New Ulm weekly review. [volume] (New Ulm, Minn.) 1878-1892, 1878-07-31

away from GretCnenS SOUL all ta1nt OF
earthly longing. He who has sinned long
and deeply may require much repent
ance. She who has but erred in thought
and fancy yielded back her allegiance at
the first touch of chastisement, and lost
all dread Of suffering in the simplicity
of her trust.
But Gretchen is not to wear q martyrs
crown; all that is best and sweetest on
earth is her birthright, and the storm
that has gathered. over her head is
but the pretense of a tempest, after
all. She has entered the door of the
great courtroom, but we shall not follow
her, where she stands rapt in the con-
seriousness of innocence, and Indifferent
to the curious gaze of the multitude
gathered there to view her as specticle.
She has. no kinship with the hard, I'M
sympathetic men whose business it is to
administer justice to the erring world !:
still less can she DE troubled with the
groups of Gods lost chrildren who gath
er with morbid curiosity wherever anoth-
er recruit can be found to Join their
pitiable ranks.
Our business is with Christine, the
faithful servant, who, unable to witness
her darling's trial, has thrown herself in
despair at the foot of the little altar
wherein Gretchen has enthroned her few
sacred treasures, and where night and
morning she used to kneel in humble de-
votion. But Christine's thoughts are not
of prayer; rather are they of anger and
furious rebellion against world in which
such injustice can obtain. Her horny
withered fingers lace themselves impo-
tently together, as if in longing for some
thing they might tear and rend. At
last her tear-blinded eyes light upon an
article which she regards as suitable for
destruction. It is the blue dress. The one
memento of madame. All! if she might
but feel the delicate limbs of the owner
within her grasp as she does the poor gar
ment which once adorned them! At last
it shall be burned; but meanwhile no
trace of its hateful, intricate beauty, de-
.vised, as Christine thinks. by demons
and wrought out by fends, shall remain.
One by one delicate puff and ruf1e are
eliminated. Double destruction shall
light upon it; first, heap OF ruins, and
then a holocaust. When her darling
shall come back to the Wirthshaus, per-
haps as criminal who has served her
time alb how Chr.stine's fingers work as
she thinks of it! there shall be no obi
GUS blue mystery of millinery to rend her
little heart in twain with its loathsome
beauty.
But stop! What is the great hard thing
in the founce? Christmas fingers are
paralyzed, and with a great smothered
cry, she f1iugs herself oLce more before
he little, shrine, this time in rapturous
alteration Of the Holy Mother who has in
exposed to save her child. But there is
o time to be lost. Christine starts for
the kitchen. She must be off. Even now
the court is sitting, and sentence NAV be
passed. All! but she is old--old; so old
that she cannot save her DARN g. Time
and labor and many wintry winds laden
with rheumatism have done their work
But Marthe is young, Marthe can run.
And so it is Marthe who first reaches
the town, and burst into the solemn court
room, where, amidst signs and tears from
many in the audience, the grave judge is
calling upon the prisoner to stand up
and receive the dread sentence. Marthe
it is who hands the blue garment, shorn
now of all its pride and glory, to the be-
wildered officer OF the law, and waits in
breathless silence while he draws from
its folds the sad memento of q love dis
honored and betrayed.
But Christine also comes, jolted thither
by the grave donkey OF the Leichenbesor-
ger, which, being accustomed to the quiet
movements of the dead, could not
hurry for the living-comes at last.
but comes in time to receive her Lieb-
chen in her arms as she reaches the
outer steps of the courtroom. Rever-
emily they tarry for Christine's greeting
Christine, who has sorrowed as they do
sorrow over the children Of others who
have known no children OF their own.
Then one and all they press forward.
Little ones are raised to catch the first
glance from Gretchen's tender eyes, and
women clasp rheir hands in eagcrness to
hear her gentle greeting. Old Water
Workman, blind and feeble, suffers MIN.
self to be led forward by little child,
and poor Wilhelm, whose wooden leg
does but poorly for the one he lost SO
many years ago, struggles from the
bench where he has kept watch since
early dawn, and strains his deaf ears to
understand the story of the child's re-
lease.
It was very simple homecoming
The strength that had sustained title
Gretchen when the storm beat over her,
fled as the clouds lifted. Between them
they carried her to the tiny chamber in
the old Wirthshaus, and Land her on the
snowy bed, from which she was not to
rise again for many a week moi, indeed,