Lexington weekly intelligencer. (Lexington, Mo.) 1871-1887, 1879-09-06
WIDOWS.
from the Chicago Tribune. ;.

There Is no human being under the
sun half 80 interesting as the widow.
Pathos, tenderness, and subdued melan-
choly hallow the person Of a beautiful
young widow as many-scented perfumes
sweeten the atmosphere which lovingly |
caresses bed os June roses. She is the |
OF an amorous poem and the |
heroine of tragedy. She has been |
wooed and won, has indulged IN exquis- |
ite dreams of love in shoreless para
disc, gazed into the untathomable abyss
es of the unknown through the fading
eyes OF her lover husband, suffered the
stormy pangs of separation in the valley
of the shadow of death, and, out OF the
gloom, stepped again into the glaring
sunlight OF life, her eyes dimmed with
tears. This struggle with the forces OF
life and death-this sublime episode, too |
briet to chill the heart-has stirred all
the emotions and passions of her soul to
their profoundest depths. With the
bloom OF girlhood still on her cheek, and
the careless pride of youth still flashing
in her eye, she realizes that Joy, grief
and agony have conferred upon her all
the powers and responsibilities of mature
womanhood. She tenderly lays away
the remains OF her husband in the
ground, weeps, plants flowers in the
'sheaped-up earth," and resumes her
pilgrimage. And as the turf, watered
with gentle showers. after time springs
with living green, so the young widow
dries her tears with smiles. and blooms
afresh like the rose. Let mankind be-
ware of this woman in weeds! Beauti-
full as girl, charming as wife, she Is
enchanting as a widow! Does she
choose to please, she Is as coy as maiden
just budding into womanhood, and her
widows cap halt conceals. halt 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 a cloud,
flashes back a glance of mingled re-
proach and scorn. He who would not
surrender forever the freedom of bach
elorhood-he who would not become, on
the instant, desperate. fond, foolish,
slavish lover, beyond the hope OF re-
prieve-let him flee the fascinating soci-
ETY. of the young and charming widow
who smiles or frowns from downcast
eyes upon whose lashes trembles tear.
But there are widows and widows.
Mankind seems bent upon making wives
widows. Napoleon devoted his whole
life. except the few years spent at St.
Helena, to the making of widows. Ma
p0leon Ill, of whom Victor Hugo said:
He was neither the nephew OF his un-
Gle, 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 Victoria
has been making widows in Zululand
and Afghanistan, and the czar Of Russia
Is making "grass" widows through the
process Of exiting Nihilists to Siberia.
Our own great war for the union left its
harvest of widows, whose every tear was
throb of patriotic sacrifice which thrill
ed, and still thrills. the national heart.
Peace also hath its triumphs. The
deadly "damp," the frightful explosion,
and the overwhelming flood in the mine
make widows by the thousand. Dissi-
pated husbands drop by the wayside, as
they stagger toward home for the last
time, victims of the all-destroying cup.
leaving widows to weep-sometimes.
alas, with joy. Spectators driven to
despair by cruel reverses blow out their
brains. leaving widows to struggle
alone. In the hurly-burly of modern ac-
tivity men wear out their lives through
intense application in the pursuit of art,
science, literature, business, and fall a
sacrifice to their spirit OF devotion, leav-
ing widows to mourn their untimely loss,
or enjoy their accumulated gains. Hence
the world is, as it were, full of widows
Of every type-widows gentle and wild
ows austere; widows as poor as Job
when he was advised to curse God and
die, and widows with dowries worthy
the ambitious wooing OF princes and
fortune hunters; widows as harmless as
doves. and widows as cunning as SER
pents; widows who modestly hide their
virtues and charms beneath weeds, and
widows who expose their ugliness in
gaudy toilets and parade their doubtful
attractions in a coach and four; widows
who weep, and widows who laugh !;
widows who sigh for husbands lost, and
widows who sigh to be re-wed; widows
who are wooed. and widows who WOO !;
widows who worried their husbands to
death, and widows who barely escaped
being worried to death; widows fair, fat
and forty. and widows forty, but neither
fat nor fair; widows of sixteen and wid-
ows OF sixty. Who shall describe them ?
Who can paint their virtues. their follies,
their arts and their vanities. their tricks
and their mannersp
1t is the twilight hour OF hot summer
day. The scorching, southern wind,
whose fiery breath is as the breath of a
furnace. has given place to a cool breeze
which steals in from the lake, makes
music in the trees, and revives the
dropping plants and flowers. The grand
boulevard is thronged with carriages.
There is every style of equirage, from
the racers delicate-wheeled skeleton
buggy to the ponderous family coach OF
the purse-proud millionaire. The horses
sniff the invigorating breeze, and step
proudly, as if conscious of the impor-
tance OF the burdens they bear along
the smooth roadway. There are hun
dred distinguished beauties in the huge
procession, blondes, brunettes-beauties
OF every type-beauties of sixteen, who
blush and drop their eyes under the bold
stare OF the passers-by; beauties o.
twenty-five, rich in color, mature in
form, and schooled to the finish in al
the arts which go to make up the sun
ter. be they married or single, quail mo-
l oAuoA SA0 SoZo Va okoChG holAh atIOu
but toss their heads, proudly consciou.
OF their own loveliness. But on the
boulevard, as in the drawing-room
there is Queen. and she is widow
There, in that plain, substantial family.
carriage. see her! All eyes seek her a!
she passes. She is thirty eight il she i.
day, but she looks to be on the sunny
side of thirty. She is a superb figure
large, almost stout, but straight as al
arrow. and as trim and supple as cir
OF twenty. She is a brunette, with lus
trous, laughing, tawny brown eyes, thu
mouth of Hebe, teeth of pearl, and I
magnificent suit of chestnut hair al
glossy as the braided tresses OF child
She is the mother of sons grown t.
mans estate, but her complexion rival
that of the peach ripened in the alter
mating lights and shadows of the or
chard. Her smile is seraphic, and he
tair face is never disfigured by frown
CONSCIOUS OF her unchallenged empir,
over the hearts of men, she bows witt
the imperious grace of a duchess.
1t cannot be doubted that the mer
state of widowhood contributes power
fully to the charms of a woman. How
is the admitted fact to be accounted for
Is she refined and rendered more attrac
tive through her intimate association, il
/ the holy bonds of wedlock, with the ty
rant mapp Mon r,;pht oo,ont to ~;