The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1874-12-07
DOLLY.


Just before young flaming went I,
Rome-six or seven years ago-he SHOWED
mo his sketch book.
VI have been up among the Moravlan
all summer, In Bethlehem, Pennsylvania,
he said. ats the only place where on
can catch flavor q age in this curaedl!
new country"
The little fellow, from his yellow Dun
dreary whiskers 10 his dainty CATERS
were u mere exsggeratlon OF his mother
pithetic senslbllltlCs. II nature ha(
thrown In to boot n little backbone, o.
stomach, or passions, II would have beef
better, but no matter. AS things were
one was net surprised the country jarret
on him. The old MoraVian town had sp
parentlY contented him; he had mad,
studies Of the bridge and tho quaint Eaglt
Hotel, and the fOruess-like Brother an(
Sister and Gemein Houses, which TIL
first settlers built In the wilderness, o
solid stone, and which stand now I'M
altered In the village street, solid enough
to last Tor ages. He had tho gray mas
sive piles in crayons, and In water color
and in oils, with the yellow harvest skJ
behind them, or thunder cloud, or tht
pale pink Of spring dawn. Here was {
bit OF buttress with wild ivy flaming rec
over II; there was dim interior Of {
stone corridor, and On old woman ,cloaked
with velvet slippers, and blue hsndker.
chief on her head, sat on o high bAcket
bench, lingering the dusty strings oil al
old violin, which she had just taken IRON
its case.
"That," he said, "is one OF the old Sis
tiers, Frau Baum. The Moravisn mis-
sionaries come home to these house,
when their work is done, and find shelter
and repoSe. Lille in them Is but q long
calm twilight. That violin was uueartheC
one day from some closet where II haC
been buried almost an hundred years. l
1t had been knocking about the world II
that time, just think Of the thousands O.
waltzes and dances and song tunes i
would have given to tho people i
would have been worn out, or at leas'
have been common and unclean. Bu
there 1t lay, with all its music, sacred and
dumb, unwakened within 1t. l like tC
think Of that"
! could not follow that yonng man.
fantastic talk. "These houses seem L
have had q secret enchantment oil somt
kind Ior, you" l said, turning over the
loose sheets, and just US spoke guest
that had found the enchantulent. 1tooB
up carefully finished picture OF the dool
OF the Sister House, deep .arched cut in
the stone. In it, as in a frame, was q
young girl looking back with q laughing
goodbye before she disappeared in The
darkness. There was another sketch OIL
the same young woman standing in the
graveyard, her hands clasped, her eyes
bent thoughtfully on the rOwsoi fiat gray
stones at her iCet,
"a portrait, George?'
"Yea." He hesitated. "The niece Of
old sister Baum. She Is nothing but @
child-hAs lived her sixteen years in thai
old .house-just as pure as q flower thai
never felt the outside air. Did you eVel
see innocence and unsel1shnesS shine &C
transparent in any face? DOlly-that il
her name-DOrOthes. That Is u poor pic
ture enough; the real Dolly, with The
simmer Of yellow hair about her face, il
fairer than ono OF COreggio's Madonn4s.'
l thought Dolly much less insipid thar
any Of those virgins, who, surely, wert
only immaculate from sheer lack 0fidcss
There were ineXhaustible resources @
honesty and iriendliness, aud sweet TEN.
per, in this soft, pink'tinted face.
Your DOrOthCa could bear the outside
air" suggested,
"She will never be tried, l hope" sud
denly shutting the portfolio with Il lcowl
surroundings make lie, as O back
ground picture. This little girl will no
leave the Sister House until | come bacl
for her"
he went on 10 convince me and him
sell Of the wisdom ormarryiUg her. TIT
ordinary run Of tho American girls werl
necessarily tainted by the publicity o
their training and free manners. Thi
girl had been reared in a seclusion equa
10 that OF French convent, &c, &c
The Fannings, mother and so1, belonged
to that class oil Bostonians who stood or
level above consideration OF wealth
Convention2lity, or even birth. I thought
there was every probability that Dolly
history, IS 1t had begun like a story in {
cheap magazine, would end in the same
romantic groove. Mrs flaming was
precisely the woman TO rejoice in hel
daughter.in. laws picturesque antecedenls
more than 10 dover OF Pennsylvania
Central stock, and would go through
society making out Of Moravians, an old
sister, ard Gemein Houses halo for this
gloriiGd Madonna.
George Tanning had been gone for q
year, however, when, being on q visit "a
Bethlehem, heard mention OF an auction
sale Of some old chairs and crockery be.
longing 10 sister Baum, who had died
the week before; certain lovers OF 100000
furniture bewaillng an ancient clock,
which had brought 25 cents, and o price.
less harpsichord sold for flrewood. Dolly,
! learned, had been carried of by cousin,
living in Pennsylvania, who Charged
herself with the girls keep" She was,
they assured me, "ahelpIul young woman,
a good housckeeper, and the best hand
with children" which is more than could
be predicted on sight of any pictured
Madonna OF Southern Europe.
Dolly and her fortunes had died out of
my remembrance when, couple Of years
later, l landed from ON old.llshioned
with a dozen other passen-
gers, late at night, at the door Of pro-
tentious inn in country town in the Al.
leghenies. 1t was raining hard outside;
cross women in waterproois. whining
little boys in knickerbockers, lunch has.
kets, screaming babies in crushed white.
plumed hats, umbrellas and gaping lesth
or valises, were huddled IN one damp
mass in the whitewashed parlor, q kero-
senc lamp tlAring on the mGntel. shell, and
a lady boarder, with red chignou, calm.
ly playing Twilight Dews" on the piano.
Suddenly enters TO us-Dolly, her mar.
velous hair not III q irouzy halo, tut
tucked up in o comb. She was ready,
brighteyed, low.voiced; she wore an