, 1879-08-24
WIDOWS.


There is no human being under the Sui
half 50 interesting Us the widow. Pathos
tenderness, and subdued melancholy ha1loV
the person Of beautiful young widow g.
many-scented perfumes sweeten the atnnos
phere which lovingly caresses bed Of JUNE
roses. She is the incarnation of an amor
ous poem and the heroine of q tragedy
She has been wooad aud won, has indulgsd
in exquisite dreams Of love in a shoreles<
paradise, gazed into the unfathomabla
abysses of the unknown through the fading
eyes Of her 1over-husbaad, suffered tht
stormy pang5 of separation in the Valley
Of the Shadow Of Doath, and, out OF the
gloom, stepped again into the glaring sun.
light of life, her eyes dimmed with tears.
This struggle with the forces Of life and
death-th1s sublime episode, too brief to
chill the heart-has stirred all the emotions
and passions of her soul to their profound.
est depths. With the bloom Of girlhood
still on her cheek, and the careless pride
Of youth still flashing in her eye, sha
realizes that joy, grief, and agony have con-
ferred upon her all the powsrs and RESPONSE
bllities of mature womanhood. Sha tepderly
lays away the ramains of her husband in
the ground, weeps, plants flowers in the
"heaped-up earth," and resumes her pill
! grimags. And as the turf, watered with
! gentle showers, after q time springs with
| living green, 50 the young widow dries her
tears with smiles, and blooms afresh like the
| rose. Let mankind beware Of this woman
| in weeds! Beautiful as girl, charming as
wife, she is enchanting as widowi Does
she choose to please, she is % coy as
! maiden just building into womanhood, and
her Widows cap half conceals, half reveals
her bushes. Is she assailed so much as by
rude glance, she summons the shade of
her late husband with wave Of her Grape
veil, and, like lightning darting from the
Cimmerian depths Of q cloud. flashes back
glance of mingled reproach sndscorn. Hewho
would not surrender forever the freedom OF
bachelorhood- he who would not become, on
the instant, desperate, fond, foolish. slayish
lover, beyond the hope Of reprieve- him
flee the fascinating society Of the young
and charming widow who smiles or frowns
from downcast eyes upon whose 1ashes trem-
bles tear.
But there are widows and widows. Nan
kind seems to be bent upon making wives
widows, NAPo1EoSI. devoted his whole life,
except the few years spent at St. Helena, to
the making of widows. NAPOLEON H., of
whom V1croR HUGO said: fsHe was neither
the nephew Of his uncle, the son Of his
father, nor the father Of his son" followed
the same pursuit until he was suddenly !
stopped in his mad career at Sedan. Queen
V1cronrA has been making widows in Zulu
land and Afghanistan, and the Gear of Russia
is making *tgrass" widows through the
process Of exiling Nihi1ists to Siberia. Our
own great War for the Union left its harvest
Of widows, whose every tear was throb Of |
patriotic sacrifice which thrilled, and still !
thrills, the national heart.
Peace also hath its triumphs. The deadly |
"damp," the friehtful explosion, and the |
overwhelming food in the mine make
widows by the thousand. Dissipated hus-
bands drop by the wayside, as they stagger
towards home for the last time, victims of.
the all-destroying " cup" leaving widows to
weep,-sometimes, alas with joy. specu-
1a.ors driven to despnir by cruel reya.ses
blow out their brains, leaving widows to
struggle alone. In the hurly-burly of mod
ern activity men wear out their lives through
intense application in the pursuit Of art,
science, literature, business, and full q sacri-
dce to their spirit of devotion, leaving widows
To mourn their untimely loss, or enjoy their
gains. Hence the world is, as
it were, full Of widows of every type,-wid.
ows gentle and widows austere; widows as
poor as jon when he was ADVISED to curse
1oD and >die, and widows with downes
worthy the ambitious wooing Of Princes and
widows as harmless o.
loves, and widows as cunning as serpents;
Widows who modest1y hide their virtues and
charms beneath weeds, and widows who ex-
ooss their ugliness in gaudy toilets and
parade their doubtful attractions in coach
md four; widows who weep, and widows
Who laugh; widows who sigh for husbands
ost, and widows who sigh to be re-wed:
Widows who are wooed, and widows who |
VOC; widows who worried their husbands |
o death, and widows who barely escaped
,eing worried to death; widows fnir, fat,
nd forty, and widows forty, but neither fat
lor fair; widows Of sixteen, and widows of
ixty. Who shall describe them? Who can
,aint their: virtues, their follies; their arts
nd vanities, THAR tricks and manners?
It il the twilight hour Of hot summer
lay. The scorching, southern wind, whose j
ery breath is as the breath OF furnace, !
as given place to cool breeze which steals .
q from the lake, makes music in the trees,
nd revives the dropping plants and flowers.
'ho grand boulevard is thronged with car- s
iages. There is every Style Of equipage, q
rom the racers delicate-wheeled skeleton
uggy TO the ponderous family coach of the r
urse-proud millionaire. The horses sniff |
10 inyigorating breeze, and step proudly, al =
conscious Of temperance Of the burdens =
2ey beer along the smooth roadway. There /,
re hundred distinguished beauties in the i
uge procession, blondes, .brunettes,-beau- :
es Of every type,-beaut1es Of sixteen, who
lush aud drop their eyes under the bold :