River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1879-01-09
ROMANCE IN REAL LIFE.

daughter lately deceased. VINO was
strangely disfguIed. While her face
was ugly to deformity, her neck was COW
cred with hair, and an exchange tells us
that Iiterateur of repute in Paris in
tends her for one of the principal figures
of novel he long ago outlined. He had
made her study, but forbore to put her
to artistic use during her life. She would
certainly make strong character In the
hands of some such author as Feuillet,
lola or Cberbuilliez. Her very person
as decribed-the exaQp Grated lnharmo-
nieus features, combining Jewish, Nor
man and African types, the preturbant,
pale blue eyes, the patches of coarse red
in her yellow cheeks, turning purple In
cold weather, and the huge sensual
mouth-would furnished striking fig
ure for the morbid kind of story many
Frenchmen delight tenarrate, especially
when their love of contrast can be graft
fed by depicting her form, said to be all
grace and symmetry, and to have pre-
served its freshness and suppleness to the
last. The very idea of hideous head
Joined by thick hisute neck to beau
tiful body is enough to captivate the
imagination of literary Gaul. And
then the fact of her being very intellec-
ual, learned and witty; of her marrying
man that lost his reason the day succeed
ing the wedding, and his refusal to see
her after his release from the asylum,
combined with her final love for blind
savant, whom she soIaced with sympa
thy and readings from the poets, and OF
her death in convent-what could be
more singular, unexpected or melo-dra-
matte in fictions Her life was romance
ready-made.
We know Of case somewhat similar
to this, and equally distressing.
Some years since--it makes no differ
ence when-in one of our departments,
and it is not of the slightest importance
which--a girl held the position as copy
list who was remarkable for her deformity
and her beauty.
She reversed the fact of ugliness in the
case of the daughter of Dumas; for while
her body was horribly deformed her heaG
was a model of womanly beauty. Her
features were regular to fault. Her
complexion We'd in delicacy the ocean
tinted interior of a she'll. Her chin
rounded out like the bow of Cleopatras
barge, Just broad and prominent enough
TO give force to the sweet face above.
Her mouth had enough sweetness and ex-
preston for any other womans full face,
and at the ends of the sensitive lips,
where the two bows of Cupid terminated,
instead of running off in weak lines, they
ended in two little wells, from which one
could imagine love flowed out ever fresh
and abundant. Her eyes We're dark hazel,
large and luminous. They were hairs
breadth over the width of one eye apart,
and gave, in this, to the face that frank,
honest winning look that s1ch width
ever indicates. Over all this was woman's
GROWING glory, great mass OF nut
brown hair, through which there seemed
TO play the caught and tangled sunlight
for sixteen years.
Passing from this to the body was like
passing from the exquisitely chiseled
head of marble saint to the charnel
house below. The poor girl did not seem
TO have any part of the human frame In
its proper place or answering to Its prop
er JUNCTION.
If was all the result of a cruel causalty
that happened when she was young. She
had hurried from home one winter night
ia search of medical relief for sick
moth, r, lost her way, fell, perishing from
cold, and was picked up hours after, to
linger for months between life and death,
and death held all of her but her lovely
head.
How nature accommodates herself to
the inevitable 1t was years before she
was free of pain, and when at last she
could hobble about in a difficult way on
crutches, she seemed to look at life as
cheerfully as anyone. The sweetness
her nature had not been destroyed by
pain, nor the cruelest wrong that could
be done to woman.
She was poor, and her misfortunes Sc
cured her place where she could earn
her plain food and poor lodgings.
This was the day in the Evolutionary
past before the penitentiary system pre-
vailed in the departments, and the Gov
eminent. not so poor as now, was able TO
employ gentlemen, as heads of bureaus.
The one who ruled Immediately over the
room in which the girl worked was not
only gentleman, but one of those sensl
tive natures that go TO wreck on the rocks
of life from not being iron-clad. His III
tellect and culture has secured Tor him a
comfortable piece in the department, and
into this he settled TO dream of what he
would do some day and never did.
1t was observed that this official was
very fond of lingering about the desk OF
the deformed girl. and the other inmates
of the room spoke to each other OF his
goodness. After a time it was observed
that the two continued talking and laugh
ING after business hours. And then he
began the practice Of helping her from
and to the building.
One afternoon, at the end OF long,
pleasant talk, she was about leaving, when
he suddenly seized upon her thin, white
fingers, that had been blighted by shak-
inc hands with death. and in rather
confused sort CT wav, as if the utterance
choked him, he poured into her ears
passionate avowal OF love, ending IN ask
ing her to be his wife.
It is said by those inhuman brutes In
human form who kill deer by cutting the
thOat of the poor animal while swimming
that the startled, pitiful pleading look of
the doomed creature is never forgotten.
1t was this sort of look the girl gave her
wooer She tried to speak as she with
drew her hard, but her lips only trem-
bIed and then she abruptly reaahed for
ner crutehes, and hobbIed from her room.
That night she wrote long letter to
the man who had so strangely approached
her. 1t was despairing cry ola lost soul.
Her poor heart under that deformed body
was as Reenly alive TO the one passion
that controls humanity as that of any
other heart. But she shrank in terror
from that for which she llnged and
seemed dying to possess. But she put
away his love and never returned to her
desk.
Not long after she was desceding the
Hudson upon steamer, and sat looking
dreamingly upon the beautiful country
that seemed to swing by in the golden
haze OF q summers day, when she was
approached by a tall gentleman, whose
heavy black beard made him resemble a
benevolent old fogy looking over hedge.
He introduced himself as Doctor-of
New York, and apologizing for his in
trusion, went on to ask her many ques-
tions as to her condition. He ended by
asking her to try his system Of treatment.
1.-THE brain is all right; the heart, lungs
and stomach are sound. he said. 'eThes
limbs Of yours only need proper
training and exercise to make you well e
II would be glad, she responded, shut |
am toe poor.
"Never mind that, he said s.come to
IL 4. A l. 1T -rY1 SC