Mexico weekly ledger., 1881-10-27
OLD LADY GOSSIP.
$ (Phiiadslphia Tines.l

There is much pleasure to be had in
listening to q nice old lady as she gos-
sips of the people and customs and
things Of long ago; as she tells Of q 90
ciety that passed away ere we Of this
late generation were born; Of the build
ing of the houses which were old when
we were young, and of those who dwelt
in them-the grave citizens and their
fair danes who led the town sixty years
back, and whose names strike upon our
ears not a. strange and new, but rather
as awakened memories. It is pleasant,
indeed, to listen to her as she thus
brings before our eyes life-like those de-
tails OF person and place which in them.
selves arc trihing, yet without which we
can have nothing that approaches to q
perfect picture of the past. q. @
Most astonishing is the dear old lady's
memory! A little rambling she may be
in her talk; little uncerfain a. to tho
sequence of events, and in dates she al
ways is hopelessly ct sea. But the mate
rial points Of her narrative-the small
facts which give it strength and favor
and reality, are never lost. Her back
grounds may be hazy, but her portraits
and groups always are clcar-ife1ike,
because they are drawn truly from life.
And what matters it that love story
three score years old is not ticketed with
the very year to which it belongs? Sure
there is no place for such harsh crudities
as dates in q true romance. ssTt was
about the year 1925 or l630' is far less
striking beginning than, at was ten or
fifteen years after the beginning Of the
war" And If she il not interrupted by
the how, she, Is fairly certain in the long
run, telling her story in her own way, to
make it coherent and clear. Il: go
Sometimes she may treat Ydecorously
of the certain doubts and doubtful GER
tainties of the psst--with ne thought of
malice, yet in fashion to make the
backs of some of the nowadays "nice"
people creep awkwardIy In response to
the queer social rule that makes one re-
sponsible for the doings or misdoings of
ones grandfathers-bu most times her :
recollections run in more placid chan
nels and are busted only in bringing
once more to light the. queer, enter
taining memories Of the time when she
was young. l ..--s.is T..
One of the chief charms of her story.
telling is that you never know, when she
il fairly started, what she is going to
tell. 1t may be sketch of the good
Bishop White-silyer-haired, graceful,
serene in his perfect goodness; or Of that
stout veteran, Captain Anthony Morris
last of all .Philadelphians to wear
knee e-breeches; or of Father FILLMORE,
the eccentric rector of St PauPs; or
how the cows of well-to-do citizens were
pastured on the hospital lots; or of how
the Vatx Hall Garden was raked by q
mob; it may be one Of . hundred such
stories as these that she tells, or it may
be story in which, SO far as the facts
are concerned, there is nothing of inter.
est at all. But even when her stories
are commonplace, her hearers scarce will
find them dull; 50 sincere is her own In.
terest, in them, 80 genuine is the zest
with which they are told.
Mellowiy tender and full Of a sweet
fragrance are these gathered memories
of long ago, and very pleasant is it to
listen to them as they take form in gen.
tie words. They are, in truth, but the
shadows of the past; and yet heart un.
hardened by the world will find them
far better worth pondering upon than
are the angular realities sprung up in
our time. As the dear old lady pre-
sents them they have tinge Of true
pathos. To US of later generation,
they are memories of old, old times but
to her they are all memories Of the one
glad season when all was new--when the
eyes which are grown 80 old and see SO
much that is sorrowful, looked out hap
PLY upon the world and saw it brighter,
fresher, fairer than it il now, because