The Ouachita telegraph. [volume] (Monroe, La.) 1865-1889, 1878-08-30
TO THE ABSENT.

fashionable summer resorts in the |
mountains beyond tho Ouachita. None
of these families have left their onion
patches, or have failed to SOW their
turnips, because they We're afraid of
the. yellow fever getting to Monroe,
but because this summer seems to be |
the only one in twenty years when
little country air was necessary and
when chills, bilious fever, cholic and
teething were exceptionally rare in
Monroe. Several hitherto unknown |
summer resorts have been discovered
with the aid of land Office maps, and |
new roads have been blazed out where
only the much despiscd land-pike was
wont to travel In search of his daily
acorn or coveted wallow. Across the
river, but not far from Monroe, lies a
country, like the Knobs of Tennessee,
where there is nothing but recreati ON
and health. 1t has grown popuious
all of a sudden, so that nearly every
knob has it's infant orator who thun-
ders back to his nearest neighbor (and
his mother) the fierce invectiyes Of tho
cradle. 80
We have Watched the steady low
of this tide OF emigration. westward,
and when we have seen fathers and
children, and husbands and wives sep
arating, bidding each other adieu--the
world itself seeming to slip away-the4
fathomless deeps of our being have
been disturbed. The poor heart
broken mother, with her little ones
hanging about her, crying for candy,
just about to leave her husband-he
for whom she had sacrificed every
thing, and gone to the dogs to do it,
struggling westward for health and re-
creation in two-horse wagon filed
with pots, skilIets, the last Fashion
magazine, and poor little Tom, the
baby, not weaned it has been dread
full. And that poor disconsolate hus-
band, to have seen him, as we have,
bowed down with grief at the parting,
his face in his hands and tear-drop
at the end of his nose, thinking, as he
did, what hard time Mahala would
have getting along away out there
without him-nos one to make her
fires, to wash the dishes, dress little
Tom, or to fuss at, nay not even a cat
Tor dog to lift out OF his boots-ife, this
poor husband, has inspired us with
monumental admiration for the male
sex. No such grief as his, while 1t
lasts.
But ladies and absent wives, mourn
not because your lords are disconsolate.
They are we'll, and a joiiier lot of dogs
never gathered at bear hunt. Hardly
i I,ad Al n xxycafarn
bank of the Ouachita, and before little
Toms screams grow faint, your hus
bands began to revive. They grew
tbetter gradually, and the world seemed
to grow brighter, and they have sale
to us they were never. happier in thei1
lives, after such short Acquaintance
with grief. They act like men wht
had purpose in life-working lik'
Turks to keep you in recreation ant
, health. They even say that, sad a
the separation was, and hard as you
enforced absence is to bear, shirt but
, tons arc cheap and somebody can b.
found to sew them on, and that yol
had better go further west. II i
3 thought the miasma, or the infection
) is not half SO bad over in the Rex
, poor husbands feel is, that you are 8,
near, and not further away from TIN
scene of pestilence where they ar
braveIy risking their lives fighting tn
1 epidemic.
4 Those of our lady friends who car
p ried their pestilential husbands wit
them to the summer resorts need no
be too sanguine of having saved then
!, from the scourge. We have seen som
of these escaped convicts in Monroe i
. the very midst of the pestilencc. The
> rush into danger, and up and dow
Grand and DeSiard streets, with a
indifference which is almost appalling
They even venture out to Five Point:
- for no other reason than to tssee tn
It cars come in" They defy even tn
q East wind, drink ice water, and laug
y as naturally as men possibly can. w
have seen men utter reckless of Twin,
n but never any like these escaped pin
" hill husbands.
# But let us all be honest, confess OIL
l. shortcomings, make up, and unite
8 looking to killing frost. Set I'll
n hands of the clock a-going, and haste
/. the reunion of these divided hous