The Pulaski citizen. [volume] (Pulaski, Tenn.) 1866-current, 1878-08-29
For the Citizen.
THE TWO CAPS:
The White and Black Cap.
BY EsTELLE vEHSE.

BY EsTELLE vEHsE.
"Is not the life OF woman all bound up
| In her affectionsl-Whath hath she TO do
In this bleak world alonel-It may be well
For man on his triumphal course to move
Uncumbered by soft bonds; but we were born
For love and grief"
Her small slender hands are
clasped listlessly in her lap; her
white cap border sits close to her
pallid brow, shutting almost from
sight her snowy hair that has been
bleached by heart sorrows. A dark
circle underlines the coal black eyes,
and now and then the once proud
lips twitch with pain as the eyes.
unconscious of things present, look
back startled over the years that
lay in tne past-ah, the past! "The
remorseless Past stands ever near,
breathing through the broken cords
of life its never ending dirge.'
Now as she turns her fine strong
profile, worn with many a deep
seam, towards the setting sun, it
looks as if carved from Cararra
marble and frozen in its gaze, upon
things seen, that are invisible to all
other eyesi
Would you like to have the story
of this lonely and once brilliant and
beautiful womanl Then come with
me out under the hill to the rustic
seat, where the shadows lie deep
and long. and the cool waters ripple
by peacefully on their way to the
fathomless deep, and will tell you.
Many years ago she was proud,
wealthy, petted belle. In her high
social position, and with her varied
accomplishments, she queened it
without a rival and married a gen
tleman every way worthy of her
hand; her equal in refinement and
cultivation, but not her equal in
wealth. 1t was purely a loye-match,
t'Two souls with but single thought,
Two hearts chat beat as one.''
He was splendid physician, and
did not have to wait long for prac-
tice and the appreciation and eclat
of the community in which he lived.
AS surgeon, he was not sur
passed, and his fame soon spread to
distant cities, to which places he
was oft summoned in his profes-
sional capacity He came back
from one of these laborious visits,
sickened and died suddenly when
his son and only child, the subject
of this sketch, was four years old,
leaving the little baby boy to his
idolized wife with many prayerful
admonitions for his training, and !
earnest interest for their future.
ia midnight swooped down to BRIDE |
groom the day."
and the poor mother awaked from |
her stupor to clasp her little treas
ure to her bosom, the image and |
part and parcel of him she loved so
well. She Yorshiped her son, ador
ing his beauty as he grew round |
her knee, indulging his every whim
and caprice, believing il would be
time enough to draw the lines over
her rebellious Absalom when older;
laughing and repeating his bright !
little sayings and naughty tricks of
disobedience to all who had the pa
thence to listen. She could not bear |
to hear his conduct criticised, or
his growing faults censured that
were visible to all eyes save hers. |
His little sswhite lies" as she de-
nominated them, and his cruelty to
his cat, and tearing off the legs and !
wings of bugs, sticking pins through !
their quivering bodies, were a spe-
cial source of amusement to this !
over-indulgent mother, seldom meet |
ing with a rebuke, and never pun
ishment. By-and-hy, the hoy was
taken i'll, very i'll in his seventh
year, just three years after his eX-
oellent father was laid III his grave.
His beautiful mother, convulsed |
with grief, never left the bedside of
her darling boy, and everything 9 !
that human hands could do and hu-
man brain devise, was done. Two
of the best physicians, and old tried /
friends of Ler husband from the /
nearest city, remained in the house,
never both leaving the room at the |
same time; giving their unwearied |
attention, yet the child's life how
cred for days on the confines of
death, and seemed that it must 90,
despite their skill-must be taken /
to safer Arms, to be saved from,
perhaps, who knows2 "the troubles /
to come"
The mother raFed to her physi-
clans, raved over child, raved to her
God Dropping on her knees at
the bedside, and In mad words
poured forth to Our Father, that he
had taken her husband in the very |
hey-day of manhood from her. al
most without a warning, leaving
those that could have heea spared |
-useless oumberers of the earth |
and now she must yield up her
son, the only thing in all the earth /
she had to lovei What had she
done TO merit such injustice, such
affliction? Why should SUCH bright
eyes close, such sunny locks damp
en- in the mould of the grave? Why
should these beautiful tender limbs
be food for worms and rottenness,
when she would, o, pity
.wring her Hfs dry. for his lips, to drink,
Break II up for his daily breadp