Dodge City times. [volume] (Dodge City, Kan.) 1876-1892, 1878-02-23
MY FIRST LOVE LETTER.
RY GRACE GEFENwoon.

Have | ever told you, Nell, of my first
love letter? | presume not. Ii is q
story ] have not been very fond of tell
ing. But years bring to me, if not phil
osophy, a comfortable sense of the COM
ical in regard to all early illusions and
dis-illusions
The moment of opening and reading
the first love letter is thrilling, an au-
gust point of time in which all the
spring tides of passionate young life
seem to meet in a swift, dizzying whirl
of emotion. If from the right man,
what triumphant JOY! If from sutton
one can not smile on, what sweet pain
But You know all about it, dear
was very young when | received my
first love letter-indeed, not perma-
nently out of short frocks and the bread
and-butter age.
Having lived the greater portion of
my life in the country, the companion of
my brothers, l was desperate romp
and gypsy, delighting to roam the fields
and the woods, preferring the fishing
rod 10 the needle, and even the stable
TO the parlor. As vet, fine horse was
the rival Of all mankind in my young at
fections. Still | had read Scott, Edge
worth, Hemans and l.. L. L., with an
occasional stealthy dip into Byron, and
had my own foolish little romantic
dreams of my hero, my fairy prince,
who was to come in Loves good time.
| used to dream of him, as | sat like
little Ellie, among the alders, with nv
feet in the brook, or as | rode along in
the woods. Thought little of his pedi-
gree, but resolved that ne must have
a patrician Greek profile, dark blue eyes,
and black curling hair, coming down on
his lofty brow in a Byron peak |
made no account of houses or lands in
Loves Arcadia; but my hero must pos
sess a fine horse. The :. steed of steeds''
was a sine qua non.
Our removal from country to town
was an absolute sorrow to me. with nv
nature-loving heart, and wild, free hab-
its. | hated the busy monotony, the
thronged loneliness, the dull whirl of
city life. could only console myself
with occasional flights back into nv old |
rural haunts. From the longest, rough
est tramps | returned refreshed, pre-
pared to endure what | could not cure. |
I"came out" prematurely and tenn
porarily when | was scarcely fifteen, on |
the occasion Of large wedding party. |
wore a long dress and white Kid gloves 1
for the first time. My hair was curled. |
Oh, the torture of night and the hide
BUSINESS of day in curled papersl | |
wore natural flowers and carried a huge
bouquet
Distressingly diilident, not to say
| early in the evening retired !
% deep window seat, where | remain
ID watching the merry groups of we'd
ling guests, and listening to their easy
,hatter, with childish wonder and de-
light.
Among the gayest of the gay was a
certain far young lady whom l had
Known for some time as my double.
Not that she was in the least like me.
She was blonde-very much blonde
While was very brunette She was
distinguished for sumptuousness of at
ire; and dress was not then, any more ,
han IT is now, my besetting sin. or pc
ullar virtue, whichever You incline to
steem it. But, oddly enough, this fair
ady bore my name precisely, surname
nd bapiismal. used to think the cir