The Valley Virginian. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1865-1895, 1878-11-28
Beautiful Words to a Bride.

The following beautiful letter was written
several years ago, by gentleman to a bride
on receiving her wedding cards. 1t is ex-
qusitely fresh and original, and full of poe
try. Though not intended for publication,
it found It's way into print, and we think it
is too much of gem to be lost entirely
II am holding some pasteboard in my
hands, Addle. Three stately pluckings from
the bush of ceremony! I am gazing on
card and name-a name with which your
gentle life began--a name with which your
throbbing heart was lost. There was moth.
ing strange about the card. The maiden
sign still looks from it. calm and customary,
as it looked on many friendly visit, as ii
lies in many formal basket. 1 am gazing
too, upon card where the nearer parent
tells the world she will be lat home one
day, and that is nothing new. But there is
another card whose mingling there puts a
fiery tongue into his speechless pasteboard,
enameling fate on commonplace. 1t tells us
that feeling is maturing into destiny and
that these cards are but the pale heralds OF
coming crisis, when hand thai has press
ed friends hands and plucked flowers shall
close down on him to whom she shall be
friend and flower forever.
81 have sent you few flowers to adorn the
dying moments of your single life. They
are the gentlest types Of delicate and dura'
BILE friendship. They spring up by our side
when others have deserted it, and they will
be found watching over our grave when
those who should cherish have forgotten us.
It seems meet to me that past so calm and
pure as yours should expire with kindred
sweetness about it that flowers and music,
kind friends and earnest words, should con-
secrate the hour, when sentiment is pass
ing into sacrament.
ssThe three great stages of our being are
the birth, the bridal, the burial. To the first
we bring only weakness; for the last we
have nothing but dust. But here at the al
ter, where life joins life, the pair come throb-
bling up to the holy man, whispering the
deep promise that arms each with the
Others heart, to help on the life's struggle
Of care and duty.
sgThe beautiful will be there, borrowing
new beauty from the scene the gay and
the frivolous, they and their flounces, will
come to gaze on all its scattered thoughts
pant for; and age will totter up to hear the
old words repeated that to their own lives
have given the charm.
.'Some will weep over it as it it were the
the tomb, and some will laugh over it as if it
were joke. Two must stand by it, for it is
fate-not fun everlasting locking OF
their lives.
''And now can you, who have queened it
over so many Bonded forms, can you come
down at last to the frugal diet Of a single
heart?
"Hitherto you have been clock, giving
your time to all the world. Now you are
watch, buried in one particular bosom,
watching his breast, marking only his hours,
and ticking only to the beat of his heart
where time and feeling shall be in unison,
until these lower ties are lost in that higher
wedlock, where all hearts are united around
the great central heart of all.
clipping that calm sunshine may hallow
your clasped hands, sink silently into a
signature. -Iemperanc Ensign.