The weekly clarion. [volume] (Jackson, Miss.) 1863-1882, 1874-01-15
4 WHITE CAMELIA's sroRX.

my lie began Was lndI OF a Iltiu anu gen
tie warmth which pervaded the atmos
phere [ breathed. Tremblingly did
open my virginia. calyx, as fair and as
pearly white as maiden's shoulder;
tremblingly did open it that might glad
ly inhale this vivitying atmosphere, that
its fecundifying warmth might spread IN
strong and impetus streams through all
my fibres: this first feeling of life brought
on a multitude of sensations which made
my satin like leaves expand, still whittier
and more coquettish, whilst a Venetian
mirror reflected back my image and showed
I me all my splendid beauty, my velvet
freshness, and my virginia. luster.
Proud and naughty, | cast a hurried
look around the temple in which | had re-
ceived life. 1t was one of those splendid
palaces, hedecked with white ana gold,
wherein human mortals show themselves
only at evening in the glare Of lusLers and
waxlights; wherein the sun penetrates on
/ " for an instant IL the morning, and soon
driven away as an unwelcome guest, dis
appears before elegant tapestry and rich
| " embroidered curtains. On a table
few PAGES from me stood a magnificent,
but curiously- wrought vase, flied with
an enormous bouquet Of flowers. Though
totally unlike me, recognized them as ny
sisters. They were conversing languidiy,
like neglected and forsaken odalisques.
Gone especially, a young rose 81 fairest
hues, voluptuous and tender-bearing, was
regretting. in "A sweet and harmonious
voice, the perfumed breezes, the blue and
limpid sky, the kiss of night, and the
trembling insect which she sheltered at
nightfall.
20, who will give me back the sun
beam which slowly descends upon me and
filed my breast with Intoxicating warmth
Who will give me back the gentle zephyrs
which glided DER my leaves and stole
away their perfume? Who viii give me
back the sweet and graceful creature that
came each eve to mUrmer close TO me
those songs so delightful and so pure ?
Simple flower, beautiful in my own beau
ty, lived thus happy and beloved until
pitiless hand came to snatch me from my
sisters, my sun and my breezes, and ex-
lie me, rob me of strength and life, to
saloon without light, without Iuster.
Yesterday | was born, to-mo rrow | shall
die =
Daughter gravely spoke a pale ane
mone, ''know how to suffer and YOU shall
have lived; employ the strength and exu-
berance Of your life in uprooting from
your little heart those thoughts OF regret
and love which make me shudder on my
stem. Like you, | was beautiful; like
you was loved; like you, felt pass over
my delicate petals those inebriating breezes
which gave life and death. Like yours,
my head bent down to the sunbeam and
|, too, was 80 fair and attractive, that
young and blue-eyed girl, a timid child,
all innocence and purity, fastened me to
her girdle looking at me again, she found
me so beautiful that, n moment after, she
placed me in the midst of you, pale and
broken, my flexible stalk stepped in the
pure and crystal fluid from which we de-
rive Fictitious life. All! sisters, sisters,
happy are they who live unknown in the
depths of the woods, or lost in the crevices
of the rocks !
''For me, thus spoke sparkling, black
and yellow tulip, with empurpled calyx,
happiness lasted only Il moment; but ii
was immense and divine, and its memory
still lives in my heart! Endowed with an
ardent and sympathetic nature, | was
seized with a maddening love for one of
those dark brown and dreamy women who |
would come each eve, with stately step, |
to while away their hours in amorous
melancholy, near me. You know how /
happy and proud | was; indifferent to your
conversation; insenslble to the caresses OF /
the gorgeous butterflies that were fitting /
around us; | thought your life joyless and /
charmless, and | would have given all the
flowers in the world to shine a moment /
on her bosom or sparkle in her beautiful |
hair
''But woman! O, my sister, how
cruel are they; how pitilessly do they de-
stroy us Yet, tbs said that they resem-
bic us; that they are, like US, feeble and /
tender-Iike rs, beautiful and fragile. /
No, they are as cold and pitiless as the
elittering steel with which they sever US
from the parent stem. But | loved mad
II: and when this woman passed by me,
| bent gently and gracefully down with
thoughts OF love, softly called her by
sweet and harmonious name, which
stranger breeze had borne me; but, say
what YOU will, women understand neither
our signs nor our songs, One day the
sky was gloriously radiant, the butterflies
were toying with the flowers; we were all
on our stalks, as majestic and beautiful as
Youthful queens on golden thrones; she
passed me, full of disquiet and agitation;
her ewes were full of tears and y, hap
pines , she fixed those eyes, sad and pen
siye. upon me. | trembIingly murmered
a few disconnected words. Bending sud
denly towards me, she took me in her lit
tie hand, almost as white and perfumed
as YOU, sister, added the tulip, bending
towards the rose, who blushed deeply-lt
wasa supreme moment for me; felt myself
diving, when a sudden and brisk sensation
was succeeded by Inconsistencies Of ev-
erything. The hand which loved had
violently broken me from the stalk, and
I recovered from my swo0n only to lind
myself In the midst of you.
s'And the tulip bowed her head, absorbed
in the memories of the past. Sisters,
sisters" then | cried, surprised and
troubled, of what do you speak, and what
signify those strange words-passion and
love, sky and azure, golden beams,
balmy breeze, and amorous butterfly? Is /
there, then, another world than this in
which We are imprisoned, another life
than this which we live Speak 10 /
speak tell me where is that land OF love, /
where you know your beauty, where you
are told of if'at eve
The flowers smiled, and the heliotropes I
turning her lovely and odorous petalsto- |
wards me, whispered some words which | +
could not understand.
From the midst of crystal glass, /
some short distance from me, a sweet |
cluster ofmignonette, gracefully arranged,
began to peak in turn.
20, sister," said she, IN q sweet and |
mournful voice, "why these lamentations, /