The Bolivar bulletin. [volume] (Bolivar, Hardeman County, Tenn.) 1865-1888, 1874-02-20
THE DEAR DEPARTED.

see theremorseless reaper every year cut
down the gaudiest and most promisine
flowers. What chasms are left in ting
ranks-what suggestive lifts, as, spring
and fall, the brightest, loveliest of them
drop away from Society into the asceti-
cism of matrimony Icannot but regard
with a pale melancholy these reourrent
fleets fitting out so uriously-tOssing
| themselves so saucily in home harbors-
sailing about in ali the pride and emu
| lation of conscious beauty, preparatory
| to the great regatta of hfe-because I
see every year the sauciest, fastest, no.
bIest of them all, after a season of
Irritation, sail off dreamily enough, and
90 into dull basins and massive docks,
| where they are laid up forever NOR
surrounded by a swarm of domestic
| steyedores and insurance men-giVen
| over irretrievably to masters who do
not regard life In the light of regattas
at all. And the leaden conviction set
| ties upon me that marriage is, after all,
the hidden goal-the m8lstrom which
will swallow up every one of our orna-
ments ruthIessly. Those delightful
creatures who are the charm of our even
ing parties, our soirees, our receptions,
our tete-a-tetes, our rehearsals, our pic
MICS, and our vacations, who dance and
! sing subdued admiration of us, and who
are all bellies, each in particular set,
carry with them doom that is hidden.
The radiance, the mirtb, the beauty,
fellowship, and that happy freedom of
candor which makes them all enjoyable
companions, will be suddenly snuffed
out. and they themselves, viii go away
into TIE utter darkness of private estab-
lishments of their own. It's sorrowful
to think Of, because as Chamfort says,
love is more pleasing than matrimOny,
just as romance Is more pleasing than
history.
To get a bird eye view of the pain
full drama, one must step out Of the de-
Iicious haunts-bid the dear creatures
goodbye, and go away for five or six
years, and then come back as suddenly.
| He thinks of the sumptuous Olive that
| he left a ballroom Juno with a commu-
nifty of satel ties all nobly mad in her
service, and he expects to re enter her
kingdom again. He looks for the dash
| ing Grace, who was the focus of lorng-
nettes, the instigator and dispenser of
| wit for Lucille, who counted her adj
nirers by their titles and for the bevy
| of black and blue-eyed madcaps with
whom he exchanged secrets and VOWS,
and drank spa-Water-an what does he
| uUu O11k6 lDdIIiSO d AlGbIOolob
preacher, and went to Illinois. Grace
is at q small, but respectable boarding
house, and when she goes out is accom-
panied by a small chariot of pink cloak
and pinker face. Lucille is shut up in
! a brown stone bastile-married an aged
accoutant of her fathers for family rea-
sons and the bevy of black and blue
eyed sirens are distributed around
| among poor but honest fellows, who
! hedge them In with solicitude-aye
and the whole brood of impertinent
minxes he left trundling hoops and car
rying books, are up in the bathrooms
polking and mazurking, and ready
poor things-to go through the same
ordeal.
Those who have departed this life of
folly and entered the martial heaven
have no longer any hours to throw away
in our yachts, they snub our drill-rooms,
they laugh derisively at our hops, they
will none of our chowder, they pass us
| in promenade with an assumption of
new dignity-that extra inch of mat
-only altitude which would be magnif-
cent if it were not bounded by hus-
band. Some of them will not ask us
to their rooms. Ali rooms my dear
fellow, how sad They know we asso-
ciated them with palaces, and called
them princesses repeatedly, and they
feel the grotesquerie, the delicay oi
meeting us on the third floor, among
cradles and sewing machines, and 9
balsamic cloud of dinner, that has
tainted their once delicate fingers.
Some of them, it is true, assume a bra
vado that is positively thrilling, and &c
through an interview with prodigious
outlay of heroism Introducing rs tC
John without ever caring to remember
that they were pledged in the rosy lone
ago to the most ethereal of AdoIphs
and ask us to q dinner of corn beef anC
cabbage with utter disregard of the ole
protestations over oysters that wero no
Shrewsbury and champagne that wa
not iced.
Call to mind the beautiful develop
ment of character on The old occasions
when each beauty unfolded an origina
trait or grace of her own. Celia wa
mirthful to madness-that happy, every
l day madness of pure girl Iren,
was proud, and Madeline was ambi
; ti0us. Of what avail was our sill
study CT these characters tben-how ri
dicu1ous our prosphesying for the dea
creatures have merged themselves int,
other characteristics all the sharl
identity that pleased u.s. Celia i
solemn and frigid, because her husband
is pastor over solemn congregation
Irene is the pink of humility, for sh
has got nothing to be proud of AM
Madeline has learned from her worth
! tutor that contented mind Is a con
2 tinual feast. And so with the rest
: Even the modest little Maud-whor
E we all patronized, and who never ez
{ actIy merged nto full fashion, OWN
: to the decayed prospects of the famil
: gone to Europe with her husband
They never say she is wealthy withou
adding immensely"
It is a fearfully perilous thing to cas-
t the horoscope of a young woman. The
). all stand on slippery places. The worl
c has an eager nav for them, and wi
0 not let them frolic in the waves of New
0 port nor float IN mazy circles at til
It academy many summers IN succession
j. One by one they drop the hoyden masl
!, take up their duties, aud then we Sc
s them no more. So thin partition
;, for them between the glare of life an
the shades Of oblivion, Many q theu