The Bolivar bulletin. [volume] (Bolivar, Hardeman County, Tenn.) 1865-1888, 1879-08-07
Beautiful Words to a Bride.
The following beautiful letter was

The following beautiful letter was
written, several years ago, by gen
ticman to a bride. on receiving her
wedding cards. 1t is exquisitely fresh
and original, and full of poetry
Though not intended for publication,
it found lis way into print, and we
think it is too much of a gem to be
lost entirely:
Il am holding some pasteboard in my
hands, Addie Three stately pluck
ings from the bush of ceremony! am
gazing on a card and name-a name
with which your gentle life began-a
name with which your throbbing heart
was lost. There is nothing strange
about the card. The maiden sign
still looks from it, calm and customa-
~, as it looked on many a friendly Wis
it, as it lies in many a formal basket,
am gazing, too, upon card where
the nearer parent tells the world she
will be at home one day, and that is
nothing new But there is another
card whose mingling there puts fiery
tongue into this speechless pastcbcard. D..
enameling fate on common places. It
tells us that feeling is maturing into
destiney and that these cards are but
the pale heralds of coming crisis,
when hand that has pressed friends
hands and plucked flowers, shall close
down on him to whom she shall be
friend and flower forever.
Il have sent you few flowers to
adorn the dying moments of your single
life. They are the gcntlest types of n
delicate and durable friendship. They
spring up by our side when others have
deserted it, and they will be found
watching over our grave when those
who should cherish have forgotten US.
1t seems meet to me that a pastso calm
and pure as yours should expire with
kindred sweetness about it. The
flowers and music, kind friends and
earnest words, should consecrate the
hour, when a sentiment is passing into
a sacrament.
The three great stages of our being
are the birth, the bridal, and burial
To the first we bring only weakness
for the last we have nothing but dust.
But here at the altar, where life Joins
life, the pair come throbbing up to the
holy man, whispering the deep prom
ise that arms each other with the 9th
er's heart, to help OH the life struggle
of care and duty.
The beautiful will be there, bor-
rowing new beauty from the scene;
the gay and the frivolous. they and
their fiounccs, will come to gaze on all
their scattered thoughts pant for; and
age will totter up to hear the old words
repeated that to their own lives have
given the charms.
"Somc will weep over it as if it were
the tomb, and some will laugh over it
as if it were a joke. Two must stand
by it, for it is fate-nOt fun-this
everlasting locking of their lives.
And now can you, who have
queened it over so many bended forms
can you come down at last to the fru-
gal diet Of a single heart?
Hitherto you have been a clock,
giving your time to all the world.
Now you are a watch, buried in one
particular bosom, watching his breast,
marking only his hours, and ticking
only to the beat Of his heart-where
time and feeling shall be in unison,
until these lower ties are lost III that
higher wedlock, where all hearts are
united around the great central heart
Of all.
''Hoping that calm sunshine may
hallow your claSped hands, | sink 81
lently into signature. Temperance
Ensign