The new dominion. [volume] (Morgantown, W. Va.) 1876-1904, 1885-09-05
AUNT MADELINE.
Preserving a Sweet Disposition
Through Lies 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
ono Sunday morning few years ago in
fair oity of which we all know.
The group had apparently been dis
cussing the woman whose appearance
called forth the exclamation. l fol-
lowed the direction of their looks and
found ample warrant for the emphatic
sltterance which had overheard.
The association of old age with un-
common womanly beauty in one person
is rare enough to excuse the curiosity
that impelled me to learn this woman s
history. l will not. therefore, otter any
apology for what the reader, and posi-
bly, the lady herself may regard as an
impertinenca 1t is fact that | did
learn the story of her life, stranger
though ! am in the city that is her
home. 1t is not Il thrilling tale. There
rs in it not one essentially dramatic in
cident. Yet it moves me TO deeper
emotion and stirs within me loftier
admiration than the story of many
life that genius has snatched out of the
common for immortality.
Aunt Madeline (for so she is called by
those who love her) would smile in mild
reproof II 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 a
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 q life 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 | 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
incidentally elegant. The least practical
observer Of such things may see at q
glance that 1t came from the hands OF a
fashionable maker. determine there
foro, that she is not too poor to CRAFTY
her natural woman's taste for daintiness
of dress. Her face quite battles my
powers of description. II is the face Of
SIXTY years. That have learned; but
when looking into it one does not think
of It's years. l can not say that it con-
forms to any established standard of
beauty, having neither q pretty" chin
nor the soulful eyes of which we hear so
much IN verbal portraits of beautiful
women. Nevertheless am ready to
stake my Judgment on the general prop
Qsition that 1t is one of the loveliest faces
that was ever seen out of dreams. The
nose, must say, is of perfect mold the
hair is pure white mass arranged in
Grecian coil at the back, parted in the
middle and falling in feecy waves over
the temples, half covering the ears and
forming a truly artistic frame for the
never-to- be-forgotten face.
She speaks to young.girl at her side,
and her smife discloses mouth null of
natural teeth, whose wilderness time hats
hot touched and whose perfect symnfe-
try Is unbroken.
Her skin is clear and fresh-an eAo-
quent tribute to right living and a sign
of freedom from those vanities of women
on which the fortunes Of nostrum makers
arg 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
restrainte. l do not marvel that her face
Is glorified.
Aunt Madeline was one of two sis
tiers" said my friend. the pastor, in be-
ginning the recital which / am to reppo-
d,rce. Her father was a 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
they were born and reared. Madeline
was twenty and Ethel, her sister, fifteen,
when they were called to face the world.
A livelihood must be made for both,
and 1t was clear enough that only one
OF them could undertake the dubious
task. The child Ethel assuredly was
not equipped forit. Medicine alone must
roll the heavy stone up the hill
with what resolute courage and
simple faith in herself she set to work,
we who have always known her best
understood. She made no feeble ap-
peals for help. A few of us gave her
counsel from time to time, when she
asked It, but that was all. She ceased
to ask even so much long years ago,
and l. at least, have many times been
proud to be counseled by her; for
wiser woman ] never knew.
"After her fathers funeral expenses
were settled there NAV have been fifty
dollars in the house. Madeline saw
that immediate action was imperative.
What should she-what could she-do
to earn an incomep 1t was not hard to
answer the question. In her happier
and leisure girlhood she had moderately
developed faculty for writing chill
dren's stories, some of which had found
their way into print. She resolved to
make serious test of her powers In
that direction. and in the course of a
few weeks, urged on by necessity, she
produced small volume OF tales. A
publisher was found who undertook to
put the volume forth and pay Madeline
d fair royalty. The venture was
moderately prosperous. Others fol-
lowed, and after ten years of struggle
the hard-worked author found herself
10 possession of an income that was
more than sufficient for her own and
Ethsrs needs. 1t was about this time |
that Ethel married. Madeline was now
thirty and unmarried. She still re-
maino unmarried, and on that fact