Alexandria gazette. [volume] (Alexandria, D.C.) 1834-1974, 1872-09-06
Life Thoughts.
lSelections for the Gazette.

Life Thoughts.
Selections for the Gazette.
We know not what day will bring forth.
We can become familiar with landscape; We
know where to find the waterfall and the shady
ledge; where the violets grow in spring, and
the sassafras gives forth its order, but we never
can become familiar with our life-landscape
we never can tell where we shall come upon the
shady dell, or where the fountains will gush
and the birds sing. That is with God.
Raphael did well, and Phidas did well; but it
is not painter or sculptor who is making him
self most nobly immortal. 1t he who is max
ing true impressions upon the mind OF man;
frescoes for eternity that will not shine out till
the light of heaven reveals them; SCULPTURES
not wrought in outward things, but in the ln-
ward nature and character Of the soul.
Earthly love is briet and penurious stream,
which only flows in sprirg with long summer
drought. The change from burning desert,
treeless, springess, drear, to green fields and
blooming orchards in June, is slight in com
parison with that from the desert of this world S
affection to the garden of God, where there is
perpetual luxuriance of blessed love.
Success is full of promise till men get it, and
then it is last years nest, from which the
bird has flown.
The most miserable pettifogging in the world
is that of man in the c0r~t OF his own con-
science.
Some men think religion bears the same re-
latiou to life that flowers do to trees The tree
must grow through long. period before the
blossoming time; so they think religion is to be
a blossom just before death to secure heaven.
But the Bible represents religion not as the
latest fruit of life but as the whole Of fit-be-
ginning middle and end. 1t is simply right
living.
Great powers and natural gifts do not bring
privileges to their possessor so much as they
bring duties. 3.
the New York World, writing from Stonington,
Connecticut, gives some touching incidents re.
lating to the Mctis disaster:
As | walked to the village station this after
noon there was little knot Of men gathered
around four plain pine boxes which lay at one
end of the platform. They were discussing the
disaster in subdued tones, and one was leaning
against one Of the boxes. As | passed TALL
fne-looking man, who was standing at one end
Of it with bis eyes fixed upon the blue, sparkling
waters of the Sound, turned and said, IN
broken voice, please don't lean on that, gen.
tlemen, It's no harm, | know, but 10 that is all
that was my wife. p" His lip twlched, and
slouching his hat over his eyes be turned again
against the shore. There was a reverentlal pause
and the little crowd drew back, aud | saw that
the box was marked "Mrs. w. +. Sheridan,
Boston" Her story is one fthe saddest, it
there are degrees Of comparison in this acme
of misery. She, with her husband, was on the
hurricane deck, and clung to it for some time.
AS it fell in the trough of the sea huge wave
washed her away, leaving him safe IN his peril
Gus place of safety. He heard her call him
again and again, and he plunged In to tind her,
but in the darkness of the night he could not,
and her voice growing fainter and fainter warn
ed him to expect what he found the next
morning, when her body was picked up miles
from the scene of the wreck.
AS | turned from thissad sight two little cof
6ns were brought upon the depot One con-
tained the body of the little child of Mrs. Ger
rard, who fastened her two children to her bed
when the raft broke up and stl uck out tor
shore. This one was lost in the boiling surt,
which, after beating and luffeting il til its l'te
was gone, tossed it high upon the sands, and
mercilessly spared its mother and sister. ln
the other was the corpse of Laura Brasher, of
Boston, a child five years old, connected with
whose death is piteous tale. There were on
the propeller mother aud three children, one
Mamie Brasher, a lovely girl of eighteen, and
the others twins of the age mentioned. When
the vessel foundered these four were on the
hun iicane deck, each belted with life pre-
server. The mother took one child In her
a. us, the daughter the other, and hand in
hand they stood upon the fragile raft when it
was foated off upon the ocean. The first sea
that swept over them they withstood, but an
other quickly following bore them away. Still
clasping each other hands and clinglng tightly
to those they were .iskiDg their own lives to
save, they foated for some minutes, that
seemed hours, when a heavy spar dai ing
by struck one of the children, crushing
its head and killing it instantly. Still its
protector chung to it till heavier wave
buried them deep iu the water, and involunta-
ry they clung to each other for safety When
it had passed both children were gone Then
the mother aud daughter turned to each other,
but the exposure told fearfully upon the elder
woman, aud in little while she knew that she
must die. Her daughter endeavored to en-
courage her, but something more powerful
than words was wanting, and with the words
Trust the Saviour, Fannie she yielded, and
her head dropped upon her. breast. Her
daughter held her In her arms for hours, her
fast stifeDing hand clutched conyulslveiy IN
her hair, till at length they were torn apart,
and the daughter lost oil consciousness. She
had been 10 the water, eight hours when res
cued AM carried to the house of Rev. a. Il.
Palmer, in Stouington, where one of the infants
whose body was found was encofined. A tele-
gram brought her brother from Boston, who
had not learned that his family was on the
fated vessel, and whose first exclamation on
seeing his sister was, "Where is mother?"
JENNINGS EAU DENTRlFICE-An ele-