The weekly clarion. [volume] (Jackson, Miss.) 1863-1882, 1874-09-03
TRAGEDY IN INDIANAPoLI@.
Ar. HardinE's TribuGe 40 Hfs
Daughter Memory
From the INDIANAPOLIS Herald.

No. 20 Pratt street, ON Wednesday last
Miss Flora K. Harding, daughter c
Geo. I. Harding, aged nineteen wears
A noble life, full OF promise. has zon
out in shame. She loved much and sh
suffered much. Her sorrowful soul
released from earth-buriens, ha
gone TO meet its God, to lay befor
Him the cruel wrongs for which earth ha
no redress. Poor, fond heart, ill-starre,
from birth, your tempestuous beating
are stilled, your restless longings vii
trouble no more Hers was ioyles
childhood, warped and distorted by re
lentless circumstances. Her womanhooc
is blasted in the bud Despite unfortu
nate traits and unhappy moods, in which
she seemed to move and act as If under
some weird spell, her underlying nature
was noble, generous, unselish, selfsacri.
tclng, with an honest pride which would
scorn 10 do mean action. The unhappy
circumstances attending her childhood
had impressed her nature with an inef-
| tacsble tinge Of melancholy. She was
| respondent always, rather than sanguine
Papa, she said to me, once, when a
cherished desire was thwarted, and
was endeavoring to console her, N'don't
| distress yourself about me. NV entire
life has been a disappointment Not
withdrawing the sombre tints in her ma
ture, she was at times almost unnaturally
vlvaclous. But even in her most CHEEKY
moments an apparent consciousness of
the falseness and hollowness of earthly
things could not be noted Her deepest
and profoundest feelings, the one which
was ever present and was never over
Swallowed by doubts, or obscured by less
worthy sentiments, was love for her I'M
happy father. This love had taken root
in her infantile mind, at an ace when
impressions are easily efaced, but it grew
without nurture, and seemed to strike
deeper its roots, and grow more luxuriant
in leaf and bloom, the more 1t was de-
prlved of light and air. 1t survived alb
sence, apparent neglect, hostile influences;
and so soon az she wac of age, she came
to the father whose love she had never
doubted
her religious nature she was peculiar.
She had the protOundest veneration for
Deity, and sublime confidence in His
business, but she had no sympathy with
creeds or the forms of religion. She
believed in the law of compensation, and
having known but little save unhappiness,
she believed that the future, either on
earth or in Heaven, mad recompense in
store for her. She often jeste on the sub
ject of suicide, and on one occasion, being
reproved, and told that God frowned on
self-murder, she said, "Papa, I am not
afraid of God
There were few brighter intellects than
tlora's, and her future was full Of prom
Use. She had a remarkable felicitous
command Of language, and was exceed |
lngly versatile. While she knew nothing |
of politics. her familiarity with reconcile |
subjects was wonderful. In reasoning |
she was subtitle, and in thought she was
powerful and searching. She had de- |
termined on literature as a profession, |
and, had she lived, would have made her
mark in the world OF letters.
The cruelest reflection in this hour of /
bitterest agony is that her father might /
have been less stern and more sympa-
thetic in his Intercourse with her, though !
he could not have loved her more With /
two such natures an arrangement is apt
to raise up an invisible but impossible
barrier and while there may be no spoken
work Of unkindness, the reserve is inf
nitely more cruel and cutting than words
could be. The unhappy secret-the first
Of confdence-csused such
a feeling, and this was only broken down
the night before her death, when, on her
fathers breast, with her arms about his
neck, in heart broken sobs she told him
the dreadful story, and pleaded for his
not so much for her sin as for
want of confidence in him. All was for
given, and father and daughter once
more reconciled. Even then she had
on suicide, and that last,
interview, so sweet TO
ember, and yet 90 sad, must be invest
ed with all the sanctity of a death-bed
revelation.
Through that long, last day Of suffer
ng / watched with her, alternately
.heered by hope and torn with the anguish
If despair, and with the last gasp, as the
differing soul took its tremulous fight,
wo great tears came from the filmy eyes 4
md rolled over the face, across which was
tealing the shadow of the Death Angel
She has gone to her God, who viii Judge
Ter not by the iron rule which brings all
natures to a common measurement but ]
ccording to her deserts God could not ;
'e God without being just, and with Him {
leave my daughter. Bnt it does seem 4
5 if he should have some thuuderbolt,
ed with uncommon wrath, 70 strike
he wretch who pursues his victim, with {
oul and venomous tongue, into the grave {
self I
Oh, loving heart-daughter = soul I
CARED with suffering yet pure |
nd white-farewell I
&. C.. H. &