The Marietta journal. [volume] (Marietta, Ga.) 1866-1909, 1883-11-15
TOO LATE.

pered, 81 love you'll have ever
loved you p She looked at him a
moment and simply answered,
"You are too late" and died.
Are there none of US who are
waiting until our friends die before
we speak the words of love and ap>
probation for which the living hearts
are yearningf How is it, husband 7
Are there none of you who truly love
your wives, and if they were to die
to day, would feel that words are 600
poor to portray either their worth or
your anguish, aud yet who seldom
by word or look or sign give out,
ward expression to that love None
of you who rejoice 10 your well or
dered houses, your we'll spread ia
bles, your comfortable homes, and
yet have never a word of praise tor
the busy hand or the governing brain
that keeps all the complicated ma
chinery of the household in motion
Do none of you receive all this as a
10 natter of course, never thinking
it is churlish aud niggardly to give
10 praise where praise is due ! And
are there no wives who forget that
love, like jealousy, grows by what it
feeds on, and that it is far easier to
win a heart than it is to keep it =
That to keep the heart they have
won is the first, the sweetest duty of
the true wife ! None who have laid
aside ell the pretty witcheries of
their childhood days-and who,
though their love is still strong and
true, have forgotten how to be ten
der7 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 your manner is so cold, SO in
different, that stranger would be
iustiGable in wondering whether
your love was not bound hand and
foot 10 the cerements of the grave.
There are fathers and mothers
among you who really love your
children tenderly, but yet who are
so irresponsible, 80 little given to ex-
preston that your boys and girls are
in doubt about it. You notice the
crudities, the weak nesses, the seem
ing way wardness that is often only
the unrest of immaturity but yoa
fail to recognize the upward yearn-
ing, the aspirations, the blind out
stretching of the young soul after
something higher and better than
itself. It's only after they are dead
that your children become to you
altogether lovely. Would it not be
well if we were to allow life to wear
some what of the glamour and illu-
sion which now seem to be the
monopoly of death 7 Would it not
be we'll if we we're to teach our lips
to utter now the love and praise and
gratitude which, if we do not, we
shall certainly sometime, in anguish |
of spirit, pour into the deaf ears of
those whose sealed lips can mske US
no response We are so reticent,
so self contained. Why is it ! Is it
pride, or is it shyness, that makes
US so silent Many of US are SO
afraid of being considered ''fatter
ers" that we will not say pleasant
things to each other, even when &C
casion demands it. And some of
us lack the proper training. Our
lips are dumb because they have
never been taught to speak. 1t is
SO much easier to speak sweetly.
Even in our own households we are
afraid of being accounted "silly" if
we dare to give a caress or tender
loving word to husbands and chill
dren, father and mother, brother or
sister. But by and by, upon their
nanswering lips we shall rain un-
awaiting kisses, and into their deaf
ears we shall pour agouized prayer
for forgiveness, teuderest words OF
love, an d back upon our own regret
fuI, remorseless hearts will recoil the
sting.
"Wbile they are With you, love
those the Gods lend. While they
need it, give them Of your hearts
best"