The Manitowoc pilot. [volume] (Manitowoc, Wis.) 1859-1932, 1872-05-30
ELMA,s CORRESPONDENT.

aud brew; go to church Oh Sunday; to Lit
any on FrIday; and you have the sum to-
tai of my life, and into it there can come
no change" The speaker elevated her
feet to the fender, gave the FIRE a spiteful
| poke, and, resting the square cut chin upon
her hand, tsrned her face toward the
window.
1t was By no means prepossessng face;
young, undoubtedly, but wearing that old,
weary look common TO those whose uncon-
genial lives are not tempered by the sooth-
ing effects of piety. The dark eyes, meant
by nature to be tender and restful, were
| full of sullen discomfort No cheer met
wrathful skies poured down February
rain; thd bare branches of the the mulber-
| ry-trees, in .erlocked with sardonic groans,
ever and anon sending shivering tingle
against the window panes.
"Wel, grandmother must have her
breakfast" and the girl arose, and, picking
up piece of an old Waverley, began to fold
it for kettle holder, reading mechanically
as she did SO, " A young man of good po-
sition wishes to open correspondence with
some ladies with an ultimate view to ac-
quaintance."
"Bah p with q curl of the thin lips,
" how sick grow of these silly advertise
ments. Wonder he does not say, wealthy,
intelilgent-wlth view to matrimony,'
and thousands Of girls, all over the land,
would answer them, and, by so doing, de-
tract from the purity and delicacy which
should characterize our sex. | would ike
TO tell this fellow what some women think
of him for thus seeking to dupe into clan
dc>tine actions those who should claim
from him the greater pity, since they are
so weak. The writing such letter would
be II break in the monotony of this slug
gish life
And the letter was written. Full of
wrathful, scathing rebuke, signed simply
Rcproof, and sent, ere the night closed in,
to this Unknown" in c.. Then
the girl rested with sense of duty done,
nor ever expected to hear further from her
reprimand. What was her surprise to see
in the village paper, the next week, let
ter for " Rcproof' advertised as uncalled
for.
Impelled by curiosity she went for the
letter, and, not without some trepidation,
opened the compact envelope, from which
dropped two sheets closely written She
read them once and again, and was con
quered. Poor child. no such epstolary
feast had she ever enjoyed before. The
strange blending Of curtness and respect;
the manly self-vindication, sentiments Cf
noble yet critical appreciation of her sex;
cxtenuating circumstances causing him to
insert the card which had called forth her
auimadvcr>ions, ALL caused the girl to
feel a dim consciousness of awakening
from what Goethe calls the critical phase
of LIFE
Need we say she answered? And now
you know her whole history and you,
mother, home, friend, love environed wom-
en-, pass judgement and condemn, nor do
VIC seek to cxtenuate her conduct. A be-
ing formed with capacities the most enlarg-
ed, yet, like bell which is said to emit
fainter sound in the rarife3 atmosphere Of
some mountain summit, 50 her hard life
chilled every burst of poesy-every tender
offspring Of her intellect. Filled with as
piratlons for higher life, for the compan-
ionship Of the true and the beautiful The
frozen poetry in her heart needing but the
touch of Il more congenial life to awaken
| into glorious song. Yet was her existence
narrowed down to an unremitting struggle
with poverty and the care of two people,
| one childish and betridicn, the other, an
uncle, sordid, grasping, AMI narrow mind
ed
Before her this educated "Unknown,"
with his wide views of life, spread out re-
past exhaustlcss as mind. All her sensi.
tive, visionary nature quivering at the first
touch of a master hand which had written
Let me hear from you again perhaps on
! further acquaintance you will not find me
such an ogre as your ardent imagination
| has pictured me : she was tempted, and
maidcnly deicacy fell. We know of One,
before the unspeakable purity of whose life
and face sin fed abashed, and yet who said
to her, whose crime was greater, Neither
! do | condemn thee"
Letters were exchanged slowly at first,
generally full Of bitter carpings and burn
ing irony. He, a worldly man, who had
known little of any woman save the petted
hot-houSe plants of society, was piqued by
her cynicisms into an odd admiration for
this child of nature, bringing to him, so
tired of convcntonalisms, something Of the
sound of fresh winds from heath-elad hills
sharp but exhibiting. SO, allured in
spite of himself by some subtle charm in
her letters the correspondence was contin-
ued antil three Februaries had blowed and
clustered, the second taxing from Elma
her uncle, never loved, and yet whose death
threw upon her shoulders the task of Who'll
ly supporting her ageo graNmothcr, whose
lamp now fickered in the socket.
This burden she had discovered would be
impossible for her to maintain, when a
cousin in the far West, hearing of their
destitute condition, sent her timely and, that
enabled her to devote all her time to the
invalid and in lonely midnight watches by
that bedside was the great wherefore" of
her existence solved. Hunbly she laid
that intellect she had so assiduously cult
waited, with her chastened heart, at His
feet, who died to save. Henceforth life
| had now aims bar lorlx- 4