Clarksville weekly chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1873-1890, 1875-07-31

By HIIDA.
CHAPTER XIV.


CHAPTER XIV.
ssSae clssped her hand-the strife
or love, faith. and the vain dream of lif'
It seemed as liza reed so slight and veal
Must In the rending storm not Quivel
Only-breaks" lAtt. eaia
To be success in life. one must be
polite. A sagacious schemer is the
husbandman Of the world. The man
who possesses cunning and craftinesf
will wave the palm of victory under
any constitution. Art is rigidly an
essential to our gentlemen of the
world" Without it their pet devices
are exposed and condemned. and their
polite stratagem heartily denounced.
They never consider the propriety Of
appealing to honor. IF the sunlight
of destiny be never dimmel in their
sight the rest of the world may go to
the deuce. It is their mission to
play upon the weakness of mankind ;
their aim in life to discover ignorance
80 as to carp successfully upon it.
Cruel, callous imposing and false. they
glide through this life gilded he. and
into eternity trembling knave. They
acknowledge nothingsupreme, but the
God of gold. and their hearts are foul
with the odor of avarice. They live to
accumulate, and die but to leave it.
What does it all avail them there in
that darkened home of the tomb? Will
the loaded Golfers shed light on the
sepulchral gloomor the glittering gold
make the little pillow of death more
soft? Answer, ye gain-loving mortals;
refute the argument if you can. If
gold holds in its bright meshes balm
for eternity, pardon the insinuation
and commend US to the charmed goal.
You cannot. The mania for gold is
born Of iniquity and holds but for this
life. In the better, higher one to come
it will not be known. Over the City
we are to seek, the golden banner with
its baleful light will never hang.
Mr.. Clifford was very i'll. Dread
consumption had set its seal unmis-
upon him, and his decline
was fearfully rapid. His children.
just awakened to sense of his danger,
were so much alarmed that they dis
patched for Mrs. Lee. When she ar
rived she was shocked and startled out
Of her meditated composure. She had
left him at the Springs seemingly per-
fectly cured, and now she found him
on the brink Of death. The disease
had preyed upon the superb form and
left it shrunken and emsciated. The
hectic flush had paled on his cheek,
and there nov remained only deaths
white sign. Willis was grieved and
inconsolable. Her last tie on earth
was about to be severed. which would
leave her without guardian. guide.
Hergrand parents in Bellefeld had long
slept beneath the violets, and of her
fathers relatives she knew positively
Mr.. Clifford was fully aware
that dissolution was near and had
called his lawyers around him and dis
posed Of his property. leaving Willis
an equal share with his children, which
added to her own, increased her in
come to an unusual proportion. He
had lived a just, blameless life and was
ready to be gathered to the Great
Shepherd. He had been an earnest,
devout christian. carrying his religion
into every day life and making his
worthiDess paIpable to the world. No
appeal for charity he passed unheeded.
none pitied the destitute more than he.
His example to the masses was potent
and priceless and his morality above
reprosch. Now, when he was called
from this plunging panorama, he drop
ped his well-worn sceptre and stood
willing. waiting. He had one regret
in bidding adieu to life and that was,
his children we're wanderers from his
faith and strangers to christianity.
Ruth, Willis and Carter were all with
out hope of future reunion, and that
tortured his last moments. Would he
see them no more in the endless flight
of coming ages? Oh! would their
souls be remote from his in regions Of
despair? Would he see no more that
beautiful Ruth. the expectancy of his
household? Wouldhis idolized daugh-
ter sink down into ruin and their part
ing be perpetuated? And then Willis;
she too was sstray, and worse, 4 skeptic.
Was he to see her no more? Was she
thrown cut into this world an atom
superfuous" to sink back to dust un-
needed and forgotten? Aye. verify no,
she wore on that stormy countenance
the impress of soul. There spoke
from the depths of her lustrous eyes a
tale eternal. No /; xuuihilstion was
not to be her lot; yet where. oh where
would her soul spend the amending
ages? In some sunless pit. chained
in solitude and silence, where no vel.
come VOICE would ever ring? In re.
gion too remote for the fight of al
angel, and darkness so profound as tC
queach the glitter Of star? Was il
there in darkness and atone she was tC