The Emporia weekly news. [volume] (Emporia, Kan.) 1881-1889, 1881-06-23
at is a girl, ten days old, and looks
like Won. Please come homeo

throwing grape and canister into the
dense masses, failed to check their ad-
vance, his heart stood still. But look
ing at the dark hillside beyond, he saw,
in white letters formed of sulphurous
smoke, the words, "Ad astra per aspe-
ra," and his courage returned, and
well it might, for when that short De
cember days sun went down behind the
Arkansas hills, the rebel power in the
west was permanently broken.
Is =
Thirty months of the long, weary three
years-three years of carnage, blood
/ shed and woe-passed away, when, one
evening, comrade handed our Kansas
veteran a letter, the contents of which
ran as follows: "Minnie is very sick,
perhaps dying. Cine home, and come
I quick"
There was no hesitancY now, the CON-
mandant was informed and good horse
| procured. Soon the Kansas border was
crossed; on, over the green prairies; no
attention paid to food or rest; and at
midnight of the second day after the
start, when the door ofthat Kansas cabin
opened. the wife, with streaming eyes,
rushed into her husbands arms, and
! spoke his name in that tone no man ever
forgets when used in tones of agony or
endearment. Taking him by the hand
she led him TO little coffin at the back
part of the room, and there the brave
soldier stood, with bowed head, looking
down upon the inanimate form of the lit
tie being he had never seen, and whose
last lisping word had been, "pqpap' But,
as the grief-stricken parents stood there,
and while their tears, like rain. fell upon
the little, white, upturned face, they
saw, ON the lid of the coffin, right over
the little golden curls, in golden letters,
"Ad astra per aspera," and they knew
that the God who had given them the
little soul and then taken 1t back again
was neither dead nor asleep.
Eight months afterwards, Lee, the
great head and center of the rebellion,
stumbled to the racket" and our hero
returned TO his peaceful home. Soon a
better house was built, other improve
ments made, and they were getting
along in a way, when one
dry. hot sultry August afternoon
they saw u dark cloud in the north
west, remarkable for its rapid, undulating
movement. The long-looked for rain
was coming. But it wasn't rain cloud,
nor did it contain the destructive force
of the tornadO-but it did contain grass
hoppers-the cfcada of naturalists; the
then, scourge of Kansas-and they came
to stay till spring, and they meant bust
ness, and lots of it. They came down
until they fell over the second rails of
the worm fence. The blades of corn, the
spears of grass, everything green, disap-
peared like mist before the uprising sdn.
Then they ate the splinters off the fence.
rails, the fuzZ off the clothes-lines, the
edges off the moving scythes, the grit
out of the grind-stone. Kegs of Paris
green set in the fields attracted immed
late, prompt and numerous attention
Poison: Well, not TO any very alarming
extent, at least not to Kansas grasahop.
per. But while our friends were debat
ing the question of going to "wife's
folks" they saw strange hicroglyphics
on the wings of the struggling, writing
mass, and these letters being put into
ineligible shape. read: "Ad astra pei
aspera;" and they knew that The mex
year the grasshOpper-the cicada of ma
turalists, the then scourge of Kansas
would he nowhere; that the rain would
descend, the dews fall, the sun shine, the
grass grow, the birds sing, and that there
would be good crops and a bOuntifu
yield; and they were not disappointed
And again they prOspered; again the
future looked bright; again the wife
sang at her work, and the HUSBAND
, whistled at the pillow; another had come
J to take the place of the little golden
haired innocent that had gone to hell
: light the city that has no need of thu
: sun or moon to give it brightness. Blu
, through difficulties TO the stars" ha6
) not yet been reached. One April after
noon, when the face of nature looked
1 "ouGClIu
resurrection from dead winter to living
e growing, blooming spring, was taking
: place, a dark and ominOus looking cloud
J, arose in the northwest, and came OIL
D with wonderful rapidity, rolling back
ward and forward, this way and thai
: like some huge serpent writhing il
. the agonies of death-On, on-sweepinj
t everything before it. Our friends too
h refuge in the cellar, and soon their HON
t went to pieces, flying in every directio
p before that terrific Kansas wind. Blu
|. through the cracks in the cellar foo
o amid the awful roaring of the element
the pounding of the hail, the lightning
r. vivid flash, and the awful peals of thur
= der-they saw, in the center of this
A whirling mass of cloud, in letters pain
:, ed in all the hues of the rainbow, "a
4 astra per aspera," and they knew the
, would soon have another home; and IL
: in a few months better house aros
A surrounded with trees, shrubs and flov
= ers; the children went to school; thel
, were books to read, pictures on the wal
= and papers on the stand: the SEWN
, machine made more and faster mus
~ than the old, tedious way of hand seV
,e ing. Happy homel
But, alas. for human hopesi The wi
r. sickened and in a short time the hu
Sc bands bravest and best friend; the vii
% of his youth; the sharer of his joys an
n. sOrrows; the best ally he ever had {
. ever will have in fighting life's battle
N lay cold and silent in death As Il
d brave soldier stood there looking dow
~ upon the cold. silent lips-the lips l
N so often kissed in love and affection:
the closed eyes-eyes that would new
'look love to eyes" again; at the motto
! less bosom that would never throb aga
. with love or emotiOn-the form that hs
never trembled amid the awful crash
- battle, trembled and shook like res
- in storm, and his soul died with
- him and hope departed, for he ihougl
10 the star OF his better destiny bad set fc
"a ever. But the next day as the clouds
:. the valley fell upon the coffin, he look
"A up aud saw in mid-heave
= As Constantine had seen centuries /
- fore, the cross bearing the motto 81
!. this We conquer" golden anchor I
I. the top Of which sat pure white dov
- bearing In its beak silken pennant {
!. which was emblaZOned in letters of III
IA aAd assra per Gspera," and hope !
:. turned, for he knew he should meet b
= wife and child in the great hereafter
. hone refrrued. for he had duties 70 q.