Martinsburg herald. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1881-1920, 1885-06-06
NO. 80.
BEAUTIFUL WORDS TO 4 BRIDE.


The following beautiful letters was
written several years ago by a gen
itleman to bride on receiving her
wedding cards. 1t IS exquisitely
fresh and original, and full of poetry.
Though not intended for publication.
it found its way into print, and we
think it too much OF a gem to be lost
Eentirely H
81 am holding some pasteboard in
my hands, Addie three stately
pluckings from the bush Of ceremony!
] am gazing upon card and a name
"a name with which your gentle
life began, a name with which your
throbbing heart was lost. There is
nothing strange about that card.
The maiden sigh still looks up from
it, calm and customary, as it looked
on many a friendly visit, as it lies in
many formal basket. am gazing,
too, upon a card where the nearer
parent tells the world she will be
I" At Home" one day, and that is
nothing new! But there is another
card, whose mingling there puts
tongue of fire into this speechless
pasteb0ard, enameling fate on com
mon-place. 1T tells us that feeling
is maturing into destiny, and that
these cards are but the pale heralds
of a coming crisis, when hand that
pressed friends hands and plncked
flowers, shall close down on him to
whom she shall be friend and flower
forever after. l have sent you a few
flowers to adorn the dying moments
of your single life. They are the
gentlest types of delicate and dur
able friendship. They spring up by
our side when others have deserted
it, and they will be fonnd watching
over graves when those who should
cherish have forgotten us. 1t seems
meet to me that a past, so calm and
pure as yours, should expire with a
kindred sweetness about it that
flowers and music, kind friends and
earnest words should consecrate the
hour when a sentiment is passing
into IA sacrament.
1.-The three great stages of our
being are the birth, the bridal, and
the burial. To the first we bring
only weakness, for the last we have
nothing but dust: But here, at the
altar, where life joins life, the pair
come throbbing up to the holy man,
whispering the deep promise thatarm
each with the others heart, to help
on in the life struggle of care and
duty. The beautiful will be there,
borrowing new beauty from the
scene. The gay and the frivolous,
they and their flounces will look sol
emn for once. And youth will come
to gaze and all it's sacred thoughts
pant for; and age will totter up to
hear the old words repeated that to
their own lives have given the charm.
: "Some will weep over as if it were
a tomb, and some will laugh over it
as if it were joke, but two must
stand by 1t, for it is fate, not fun,
this everlasting locking of their
lives
"And now can you, who have
queened it over so many bending
forms, can you come down at last to
the frugal diet of a single heart
" Hitherto you have been a clock,
giving your time to all the world
Now you are a watch, buried in one
particular bosom, warming only his
breast, marking only his hours, and
ticking only to the beat of his heart
where time and feeling shall be in
unison, until these lower ties are lost
In that higher wedlock where all
hearts are united around the Great
Central Heart OF all.
"Hoping that calm sunshine may
hallow clasped hands, / sink silently
into a signature. ID. G. S.