The Milan exchange. (Milan, Gibson County, Tenn.) 1874-1978, 1878-06-06
TELEMACHUS VERSUS MENTOR.

Don't mind me, ] beg you, old fellow, I'll dc
very well here alone;
You must not be kept from your German
because I've dropped in like stone;
Leave all ceremony behind you, leave al
thought OF aught but yourself,
And leave, you like, the Madeira, and doz-
en- cigars on the shelf.
As for me, you will say to our hostess ell :
scarcely need give you cue.
Chant my praisel All will list to Apollo,
though Mercury pipe TO q few;
Say just what you please, my dear boy
there's more eloquence lies In youth
rash
Outspoken heart impulse that eyer growled
under this grizzled mustache.
Go, don the dress-coat of our tyrant-youth S
panoplied armor for light
And tie the white neckclOth that rumples,
like pleasure, and lasts but night,
And pray the Nine Gods to avert you what
time the Three Sisters shall frown,
And you'll lose your high-comedy figure, and
sit more at ease in your gown.
He's off, There's his foot on the staircase.
By Jove, what a boundl Really now
Did ever leap like this springald, with
Loves chaplet green on my brow?
Was 7 such an ass? No, fancy. Indeed, /
remember quite plain:
A gravity mixed with my transports, cheer
fulness softened my pain.
He's gonel There's the slam of his cab door.
There's the CHATTER of hoofs and the
wheels,
And while the light toe he is tripping, in this
arm chair I'll tilt up my heels.
He's gone, and for WHAT For a tremor from
a waist like a teetotum spun;
For rose bud that's crumpled by many be-
fore it is gathered by one.
Is there naught in the halo of youth but the
glow of passionate race
Midst the cheers and applause of a crowd
to the goal of a beautiful face?
A race that is not to the swift, prize that no
merits enforce,
But is won by some faineant youth who shall
simply walk over the course?
Poor boy! shall shock his conceit? When
he talks of her cheeks loneliness,
Shall say twas the air of the room, and was
due to carbonic excess?
That when Waiting she dropped on his
breast, and the veins of her eyelids grew
dim,
Twas oxygen's absence she felt, but never
the presence OF him?
Shall tell him First Love is a fraud, a weak
ling that's strangled in birth,
Recalled with perfunctory tears, but lost In
unsanctified nirth?
Or shall bid him believe in all Womanklnds
charm, and forget
In the light ringing laugh of the world the
rattlesnake's gay casunet!
Shall 1 tear out a leaf from my heart, from
that book that forever is shut
On the past? Shall l speak of my first love
Augusta-my Lalage? But
| forget. Was it really Augusta? No. Twas
Lucy No. Mary No. Dill
Never mind, they were all first, ana falthlessI
and yet-Pve forgotten just why.
No, no. Let him dream on and ever. Alas
he viii wal1en too soon;
And il doesn't look well for October to al
ways be preaching at June.
Poor bOyl All his fond foolish trophies pm
ned yonder-a bow, from her hair,
few 6ilIets- d01Lr, invitations, and-what's
this? My name declare.
Humph you'll come, for I've got you
prize-with beauty and money no end;
You know her, l think: twas on dit she once
was engaged to your friend;
But she saws that's all over" All, is it! Sweet
Etheli Incompatible maidi
Or-what if the thing were a trick:-this let
ter so freely displayed
My OppOrtune presence No! nonsense!
Win nobody answer the bell?
Cau a cab Half past ten! Not too late! Oh,
Ethel. Why don't you go? Well?
:" Master said you would wait" Hang your
masterl "Have L ever a message to
send:'
Yes tell him I've gone to the German to
dance with the friend of his friend.
Bret Harte, in Harper's for June.