The daily gazette., 1881-08-26
Too Late.

A broken-hearted wife lay dying, aud
her husband ,emorsefuiiy whispered, ~
love you'll have ever loved you'll! She
looked at him q moment ana simply an
swered: "You are too late," and di ID.
Are there none of us who are waiting
un Ill our friends die before we speak the
words of love and appreciation for which
the living hearts are yearhing? How Is
IL, husbandsp Are there none OF you
who truly love your wives, and who, il
they were to die to-day would feel that
words were too poor to portray either
their worth or your anguish, aud yet
who seldom by word or look or sign
give any outward expression to their
love2 None of you who rejoice III your
well-ordered houses, your Widespread
tables, your comfortable homes, and yet
never have q word Of praise for The busy
hand, or the governing brain that keeps
all the complicated machinery of the
household in motion? Do none OF you
receive all this as matter of course,
never thinking that 1t is churllsh and
niggardly to give no praise where praise
Is due ? And are there no wives who
forget that love, like Jealousy, grows by
what 1t feeds on, and that 1t Is far easier
to win q heart than 1t Is to keep it?
That to Keep the heart they have won is
the first, the sweetest duty Of the true
wifep None who have laid aside all
the pretty witcheries of their girlish days
and who, though their love is still
strong and true, have forgotten how to
be tender? 1 know some of you whose
hearts are warm and loyal, and who, If
your husbands were lying dead before
you, would doubtless feel that the light
of your lives had gone out and yet your
manner is SO cold, 80 Indifferent, that a
stranger would be justified in wondering
whether your love was not bound hand
and foot in the cerements Of the grave.
There are fathers and mothers
among you who really love your chill
dren tenderly; but yet who are so
irresponsive, SO little given to express
sion, that your boys and girls are in
doubt about it. You notice the crudi-
ties, the weaknesses, the seeming way
wardness that Is often only the unrest
of immaturity but you fail to recog-
nize the upward yearnings, the aspi-
rations, the blind out reaching of the
young soul after something higher and
better than itself. It is only after
they are dead that your children be-
come to you altogether lovely."-
Would it not be we'll, if we were to al
low life to wear somewhat of the
glamour and illusion which now seem
to be the monopoly of deathp Would
it not be well ifwere to teach our lips
to utter now the love and praise and
gratitude which, if we do not, W.
shall certainly sometime, in anguish o
spirit, pour into the deaf ears of thos,
whose sealed lips can make us no re
sponse?
We of New England are SO reticent
SO self contained. Why is it? Is i
pride, or is it shyness, that makes u
so SILENT Many of us are 30 afraid o
being considered s'fatterers" that "
will not say pleasant things to eacl
other, even when occasion demand
it. And some of us lack the prope
training. Our lips are dumb becaus
they have never been taugh to speak
II is SO much easier to speak sharpl
than to speak sweetly. Even in ou
own households we were afraid Q
being accounted "silly" if we dare t
give q caress, or tender, loving wor
to husband and children, father an
mother, brother or sister. But by an
by, upon their unanswering lips W
shall rain unayailing kisses inlo thei
deaf ears we shall pour agonized pra,
ers for forgiveness, tenderest words {
love, and back upon our own regretf,
remorseless hearts will recoil the stinl
awhile they are with you love thos
the gods lend. While they need /
give them of your hearts best."-
[Selected.