National Republican., 1883-02-23

saw a tall, gayly dressed woman, with her
back TO him. A well known Washington So
oiety man, with his face close to hers, was
talking to her. As they drew nearer she
turned her head, and he saw not the woman
who had once been all TO him., but, as It
seemed her efligy; undcniably handsome, but,
oh so changed. She knew him in q moment
and, with q slightly heightened color but
with perfect self.possession, greeted him cor
daily and with outstretched hand He re-
sponded, and they talked commonplaoes for a
few moments. Then, mentioning an ongage-
ment and inviting him TO call in the evening,
she turned TO her waiting companion and left
the room. As she passed through tho door,
her old lover fanoied that with her went the
last Of his ideals the very ghost of his visions
and his hopes.
After the lapse of several years he was or
dered to Arizona. His route lay by Santa
Fe, and he journeyed, after leaving Fort
Garland, by the same route he had taken rs a
young lieutenant. Again he saw the barren
landscape, the scrub cedars tho rolling sand
hills, the abounding desolation. He could
have thought that the same driver was
shouting to the same mules and humming the
same air-but mo- 10 was not the same. The
words of this song he well knew;
Six hundred thousand loyal men and true hav
But we're coming, Father Abraham, six hundred
thousand more. ..
thoughts, which had been acutely painful
and fraught with the contrasts of his lifo-his
hopes and his disappointments-the useless
past, the dull present. the liieless future.
After all, he said to himself one had not lived
in vain who had taken part in so grand q
struggle. He began to recall the battles
through which ho had passed. and tho fight
in Apache canyon reverted to his mind. lie
was thinking of IL as Fort Marcy came in
sight and just as he drove up to headquar-
ters he remembered who 10 was on that oc-
casion that brought the guide. A warm greet
ing drove the subject from his mind but IL
rcourred again as he strolled in the evening
across the Plaza and down narrow street.
Coming to a churohyard he stopped and
stood looking ut the little crosses over the
rude graves. Just then he heard his name
called, and turned to see an old frontiersman
whom he had known well in years gone by.
"Well, major" cried tho latter, show are
YEP I'd no idea I'd strike ye in Santa Fo
ag'in. Yo're the fust one I've seed of tho old
crowd. LOokin' at the graves, are ye2 allow
ye hewitt many friends lyin' there. Mostly
greasers them are. Stop, though Ye'd ortor
remember the little gal thets buried in the
corner thore--Old Sanchez's daughter little
Paquita, that you saved from them cowboys.
Let's see when does IL say-lS622 Why, IL
warnt long after ye lit out fur the states that
she passed in her checks, poor little thing !
perticklcr the matter. / remember seein' her
before they buried her, aud she looked as
material as life aud had some little silver gim-
crack at her neck. Old Sanchez let on
thct she'd made him promise it should be put
there. Well, glad to sec ye, major. Drop in
when yere passin'," and he walked away,
leaving the officer standing silent near the
churchyard gate.
Colonel -, the lieutenant of twenty
years ago, is still stationed--doubtlcss by his
own request-at border post. Not long ago
an old school friend, travelling in that region,
called upon him. In the course of the brief
visit and under the influence of pleasant
memories of early days the reticence which
had become habitual with him yielded some
what to the tact and cheoruess of the traveller,
and the night before the lattcr's departure he
seemed led on to'spcak of himself The
friends were sitting on rude veranda outside
the coloncls quarters. A iow hundred yards
in front of them the plateau on which the
post was built broke abruptly off. Beyond n
deep intervening valley, having in the faint
light the effect of q great gulf, rose Jagged
peak, touched by the rising moon and present.
ing majestic appearance. The visitor uttered
an exclamation of delight.
"Yes," said the colonel, ono one should
know better than how grand and beautiful
it is. have watched that view day after
day for years, and it has effected me most
curiously. Among the quaint expressions of
the mountaineers none is 80 striking as the
saying that'a man who has died has gone
over the range / myself have sometimes,
in my fanciful moods, almost come to think
that same range to be the mistic barrier be-
tween this world and charmed region be-
yOnd. Do you remember those lines-they
run in my head continuously:
Aud oh ifprrchance there should he n sphere
where nll Is IN dc right which so puzzles us here.
IF anything could make q man believe in
future existence it would be to find the pres
ent one so hopelessly out of joint as have /.
seem, as poor Grotius sand, to have passed my
life laborOusly doing nothing | sought
military fame, and after more than twenty
years of hard service ! am colonel on the
frontier, while some of the men against whom
i fought are voting to reduce my poor pay. L
loved one woman long and dearly, and she Is
as widely separated from me as the poles.
Then the one woman who loved me-and /
utterly unconscious of it-died of q broken
heart. Perhaps, after ALL she is the happicst
Of the three" He sat silent for q few mo-
mcnts and then added $50 you see have
enough to puzzle me here, and / may well
hope that there is really sphere over the
range or somewhere else, whore 1t will all be
made right"
\ story teller must feel some conjunction
when his tale leaves its characters not as they
would rightly he left in the fascinating realm
of romance, but as one generally finds them in
a world of care. As most lives, however, are
filled with dispelled illusions, this little mar
rative may not, after all, be out of keeping
with the experience of many of those who
read it. The colonel's lot Is not an oxcep-
tiOnal one, nor is his horoscope difficult to
cast. In a few years, perhaps months, some
treaty which the Great Father has solemnly
made with the Indian tribes will be broken
as usual, and they will be goaded into an
outbreak. Then our colonel will be sent
against them with an inadequate force, armed
with rifles greatly inferior to those which
the Great Fathers agents have sold to the
Indians; and he will die like Custer or
ThOrnburgh. The woman whom he loved
so well was in Saratoga last summer. Her
husband is interested in u railway cOnstruc-
tiOn company, aud her diamonds were no.
ticed by every newspaper correspondent
Poor little Paquita sleeps peacefully under
the wooden cross in the ancient church yard,
where the sound of the chanting IL heard
and the soft wind Is laden with the scent of
the flowers in the bishops garden, Any tTav-
eler may SEQ the littlo grave to-day; for the
railway has done away with the fatigues and
dangers of the long journey A few minutes
walk from tho station, he may stand by the
old church when the sun is sinking behind
the stern mountains at the west which look
down with, one might fancy, a sardonic smile
upon him, as they have looked in turn upon
Mayas, Toltecs, Pueblos, Spaniards, and
Americans, and AS they will look when all of
us pigmies have passed away, He will turn
with relief TO the sight of the little white
cross, standing out against the adobe wall
and just then the sound Of the bells ringing
the Angelus may break upon his ear and he
V.rtII l. 4. a. i ia. -