The Stark County Democrat. [volume] (Canton, Ohio) 1833-1912, 1878-04-11
THE MINERS BRIDE.

In Falun, mining town In Sweden,
one hundred years or more ago, young
miner kissed his fair bride and said to
her: nj
blessed by the priests hand, Then we
shall be husband and wife, and we will
build us a little nest of our own
"And peace and love shall dwell in
il" said the beautiful bride, with sweet
smile, "for thou art my all in all, and
without thee would choose to be in my
grave"
But when the priest in proclaiming
their banns in the church for the second
time before St. Lucia's Day, pronounced
these words, "If now, any one can show
reason why these persons should not be
united in the bands ofmatrimony, death
was at hand. The young man as ne pass
ed the house next morning in his mining
garb, already wore his shroud. He rap,
ped upon her window and SAID good
morning, but he never came back to say
good evening. He never came back
from the mine, and all in vain she en-
broidered for him on that morning, a
black cravat with red border for the wed.
ding day. This she hid carefully away
and never ceased to mourn for him.
Meanwhile time passed on; the seven
years war was fought; the partition OF
Poland took place; America became free;
the French Revolution and the long war
began; Napoleon subdued Prussia, and
the English bombarded Copenhagen.
The husbandman sowed and reaped, the
miller ground, the smith hammered, and
the miners dug after their veins ofmetel
in their subterranean work shops
As the miners of Falun, in the year
1900, a little before or after St. John's Day,
were excavating an opening between two
shafts, full 300 ellis below the ground,
they dug from the rubbish and vitrol wa
ter, the body of a young man entirely
saturated with vitrol, but otherwise unde.
cayed and unaltered, so that one could
distinguish his features and age as we'll
as if he had died but an hour before or
had fallen asleep for a little while at
work.
But when they had brought him out to
the light of day, father and mother, friends
and asquaintances had been long dead;
no one could identify the sleeping youth,
or tell anything of his misfortune till she
came who was once the betrothed of that
miner, who had one day gone to the
mine and never returned. Gray and
shriveled she came to the place, hobbling
upon a crutch, and recognized her bride
groom, when, more in joyful ecstacy
/ than pain, she sank down upon the be
loved form. AS soon as she had recov
cred her composure she exclaimed:
at is my betrothed whom | hayt
mourned for forty years, and whom Goo
now permits me to see once more before
| die. A week before the wedding tint
he went under the earth and never re-
turned"
All the byslanders we're moved to tear
as they beheld the former bride,a wastet
and feeble old woman, and the bride
groom still in the beauty of youth, ant
how, after the lapse of fifty years, he
youthful love awoke again. But he nev
er opened his mouth to smile, nor his eye
to recognize; and she finally, as the onl,
one belonging to him and having RICH
to him, had him carried to her own littl
room till grave could be prepared il
the churchyard The next day, whei
all was ready and the miners came t
take him away, she opened little draw
er and taking out the black silk craVa
tied 1t around his neck and then accom-
panied him in her Sunday garb. as if
were their wedding day and not the da
of his burial. AS they laid him in tn
grave in the churchyard she said
"Sleep we'll now,tor few days, in tn
cold burial bed, and let not the tim
seem long to thee. | have now but llttl
more to do,and then it will be day again.
AS she was going away she looked bac
once more aAd said, "What the cart
has once restored will not second tim
withhold.