Clarksville weekly chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1873-1890, 1884-09-13
Thoughts Suggested by the Death OF Kate,
Daughter Of the Hon. Horace IL.
and Mrs. Fannie LurtOn,
nee Owen.


To stranger the widespread emo
ton occasioned by the death of this
young lady would seem unaccounta-
BILE. For Kate Lurton was not one OF
those precocious children of fashion
who become bellies in society before
well in their teens, but simple girl,
carefully nurtured in the sequestered
retirement of Christian family,
"a maid whom there were none to praise
And very few to love-"
Yet there was much to account for
the presence OF the weeping hundreds
who thronged around her grave and
followed her homeward flight with
sweet songs of hope and resignation.
The universal esteem in which her
parents are held, and the general SYM
pathy with their sorrows accounts for
a good deal, but not all; and even the
knowledge that the latter days of her
life were days of protracted suffering
was not the whole truth. / firmly be-
lieve that the very seclusion In which
our dear young friend passed her short
life was more than aught else the
moving cause of the profound feeling
manifested at her funeral, and it is
well that this generation should know
how attractive to mems imagination
is the sweet retirement of LIES sum-
mer morning in a young girl who
seeks her chief happiness in home at
fections and in familiar converse with
the intimate friends OF her childhood.
Yes, there is a moonlight mystery in
such a life more attractive to mems
thoughts than the "garish-day" which
shows off the almost public life of so
many young girls of the present day.
OF her life there is almost nothing
to tell; the first-born of her parents
she entered this life exactly sixteen
years ago last Tuesday. Her happy
childhood was spent amid the tender
affections, first Of parents and in good
time OF little brothers and sister. Her
education, except what she derived
from her own mother, was wholly ac-
quired under the almost equally ma
ternal care of Mrs. Rhodes. Outside
OF her family her friends, almost ex-
clusively those of her own sex, were
partly those of her mother and partly
the companions of her childhood; these
latter loved and were loved by her
with wealth of affection that none
can know except those who participa-
ted in it.
Consecrated to God by Baptism in
infancy, she made her own confession
of faith and repentance in the beauti-
full rite of confirmation about six
months before her death-and in that
faith she died.
A veil must be drawn over the suf-
ferings of her latter days, suffering
fraught with pain to herself and an
guish to her parents; suffice il that
parental love did all that could be done
to alleviate that which only such min
istrations supplemented by her own
Christian and child-like patience
could have rendered endurable.
Her father, though himself suffer
ing from a cruel malady which has
been his periodic visitor for years, was
the constant attendant of her bedside;
from him alone could be received the
ministrations necessitated by her dy-
ing struggles, ministrations that ne
strange hand could have rendered.
We have nothing left US but to ten
der our warmest sympathies to the
bereaved parents and family; conso-
lation is not ours to offer but they
know where to seek it, in the firm as
surance of the Christians hope. Thus
enlightened they can hear in the
spirit the words of the Savior at an
other death: 1.-THE maiden is not dead
but sleepeth." They know that the
lovely flower which to ordinary eyes