, 1876-01-08
Alice Cary.
THE OUTLINES OF A LOVE STORY.


L. NJ. c. furnishes the New York
EUening Post with some "reminiscences Of
the life of Alice Carey, whose fame as
poet stands high in the annals of Ameri-
can letters, and among the rest sketches
this story of Alice's early but blighted
love:
Clovernook graveyard is a small in
closure near the road, shaded by tall To-
Gusts and wild cherry trees. 1t has an
air of abandonment and neglect, but ma
ture has taken it kindly to her heart.
The graves are overgrown with ivy and
long grass, and blackberry vines twist
about the messy headstones. The tallest
monument is in memory of John Lewis,
native of Denmark. His farm ad-
Joined that of the Cary's, and his widow
became the second wife of Robert Cary,
the first Mrs. Cary having died when
Alice was about fourteen years old. She
Mrs. Lewis-sold the greater part Of
her farm to gentleman from the East.
This was Charles Cheney, brother to the
silk manufacturers of that name. He
had previously been engaged in business
at Providence, Rhode Island, but an un-
fortunate speculation had swept away
his property, and it was by the aid of
his brothers that he was enabled to buy
the farm near ClovernoOk. He purpOsed
here to engage in the culture of the null
berry tree and feed silkwOrms. He was
accompanied by his wife, who was an
invalid and did not long survive her re-
moval to the West.
Alice Cary was shy, awkward school
girl when she first knew Mr.. Cheney, and
had never before seen any person so re-
fined, so gentlemanly and well-bred. He
was greatly superior to the people among
whom he took up his residence, not that
his mental endowments were very great,
or better, perhaps, than those of some OF
his neighbor's, but his had been brought
out by education, and found expression
in graceful manners and polished phrases,
while theirs were imbedded in the clown
ish fetteN from which their position and
circumstances of life had in no way
tended to free them. Chiefly through
his instrumeptality in the course of a few
years the neighborhood of Clovernook
was changed from thinly-inhabited and
ill-cultivated district to one abounding
with vineyards and orchards, and dotted
with public edifces and private resi-
dences, surrounded by green lawns,
lfringed with clipt hedges.
u As years passed on the shy, rustic
school girl grew to womanhood, and the
proud and cultured neighbor of whom
she had stood in such awe, learning Of
her thirst for knowledge, lent her books
from his library and encouraged her ef'
forts toward self-improvement. TheiI
appreciation of the same authors formed
bond of kindred tastes between them
and was the beginning of a more intimate
acquaintance, an interchange of thought
and feeling. For him it was intellectual
companionship, and the charm of con-
tact with fresh growing mind, filled
with beautiful thoughts and earnest as
pirations. For her it was an education
of mind and heart, the revelation of a
Hew life, the "opening of sealed foun-
tain in her bosom" What wonder If he
who was her ideal realized, the highest
type of manhood she had ever known,
should win her hearth He did win it,
and in the highest sense of the phrase
she never loved another. In every case
of heart history there is much that il
sacred to those Immediately concerned
and should never pass beyond them intc
the cold and curious world.
1t all happened many years ago, ano
the particulars Of the story are known tc
few. Suffice it to say that this. was the
first and only love Of Alice Cary's life
and it ended there. Mr.. Cheney went
East and married, and she read the an
nouncement in newspaper. Later she
left Clovernook, around which clung SO
many bitter-sweet memories, and went to
New York, where she made her home
during the remainder of her life, and
gathered around her q circle of apprecia-
tive friends, many Of them gifted and
great. Though many priced her worth
and sought her hand, she never forgot
the love-dream of her early womanhood
Around it clustered all the bright and
tender associations of youth, and as She
receded from it and her hair grew gray
J it gathered pathos from the years anc
graves between"
, Her life, though blessed with the com
panionship Of noble minds and loving
, hearts, was in one sense solitary and in
! complete, for she missed the crowninl
blessing of womanhood, the love tina
t would have been at once her inspiration
: and reward, and have satisfied the long
} ings of her nature as no personal achieve
: ment or fame could have done.
. |
, Gnurioua Gold