St. Tammany farmer. [volume] (Covington, La.) 1874-current, 1885-09-26
AUNT MADELINE.
Preserving a Sweet Disposition
Through Life's Adversities.

Cad! she's the only really beautiful
old woman ever saw"
The speaker was one of a group OF
men who stood on the steps of church
one Sunday morning few years ago in
a fair city of which we all know.
The group had apparently been dis.
cussing the woman whose appearance
called forth the exclamation. 1 fol.
lowed the direction of their looks and
found ample warrant for the emphatic
, ut,erance which had overheard
The association of old ace with un-
common womanly beauty , one person
is rare enough to excuse he curiosity
that impelled me to learn this woman s
history. will not. therefore, offer anv
apology for what the reader, and posi-
bly, the lady herself, may regard as an
impertinence. 1t is fact that I did
learn the story of her life, stranger
though | am in the city that is her
home. 1t is not thrilling tale. There
is in it not one essent ally dramatic in
cident. Yet it moves me to deeper
emotion and stirs within me a loftier
admiration than the story of many q
life that genius has snatched out of the
common for immortality.
Aunt Madeline (for 80 she is called by
those who love her) would smile in mild
reproof If any one were to say to her,
You are beautiful many years
have come and gone since she gave
much thought for herself. Hers is
two-fold beauty. being made up of those
singular graces of person which at
tracted the notice of the group at church
on that Sunday morning and the higher
graces OF lie that is consecrated to
Others without flourish or pretense of
self abnegation.
shall first try to tell how she ap-
peared from my own point of view.
The narrative proper shall be in the
words OF the pastor. to whom l am
bound for it, as nearly as lean set them
down.
The figure is tall and the carriage
graceful. She walks like one accus-
toned to free exercise. Her attire is
undeniably elegant. The least practical
observer of such things may see at q
glance that it came from the hands of
fashionable maker. determine there
fore, that she is not too poor to gratify
her natural woman's taste for daintiness
of dress Her face quite battles nv
powers of description. 1t is the face of |
sixty years. That have learned; but |
when looking into it one does not think
OF its years. can not say that it con-
forms to any established standard of |
beauty, having neither pretty chin |
nor the soulful eyes of which we hear SO |
much in verbal portraits of beautiful |
women. Nevertheless l am ready to |
stake my judgment on the general prop
osition that it is one of the lovelest faces
that was ever seen out of dreams. The
nose, must say, is of perfect mold: the |
hair is . pure white mass arranged in q
Grecian coil at the back, parted in the
middle and falling in heecy waves over
the temples, half covering the ears and
forming truly artistic frame for the
never-to- be forgotten face.
She speaks to young girl at her side.
and her smile discloses a mouth full of
natural teeth. whose whiteness time has
not touched and whose perfect symme-
try is unbroken.
Her skin is clear and fresh-an elo-
quent tribute to right living and q sign
OF freedom from those vanities of women
on which the fortunes of nostrum makers
are built.
One can not doubt that she is an old
woman. but her years are years of peace,
OF purity. Of sweet piety. of wholesome
do not marvel that her face
is glorifed.
Aunt Madeline was one Of two sis
ters." said my friend. the pastor, in be-
ginning the recital which 1 am to repro
duce. Her father was q politician,
and an honest man. He loved truth for
its own sake. and though he filed many
offices he died poor, leaving his mother
less daughter nothing in the way of for
tune except the modest home in which