The weekly clarion. [volume] (Jackson, Miss.) 1863-1882, 1878-06-26
Two Dollars a Year.

and yet not very different from il, which
| will present in its brief entirety They
are verses bearing no authorship, yet We
do not know of any grander sentiment in
the English language. They are lines
addressed 10 a skeleton, that horrible
! spectre of our existence, that ever seems
to mock man, when in the height Of his
I pride and power. \ skeleton is an OBJ
/ ject that few persons like to look upon,
and yet the picture presented in the lines
referred to, is both horrible and beauti-
full. The CHASTITY skeleton itself is al
most obscured, by the grandeur of a pos
sible walk in life, which insures the
spirit that once inhabitated it, an exist
ence of bliss in the realms of enternity:
"Behold this ruin! Twas skull,
Once OF ETHEREAL spirit full,
This narrow cell was life's retreat,
This space was thoughts mysterious seat;
What beaateous visions filled this spot?
What dreams Of pleasure long forgot?
Nor hope, nor love, nor joy nor fear,
Has lett one trace OF record there.
Beneath this smouldering canopy
Once shOne the bright and busy eye;
But start not at the dismal void
1t social love that eye employed;
Ii with no lawless fire it CLEANED.
But through the dews of kindness beamed,
That eye shall be forever bright
When stars and suns are sunk in night.
Within this hollow cavern, hung
The ready, swift and tuneful tongue;
IL falsehood's honey it disdained,
And where il could not praise was chained;
Ii bold in virtues cause il spoke;
' ct gentle concord never broke;
That silent tongue shall plead for thee
When time unveils eternity.
Say, did these fingers delve the miner
Or with envied rubies shine?
To hew the rock or wear the gem,
But little now avail to them
But if the page of truth they sought,
And comfort to the mourner brought
These hands a richer need shall claim
Then all that wait on wealth or fame.
Avails it, whether bare or shod,
These feet the paths of duty trod!
Ii from the bowers of ease they fled,
70 seek affections humble shed;
If grandeur guilty bride they spurned,
And home 70 virtues cot returned,
These feet with angels wings should vie,
And tread the palace of the sky
And now in conclusion, we ask the
privilege of saying, by way Of depression,
to our brethren of the Press, that though
all of us cannot be poets, yet ours is the
privilege, Of exertingan influence in our
immediate spheres, not so lasting, yet, in
the ever living present in which we move,
can be made as potent for good, AS the
sublimest truths that were ever taught in
verse. We can be the Abou Ben Adj
hens, who love our tellowmen, and who
would set them an example, not in rude
contrast with the precepts we teach. We
cannot with effect, preach virtue and
practice vice. We must possess good
l.
denim the bad There is said to be a
great joy-though often a silent one-in
the heart of every man who can look
back and feel that he has led an upright
life, even if he has moved in It's hum
blest walks, and it has always seemed to
us that this joy would we'll UP in the
heart Of the journalist with a gladness
near unspeakahle, who at the close of his
career could feel that he had not only al
ways walked in virtues ways himself,
but had been instrumental is causing
many others to follow in his own we'll
imprinted footsteps.
A dying teachers last words in a de
lirium in which his mind wandered back
to the old schoOlroOm were, "stOrm is
coming, the school is dismissed" The
falling lawyer murmured, 'bring in the
prisoner sheriff, the case must be tried"
The New Orleans journalist said family,
only moment before his spirit started
out on its eternal voyage,
clock up the forms Sherman and let's go to
press
All, bretheren, when we lock up the
forms for the last time, may we feel that
falsehood and error were never knowing
iy locked up therein, and then will death
steal DER our falling senses rs gently as
the perfume from a land Of flowers, when
waited on the dewy air of springtime, to
some dreaming sleeper, who in fancy's
wandering, has drawn so near, the gates,
Of gold, at he seems to hear, the houries
harms in heaven.