Smyrna times., 1878-01-16
The Miners Bride.
BY A. d.

In Falun, mining town in Sweden, |
hundred years or more ago, a young miner
kissed his fair bride, and said to her:
"On St. Lucas day our love will be
blessed by the priests hand. Then we
shall be husband and wife, and we will
build us little nest of our own"
"And peace and love shall dwell in it,
said the beautiful bride, with sweet smile,
"for thou art my all in all, and without
thee would choose to be in my grave"
But when the priest, in proclaiming
their banns in the church for the second
time before St. Lucia's Day, pronounced
the words: " If, now, any one can show
reason why these persons should not be
united in the bonds Of matrimony, "death
was at hand. The young man, as he passed
her house the next morning in his black
mining -garb, already wore his shroud. He
raped upon her window and said good
morning, but he never returned to say good
evening. He never came back from the
mine, and all in vain she embroidered for
AAAAAA va NAA"S w. LAOAAAi q O4ttSh Nlafob
with red border for the wedding day.
This she hid carefully away and never
ceased to mourn for him.
Meanwhile time passed on, the seven
years war was fought, the partition of
Poland took place; America became free
the French Revolution and the long war
began, Napoleon subdued Prussia and the
English bombarded Copenhagen. The
husbandman sowed and reaped, the miller
ground, the smith hammered and the
miner dug after the veins Of metal in the
subterranean workshops.
AS the miners of Falun, in the year 1909,
a little before or after St. Johns Day, were
excavating an opening between two shafts
full three hundred ellis below the ground,
they dug from the rubbish and vitrol water
the body Of young man entirely saturated
with vitrol, but otherwise undecayed and
unaltered-so that one could distinguish
his features and age as we'll as if he had
died only an hour before, or had fallen
asleep for little while at work.
But when they had brought him out tc
the light of day, father and mother, friend,
and acquaintences had been long dead; ne
one could indentify the sleeping youth, ol
tell anything of his misfortune till she came
who was once the betrothed of that miner
who had one day gone to the mine anC
never returned. Gray and shriveled sh,
came to the place, hobblng upon a crutch
! and recognized her bridegroom, when, NOR
5 in joyful estacy than pain, she sank dow
upon the beloved form. AS soon as sh
had recovered her composure she exclainl
ed:
y 1t is my betrothed whom have mourn
/. ed for forty years: and whom God permit
A me to see once more before die. A weel
' before the wedding time he went under tn
r earth and never returned"
e All the bystanders were moved to tear
}. as they beheld the former bride, q waste
{ and feeble old woman, and the bridegroom
r still in the beauty of youth and how
n after the lapse Of forty years, her youthfr
# love awoke again. But he never opene
t his mouth to smile, nor his eyes to recoi
n nize; and she, finally, as the only one b
d longing to him and having a right to hin
IF had him carried to her little room till
e grave could be prepared in the churchyart
IF The next day, when all was ready and ii
% miners came to take hime away, she opel
n ed little drawer, and taking out the blac
,f silk cravat tied it around his neck and the
c. accompanied him in her Sunday garb,
d if it were her wedding day and not the ds
,r of his burial. AS they laid him in the gray
n of the churchyard- she said:
t. "Sleep well now, for few days, in II
il cold burial bed, and not let the time see
| long to thee. have now but little mo-
le to do, and then it will be day again."
n. she was going away she looked back on,
70 more and said, What the earth has ont
ne restored will not a second time withhold
Peru seems to be a promised land to IL
: Chinese. There are now in that COUNT
" between 10000 and 10000 of these peopl
nearly half the whole number in Californi
:" and their condition is described by Il
:" American Minister, Mr.. Gibbs, as in Il
: highest degree prosperous. Great numbe
= have obtained their freedom, they chi,
. all the rights of citizens, they intermar
with whites, and their prominence in ira,
or is rapidly increasing. To encourage the
on immigration still further, the Peruvi
ke Government has made provision for exte
te, sive transportation from Asia. We no
ng All Sin won't consider the hint too stro
ng but he has it in his power to walk
ds with the great California problem.
-. Since Henry Ward Beecher has tax
his late position on the question of be
20 the sales of pews in his church last we
=! amounted to only 5000 compared to 50
- =. 600 last year. His people evidently thi
- that there is no need of church pewl
there is no hell.