The Valley Virginian. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1865-1895, 1877-12-06
from the Chicago Times]
THE ROUGH SIDE OF LIFE.

WHICH is DOUBLY ROUGH TO THOSE WHO
| FIND IT FIRST WHEN LULL OF YEARS
! AS SHOWN BY THE CASE OF AN OLD MAN
FOUND BEGGING IN THE ST R ETs OF
CHICAGO ONCE THE ssOLD DOMINION
RECOGNIZED HIM AMONG THE NOBLEST
OF HER soNs-LATER HIS HOME IN A
! WESTERN STATE WAS THE CENTRE OF
SOCIETY AND FASHION NOW, IN
| THE WINTER OF LIFE, HE is A WANDER
Err. ..i
| The Journey to affluence aud independ-
ence winds over illimitable courses traver-
ses rough and rugsedeplaces, often, and al
most wearies the brain and tires out the
body before the pilgrim reaches the point
where he gains his rest. 10 totter from
the summit and be dashed back amid the
conflicts of misfortune is the work OF mo-
ment in comparison with the years that
were required to gain the foot-hold.
Here is fragment caught up in the
whirlwind Of human experiences, Ole of
the characters of which stood bare-headed
but yesterday on the street. corners of this
restless, feverish town, waiting and watch
ing for the hands that give. God be 'mer-
ciful to the old man, stranded and weather.
beaten almost within sight of the groves
from which he came with more promises OF
sunshine for his grave than surrounded him
in the day-dawn of his existence.
senator in the halls of Richmond, Va,
thirty-five years ago, from one of the Sec
tions that lies embodied and nestled beside
the gentle flow of the Shenandoah, had at
his command the patronage of the State
government There was never caucus in
which he did not preside as a master spirit.
And when the field days came, as they used
to come in the good old days, his voice rang
out like a trumpet note in defense CT CEN
sure of whatever CHANGED to be the issue.
He was as tall as an Indian warrior, and
every movement was the poetry Of grace.
They say that he spoke like one inspired
when his soul warmed up, and the galleries
Bonded down with their listeners at every
articulation of the youthful orator.
THERE WAS A MARRIAGE FEAST i
one day down close to Appomattox Court.
House, in which the regal chivalry of the
sold Dominion appeared, and when the
senator had kissed his bride there was fete
upon the lawns such as people don't witness
nowadays, such as reminded those who were;
its participants of royal holidays over the
water where he pinks and the lilies met in
the shadows of castle walls. There was no
''society reporter then. But there are gray
haired women and men living to-day who,
if they chose to knock the dust Of years off
their recollections, would almost fancy
themselves young again at repetition Of
that days festival. And some are dead who
danced upon the grasses there and then :;
and, If the dead carry with them in the
spirit world the memories of this, as some
folks say they do, then there are some who
have gone away who have doubtless told
over and over again to their spirit compan-
ions the brilliancy of the occ aston.
IT'S PITY
that hearts which come into life at the kiss
OF success, and are nurtured in the after
when it is noon, and when the touch Of the
gentle south wind is upon them. A pity
that the matutinal lullaby doesn't swell into
a choral anthem at the close of life, instead
of sinking, as it so often does, into diree
that dies In a moan.
There was a separation after this forest
fete, and the hearts that had been linked in
the historic dominion went out from the
grand old circles to new and at that time
almost rude habitation. There is a cottage
that still crowns the crest of bluff that
shadows the mMky Missouri. It was built
when the Indian and his mate rested after
the chase in the wigwam, almost at the foot
of that range which stretches away in so
many fantastic shapes from the ''Old Platte
purchase" up into regions that are desolate,
and uninhabited by white men even to-day.
In this cottage the Virginia senator and his
Appomattox bride commenced to adorn the
nucleus Of that society which now forms one
of the strongest features of a young and
substantial city. Almost unheralded, the
fame Of the Virginian as pleader at the
bar, broke in upon the new dominion. AL.
most imperceptibly his home grew into re-
sort for the refined and cultured who had
emigrated to the range. There used to be
groupings Of beauty and wit in the richly.
furnished parlors, and assemblages Of bright
faces, and sallies of rich and sparkling re-
partee upon the serpentine walks of the old
fashioned, spacious esplanade. The Virgin
lar won the ropulace with his suavity apd
easy, elegant, old-school mannerism. Ii
those days there was something in mans
pedigree. He grew to be the great criminal
lawyer of the district, and then the councils
0. state were accustomed to be stlled by the
deep thunder of his richly modnlated voice