Buchanan County bulletin. [volume] (Independence, Iowa) 1869-1891, 1876-07-21

HOlu-JufCdueu WdlSLCOdCS, anu wore
fair-top boots and powder, when the
youthful damsels tripped along on
their dainty little high-heeled shoes
and firted their fans decked out with
shepherds and shepherdesses tending
lazy flocks on the banks of the Area
dian streams. 1t was an Already,
indeed, that land of old Virgins
previous to the Revolution, where
the sons of the planters living on the
great estates had nothing more i'm
portant to attend to than falling in
love, and where the maidcns dressed
in all the colors of the rainbow, and
rode with their gallants through smil-
ing fields, and danced the minuet
and started with delight at reading
in the old Gazette the verses chron
icling their beauty under the trans.
parent guise Of "Chloe," "Daphne,' y
or Florella." At Williamsburg
when the gallant youths came to
think of something more than max
ing love, and seriously contemplated
the propriety of arming for Their
careers in life, there was still the
rollicking, fun-loving spirit of the
rural circle. The youngsters con
tinued there as at home to pay more
attention to cock-fghting, riding
thoroughbred horses, and bestowing
their society upon the fair sex than
to studying Greek and mathematics,
or "breaking their head" as Panurge
says, even over my lord Coke or
Fleetwood. They vexed the souls Of
professors by playing at We billiard
tables, against the collegiate statute
mode and providcn; they surrepti.
tiously "exposed" many "main of
spangles," and Systematically beguil-
ed the weary hours of young ladies
by the charms of their presence and
conversation. Among these was the
youth who is the subject of this
sketch, and to every clause of and in.
dictment against him for admiring
the fair sex, for frequenting their
society, and dancing at the balls in
the Raleigh, he would have been
compelled to plead guilty. His own
testimony remains. In one of the
old letters written by him at this
period, and dated from "Devilsburg,"
instead of Williamsburg" he says:
"Last night as merry as agreeable
company and dancing with Belinda
in Apollo could make me. 1 never
thought the succeeding sun would
have seen me so wretched as now
am! Affairs at w. and NJ. are in the
greatest confusion. Walker, M'Clurg,
and Wat Jones are expelled pro tenn
pore, or as Harrhx softens it, rusti-
Gated for a month. Lewis Burwell,
Warner Lewis, and one Thompson
have fled to escape fagellation." -
Did the attendance of the youths on
the rout at the Raleigh throw things
into confusion and raise a commo.
ton? 1t is impossible to say; but one
thing is plain, that young Jefferson
was not clcseted with his books that
evening, but engaged in task doubt
less far more agreeable, that of dane
ing with Belinda in the Apollo.
Belinda had another name, given
her by her sponsors, this being only
familiar so6riquet invented by her
admirer or his friends. Still the
youth employs it cautiously. In
writing to his friend Jack Page, after
ward John Page, Esq, Governor of
Virginia, he observes mysterious
and solemn caution. "Belinda," al
though a so6riquet, is far too plain.
He will write it in Greek, first, how
ever, reversing the letters, and turn
ing it into Adnile6. Then he is filled
with distrust, and trembles at the
thought that even a nickname with
the letters transposed and written in
Greek may be identified. 81 wish, y
he says, 81 had followed your exam
pie and wrote in Latin, and that l
had called my dear Compana IN die,
instead of Adnileb," the value of
Compana IN die, lying in the fact
that it signified bell IN dag, otherwise
Belinda. The young lady so "dear"
to the youth, and very famous in old
social annals for her beauty, but still
more for her loveliness of character,
was Miss Rebecca Burwell, daughter
of Lewis Burwell, Esq, of "White
Marsh," in Gloucester. Left an or
phan at ten years of age, she was
taken charge OF by President Nelson,
her uncle. That Jefferson should
have selected from the crowd of little
beauties of the period this pious
maiden Is assuredly great deal TO
his credit. She seems to have been
the "first love" of the youth, and his
letters are full of her. "Dear WILL"
he writes to a friend. 81 have thought
of the cleverest plan of life that can
be imagined. You exchange your
land for Edgehill, or 1 mine for Fair
fields; you marry s. P, l
marry R-a b. 1, JOIN and
get a pole chair and pair of keen
horses, practice the law in the same
courts, and drive about to all the
dances in the county together. How
do you like it? Well, l am sorry you
arc at such a distance, / can not hear
you answer" Such was the dream
of the young student; and doubtless
the gray-haired President sometimes
looked back to those days, full of joy
and sunshine and light-heartedness,
to the dances with Belinda, to the
music of violins in the Apollo, to the
frolics and bright hopes and laughter
looked back with q pcnsive sad.
ness, perchance with a regret, At
first his suit seems to have been pros
pered in some degree. The fair lady,
he hoped, would yield herself cap
tive. But the bird was coy, and
avcrse to the cage of matrimony,
however gilded. Ere long the youth
fnl lover begins to write in a rather
hopeless strain. There is an attempt
at humor and gayety, but the lengthy
visagc is seen under the assumed
smile. He cautiously and nervously
tho subject of his thoughts
after the following cunning fashion:
81 hayo not syllable TO writo to you
about. Would you that l should
write nothing but truth? 1 tell you
l know nothing that IS true. Or
uould xou rothor fhat T shoul1 write