Bristol news. [volume] (Bristol, Va. & Tenn.) 1867-189?, 1872-02-02
jefferson I'm EoVc.

The great cool head which compos-
ed the Declaration of Indcpenpence,
seems to have had a heart beneath
it. The time was when Jefferson
was in love, and from the following
which we clip from the Atlantic
Monthly for February; he seems to
have felt about as helpless, and have
acted as ridicuiously as the most of
young men in that very serious con-
dition. EDITOR NEWS.
By James Parton.
When he had heen at home three
weeks he wrote a Short letter
which shows him reduced to sorry
plight indeed. He was torn with the
contest raging in his soul between his
passion and his judgment,a land he
plunges into letter, as it We're, head
foremost, seeking relief in converse
with his friend, with whom he had
been accustomed to exchange such con-
fidences: Dear Page, to tell you the
plain truth, | have not syllable to
write to you about 80 which was low
er's way of stating that bis heart was
full to bursting. 1" | do not conceive, 1"
he continues, "that anything can hap
pen in my world which you would
give curse to know" the aOOTjds of
these two friends were indeed unlike
for John Page. heir to one of the Iarg-
est estates, lived in the largest mansion
of all Virginia - Roosevelt - which
stands to this day near the banks OF the
York river, a vast square barrack, tree
less, fenceless, dismantled, q pile with
out inhabitant, a picture of desolatiOn.
" All things here, f" the distracted lover
went on, appear to me to trudge on
in one and the same round; we
rise in the morning that we may eat
breakfast, dinner, and supper, and go
to bed again that we may get up the
next morning and DO the same; so
that you never saw two peas more
alike than cur yesterday and to-day"
If he had nothing to tell, he had plen-
ty to ask. A jury of lovers would have
pronounced his situation serious in the
extreme. He was enamOTed of beau
ty and an heiress she, in the full lus-
tire of her charms; he, q youth not
twenty, of small estate heavily bur-
dened, reading the elementary book of
a profession requiring years of prepaI-
alton. Moreover, he had the usual
dream o. foreign travel. Before
settling to the business of life he
meant to visit Holland, France, Spain,
Italy-where he would buy "a good
fiddle" and then cross to Egypt, re-
turning home by way of the st Law
renee and Canada.
Such a tour would require two or
three years. Would she wait? Could
he ask her to wait? She must love
him very much to do that, and he did
not know that she loved him at all;
for the watch-paper meant nothing
particular, indicating friendly feeling
nothing more. What would dear
Page advise? Should he go at once to
town, receive his sentence, and end
this awful suspense? inclination
prompted this course; but if she rejec-
ted him, he would be ''ten times more
wretched thaneTer."
In this dilemma he had some
thoughts of going 70 Petersburg, "if
the actors go there in May" and
keeping OH to williamsburg for the
birthnight ball at the Apollo, which
of course, she would attend. But, az
ter all. bad not he and Page better so
abroad at once for a two or three
years tour? "If we should not
both be cured of love in that time, l
think the devil would be in it,"