New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1882-01-29
CARCASSONNE,


ways come from pulpts. There is, for example,
a sad old dirty which we all know, by that
scampish Nadaud, which teaches the lesson of
human life as sharply as you will probably find
it in any sermon preached this morning.
peasant, "dOuble bent with age! sits at his
cottage door looking across the blue mountains
at the spires of the city to which he planned to
go when boy, but which, in all his eighty
wears, he has never saved money enough to
reach. His ncIghbors, his son, and his sons
son, all have travelled beyond it, but he never
has seen CarcaSSOnnc. "COuld J. he cries,
"but there two days have spent, gladly would
have died, content That | had seen fair Car
caSsOnne" Ont of pity they take him on the
journey, but half way the old man dies upon
the road He never looks on CarcassOnne.
Each of U.S." adds the poet, 4" has his Carcass
some; which is true and bitter enough
A practical man, however, would console us
by saying that if the old man had reached the
city of his dreams, the dim glttering spires
would have proved to be only painted wood
and tin, above dirty streets, ugly sights and
worse smells, and he would have been very
clad to go home to his hut on the hills. Car
cassonncs usually do turn out in that way in
instance. glowing with the love of beauty, Chiy
airy, genial feeling, coveting finer thoughts and
expressions of thought than he finds IN his poor
home or in the duh shop, looks lonSnsly up to
some social elevation which he can never reach.
If he did reach it, he would find there rPdupll-
Gated the very same men and women that he
had left below; the same aims, affections,
cnyics, appetitcs and virtues Or, when the
humble disciple sits at last ut the feet OF the
great poets or philosophers whom he has re-
yercd in print SO long, in all probability he lis
tens to the --LATEST OF gossip; their wit ana
wisdom are kept for their books, they are ncr-
vous, irritable jealous. lie has glimpse Of
the muddy streets he smells the bad O:OrS.
Or perhaps the young mans eyes are fixed
upon the glittering spires Of fame, for himself
He reaches them presently, not by trichery or
advertisement but by high cndcayOr and work
which deserves to be immortal. What is this
fame worth to him when he has graspcd it
He grumbles at being pestered for his auto
graph, or stared at in a crowd he is cnragcd
to hear his finest thoughts garbled and chcwcd
into fragments and rolled like sayory morscls
under the tongues of an ignorant public; his
rarcst enjoyment is to leave the mob behind
and to hide alone with Nature and his friend
Or, it is the golden glitter of money that tcmpts
and mocks HIM? Yet when he has acquired
the millions he finds that his most genuine
pleasure comes from pride i'll his boy or faith
in some cid friend, or the love of some woman
or baby; all of which money did not buy fol
him. Perhaps it is political ambition which
opens road before him on which to climb to
the summit of his hopes If he can reach it, it
will be to lind the sacred secrets of his home
ripped open to the eyeS of the staring crowd,
his past lite, however honest or pure, made
black with SANDER, and himself the victim of
hungry ollce-seekcrs and it may be of the
assassin. To young people who are planning
their Journey to some city set upon hill, this
discouragement no doubt sounds but feeble
croaking. Let them keep their city in sight
and 90 to it if they can. 1t is miserable
meagre life that has no Carcassonnc! But
they will find, after all is over and done, that
the solid comforts, the real pleasures OF life,
came to them if at all on the road, after each
DAYS work in hurried snatches pieccmealj not
massed in any cc5tatc rapture at the goal
Another point Many good folk are so con-
yinccd that all earthly CarcassOnncs will turn
ont, when conquered, to he little more than dirty
streets and ugly sights and sounds (probably
from their failure in reaching the one they
shove for) that they set down the whole OF this
life as a mistake, Il vale of tears, congiomera-
ton of misery, failure and injustice and they
have much to say of the life to come. Upon the
unknown heights Of the future they think they
see city not made with hands, where at least
their individual wrongs shall be righted, ana
where they shall have a better chance than they
have been able to lay hold of here. They have
usually very vague ideas as to what that chance
will consist Of; to many poor tired souls 1t
doubtless seems nothing better than to be able
TO stop working and to rest and to many
loving heart it is only the surety OF finding
again in another country one lons-loSt lace OF
hearing again voice 50 dear that it would