The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1885-03-21

ana the puOnc on the parU or a SENSITIVE
wife that gave rise to the cruel report that
the great War Secretary Stanton had COM
mitted suicide. The afflicted widow had
through accident, seen an undertaken pre-
pairing her dead child for burial The bru-
tai manner in which the poor little corpse
was being treated so shocked her that she
vowed that thereafter none but loving hands
should prepare her dead for the grave. The
undertaken, therefore, saw the body of the
eminent statesman only in the coffin, and
his duty was confined to screw wing down the
lid. This abrupt departure from common
usages, of course, gave rise to strange
rumors.
1t was my good fortune to know Edwin
n. Stanton intimately as a brother, from
my boyhood until death separated us. My
brother-in-law, Judge Nathaniel c. Read, of
the Supreme Court of Ohio, gave Stanton
his first office, that of reporter, and Stanton
was wont to make Mac-o- cheek his summer
resort for years.
Doubtful as it may seem to the secretary's
many enemies and he left behind him an
army of such, he was of deeply religious
nature Possessed of a sensitive temporal
meut, ne was subject to great extremes of
gaety and gloom, and had withal powerful
vitality. His powers of endurance were
amazing, and force of character, stimu-
lated by an indomitable will, made him
master of all situations and of himself All
men thus fitted to this life cling to life
with an obstinate tenacity.
He was dying of an incurable disease
while in the department he controlled with
such amazing vigor, but, at the bidding of
his will, death postponed his doom until his
task was ended.
saw his remains the morning of the night
he died. With hands crossed upon his breast,
his resolute face was softened with ex-
preston resembling that of sleep, and
know from what saw that the renowned
story of his suicide was false. The stormy
life of a noble character, marred with more
ignobIe passions than ordinarily falls to the
lot of man, had passed into silence and mem
DRY, quiet as a child.
This incident has carried me from my
theme. OF the more beautiful emotions of
the human heart humanity is strangely ignor-
ant. Take for Illustration the touching care
and love of mother for her crippled or de-
formed child. What pity we extend to the
parent, unaware that in the loving care there
is a source of great comfort The same result
occurs in the nursing of any loved patient
l know a man who, in his cynicism, has
won for himself wide renown as lshmaelite.
This man creates wonder at histender solicit
tude for an invalid wife, and he is regarded
as Byron's Corsair ''Proud of one virtue
and a thousand Crimes The world-hls
worId-little knows that this awakening and
exercise of tenderness is a blessing to its pos
SCISSOR.
Whitcomb Riley tells me of a humorist,
the wittiest, most delicate and pure of all
that toll in our midst, who lived devoted
to his invalid wife, and in her death suffered
as no man ever suffered before over a like
loss. The little wife, through helplessness,
was more to the poor fellow than healthy,
hearty helpmate would have been.
One summer passed at Oaklands, amid
great crowd of hay fever patients, remem-
Der vividIy, from the fact of an artist
stricken with paralysis coming to pass the
summer months, accompanied by his wife.
The painter was on the shady side of life
when he married little girl, young enough
to be his daughter Paralysis followed, and
the wife became his nurse. Her quiet care,
her unpretending devotion, called forth
pie at that summer resort She was his
hands, feet, voice-his all-and folk looked
on wonderingly and pitied the poor woman,
and when the old man died, which he did
one night, we all felt relieved, and sald
'Now the little widow will have some COM
| fort'
Somehow or other she did not seem to
/ realize the great blessing that had come to
her. She wept much in a quiet way. Her
| ewes grew cavernous and her cheeks hollow
The poor thing, avoiding sympathy, passed
| hours alone. 1t all was SO absurdly differ
ent from what was expected and ought to
| have been the fact that a feeling of lmpa-
thence, nearly akin to dislike, grew up and
! spr cad.
! One morning the little widow failed to
appear at breakfast, meal she seldom nom
| ored by eating. AS knocking elected no re-
Spouse a slender mulatto boy was tossed
| through the transom to unlock the door.
When that door was unlocked we found the
| little widow lying on her back, with her
| thin hands meekly folded on her breast
| dead of a broken heart AT least the fash
| ionable doctor pronounced it heart disease.
! That which was thought to be grievous
| burden had, in fact, been blessing. When
| the old man, numbed in brain and crippled
| in body, found a refuge in the grave, all
that she had of life, all its tenderness, love,
| and sweet, helpful dependence disappeared
with him, and her little horizon darkenea
| down to death. DOM fIATT.
! MAC-o- CHEEK. o.
Work in Hot Places.