary of republicanism he was
naturally devoted admirer of the Uni
ted States. At all times and in every
civilized country, since the days when
Washington, Lafayette, and Kosciusco
fought side by side, there can be found
a group, or groups, or masses of think
ing men, to whom the republic of Amer
lea has always shone like the polar star
of freedom. For there are two distinct
classes of republicans in mOnarchical,
and more especially in despotic, coun-
tries. The one class have always been
captivated by the glitter, the lyrical
splendor, the lofty, vague aspirations.
the majestic, unsubstantial pageant OF
human brotherhood, which belong to
what I may call, for want of better
phrase, French republicanism. The 9th
er have always found their ideal in the
sale truth and reality of the American
republic. l wonder if all Americans
are aware of the fact that in every Eu-
ropean state, however small, there are,
ard for generations always have been,
men bound together. often unconscious
ly, in the bonds1of a brotherhood almost
like that of freemasonry-the brother
hood of devotion TO the American re-
public.
Christian Westfeldt was one of these.
and his daughter Ottilia imbibed all his
sentiments. and reproduced them with
even a more passionate and romantic
tinge about them. Moreover, her father
and herself were intimate friends of the
good and true Fredrika Bremen, that
symbol in literature and life of the SIM
pie, benefcent womanhood of tn"
North and Ottilia, brought up almost
ut the feet of Miss Bremen, had learned
from her to love many places and peo-
pie in America as if she had seen and
Known them.
Ottilia led singularly calm and hap
py life up to her eighteenth year. In
deed existence seemed to lie before her
smooth and calm as quiet inland lake.
Her fathers modest means suficed TO
keep them becomingly in the unpreten-
tious, intelligent, cultured. social circle
to which they belonged. She was soon
TO be married to one whom she dearly
loved--a gallant, brave Young Swede.
who had been educated in one of the
military academies, and was to have
been an officer of engineers, but had
given up a military career al the express
desire of OtfiIia and her father, and was
now becoming successful man in rail
way and other engineering of civil
kind. Nothing whatever occurred that
even threatened a danger to the happi-
ness of these tranquil lovers until tie
early part of the year 1861.
Do you remember that fine passage in
one of Macaulay's essays in which he IL
Illustrates the widespread, almost uni
the reckless ambition of Frederick the
Great. and declares that red men on The
shores of Ontario. who had never heard
of Frederick's name scalped and tor
tured each other because of his quarrel
Not quite so remarkable, yet still re-
narkable, is the fact that the political
ambition of jefferson Davis and his COL
leagues shattered in a moment the
whole earthly scheme of happy, tran
quill little group living In picturesque
suburb of the capital of Sweden.
The secession war blazed out, and OF
tilia and her father saw their long-cher-
lSHcU lQOl aOOuS 10 DC OTOhcHs lHcf
felt the news as they might have felt a
Russian or French invasion of Sweden.
1t was an evening of early spring that
Eric Swenson, the lover, stood with OF
tiiia aud WestfeIdt in a room as yet on
ly lighted by the moon and the glitter
ing stars, and spoke of the reasonable
conspiracy against the American Union
and there was one thought, vet unspo-
ken, in the breast of all. Yet q few, 8
very few months, and Ottilia and Eric
were to be married. Eric looked ct her
was about to speak out his thoughts
then hesitated and shrank from it.
Their eyes met. Then it was Ottilia
who spoke:
SCan we do nothing, any of u.s." she
said, impetuousIy, - for the great re-
public 2"
81 can do something" cried Eric.
until you spoke / hardly dared 10 Of