Iowa County democrat. [volume] (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1877-1938, 1879-04-11
FULFILLING A MISSION.
BY BESSIE NJ. FOSTER.
Baltimorcan.


Every lite is Il romance however
quiet and unnoticed an existence may
be, it still holds within its chalce mine
of poetry, a wealth of undiscovered
beauty, depth of woe. We give to
the world the lives of celebrated men
photographs; but what life ever has
been, or can be, fully and properly
written? What power can give any
tangible expression to the thoughts and
emotions that burn and glow within; to
the secret workings and WRITINGS vi
human hearts? An, what Titan brush
can paint the ebb and flow of one life
current! Then how many deeds of
high and noble heroism, of which the
world dreams not are daily enacted.
How harmonious and beautiful were
the lives of those self-sacriticing and de-
voted Christian women, Hannah Moore
and Charlotte Bronte, and those sisters
of song, Phoebe and Alice Carey! And
vet the half of their intrinsic worth has
never been revealed; no pen save that
of the Recording Angel could have fifty
portrayed their unostentatious charities,
deathless loves and unheralded acts OF
self-abnegation. We have sufficient,
however, even in their lives to demon
strate "how divine thing Il woman
may be made;" but Is there not royal
tablet within each heart upon which is
inscribed in diamond characters deeds
of devotion and faith that have come
under our own observation, which will
ever keep our souls pure from the loath-
some taints of misanthropy and skep-
ticism. and perfume them with a subtle
aroma? Could even | give to the world
the outline of beautiful hidden life
whose memory is often with me, it
might at least show how much of SIM
pie beauty, of patient suffering, of lofty
endurance, of silent triumph and secret
defeat, has passed by unnoticed and UNI
sung.
Some lives are like fragrant incense,
which all have blessed, but which no
one has sought to analyze. Such life
was that of Evelyn Glare. Her fine
sensitive nature, strengthened and en-
riched by no gentle mother or sister
love, chung instinctively to all that was
pure and ideal, with no thought of
life's stern duties and responsibilities to
mar the rhythm of her ethereal exist
ence. In the shadow of her great
clustered home her beauty developed
as freely and fully as that of the fawn
in the forest, or the violet in the woods.
Evelyn was indeed lowered with u
beauty such as awakens the inspiration
poet and artist-that Of Petrarch' Is
Laura, the speaking eye, rare smile and
golden hair But think not, gentle
reader, that my highest conceptions of
beauty are comprised within the limits
of mere physical attractions. Such a
beauty the prince of philosophers
might we'll term "a short-lived tyran-
n.y." but her loneliness was of that SEN
sitive, spiritual, refined type, whose
every expression exteriorizes the soul,
reminding one Of an imprisoned light
within translucent vase.
Years before when the weary, sad
eyed mother had exchanged her cross
for crown of stars, the old people
sighed and looked with tender compass
sion at the waxen purity Of her darling;
but as the years sped by and the pale
precocious child grew to tall, dark
eyed girl, 1.-THE and graceful as young
willow, mysterious fears were stilled,
and dim eyes no longer followed her
shadCwy form. just as Evelyn was
entering her seventeenth year, an event
occurred which was destined to mould
and color her whole existence. This
was the death of the father whom she
so tenderly loved; yet he was scarcely
more dead to her now than in the
gloom and reticence of his shadowed
life. But when "God unloosed his
weary star" the reality and desolation
of orphanism came to her heart with a
dual power. Fitful as hao been that
fathers demonstrations of affection,
still she ever felt the silent presence Of
his love and guardianship, and what
depths of comfort and happiness are
comprised in these few simple words.
The naples we're crlmsoning meath
the breath of autumn when the widow
ed cousin to whose charge she had
been consigned became installed as mis-
tress at Woodley. Cousin Miriam was
accompanied by her young step-son,
Ernest Beaumont. Aesthetic in tastes,
and Of nature warm and impressive,
can YOU wonder that he was soon at
tracted BIZ the quaint LONELINESS OF the
gentle orphan? To him, so weary Of
the hollow smiles and frivolous fiattery
OF the city belle, there was something
indescribably sweet and inylgorating
about this little country maiden; some
thing suggestive of the shady freshness
Of her native woods. Oh! it was rare
delight to watch that guileless face with
its radiant smile, the color and light
kindling in cheek and eye with each VA
rying emotion. II, as some one has 20
forclbly expressed ii, "a face il beauti-
ful in proportion as il says something
70 US which We are DESTROYS Of hear
ing" this face was indeed lovely to
him, for in every glance Of the dark,
lustrous eyes, every fall Of the snowy