Marshall County Republican. (Plymouth, Ind.) 1856-1878, 1873-04-10
P0ETIcAL COLUMN.
HANNAH JANE.
By PETROLEUM v. MASSEY.

LABEL MERRIwEATHER, Representative In Con
gress from the Thirty-third District of indiana
Lawyer, Writer, Orator--solves one Social Problem
She isn't half so handsome as when, twenty wears
d agone,
At her old home in Piketon Parson Avery made us
one;
The great house crowded full of guests of every de.
gree,
The girls all envying Hannah Jane, the BOYS all en-
vying me.
Her fingers then were taper, and her skin was
white as milk,
Her brown hair-what mess it was anG soft and
fine as silk;
No "ind-moyed willow by brook had ever such a
grace.
The form of Aphrodite, with pure Madonna face
She had but meager schooling; her little notes to
Were full of crooked pot hooks and the worst Or
biography.
Her "dear" she spelled with double E. and .eziss,
with but ones;
But when ones crazed with passion what's lo+,a
more or less?
! She blundered in her writing and she blundered
when she spoke,
And every rule of syntax that old Murray made she
broke;
But she was beautiful AMI fresh, and I-weu. was
Youny
Her form and face o'erbalanced all the bunders of
her tongue.
was but little better. True, I'd longer been at
school;
My tongue and pen were run, perhaps, trife more
by rule;
But that was all. The neighbors round, who both
of us well knew,
Said-which believed-she was the better of the
two.
AIS changed: the light of seventeens no longer in
her eyes;
Her wavy hair is gone-that loss the coitfeur's art
supplies
Her form is thin and angular; she slightly forward
bends;
Her fingers, once shapely, now are stumpy at the
ends.
She knows but very ttle and in little are we one:
The beauty rare that more than hid that great de-
feet is gone.
My pdreeaa relations deride nv homely wife.
And pity me that tied to such a clod for life
know there is difference at reception and leyee
The brightest, wittiest and most famed of women
smile on me;
And everywhere hold my place among the great |
est men,
And sometimes sigh, with Whittier's Judge. "Alas,
II might have BEEN
When they all crowd around me, stately DANES and I
brilliant bellies,
:.
And yield to me the homage that all great success
compels,
Discussing and satecraft and literature as well
From h>'uler down to Fnackeray, and Swedenborg
"Hen."-
can't forget that from these streams my wife has
never quaffed,
Has never with ophelia wept, nor with Jack Fal
ali laughed;
the names;
She slspt while 1 was speaking on the Alabama
cant forget-Just at this point another form an.
l he wile welded as she was before NV nrosner-
Gus years. l.
travel DER the dreary road We travelled side nv
side,.
And wonder what my share would be If Justice
should divide.
She had four hundred dollars eft her from tbe old
estate;
On that we married, and, thus poorly armored.
faced our fate
Wrestled with my books; her task was harder far
than mine
Twas how to make two hundred dollars do the
work OF nine 6
AT lasI was admitted; then had my legal lore
M oiloe win stove and desk, of books perhaps a
score; {
She had her beauty and her youth, and some house,
wifely skill,
And love for me and faith in me, and back of that
will.
hao no frlends behind memo influence to aid
worked and fought for every litta inch of ground
Imade. il.
And how she fought beside me. never woman lived ;
on less;
N two lon, years she never spent single cent for
dress.
Ah! how she cried for joy when nv first legal aobt
was won.
When our eclipse passed partly BY and we stood in
the sun! q
Fhe fee was fifty dollars-'twas the work of half r
year
lrst captive lean and scraggy, of my legal bow and
spear J
well remember when my coat (the only one had, T
Vas seedy grown and threadbare, and, in fact. :
most shocking bad,''
he tailor's stern remark when 1 a modest order
made;
Cash is the basis sir on which we tailors do opr
trade" =
Ter winter cloak was in his shop by noon that very
day;
he wrought on hickory shirts at night tat tailor,s
skill to pay.
got coat, and wore it; but alas. poor Hannah D
Jane
Se'er went to church or lecture till warm weather
came again. a,
1ur second season she refused cloak of anv sort
nat might have q decent srlif x~a;chs .---I