Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1885-11-16

" All natural gifts, a love Of natural
beauty surely brings most happiness 10
we possessor OF Il; happiness altogether
unaiioyeu and unpurchasable, and created
" lhe mere rus Of green leaves. the
Hleit ripple OF bt>. waters. II isnot an
itailan gllt atall, nor an Italian feeling
/ ~ an italian gas j. more beautiful than
sunshine, and c0mbric flower more
NtauVuul imam real one; hc usually
tni,ks iie mountains hateful aud a CITY
ntNlhV, ne deteStS trees and ad0res crowds.
ltul 'hcrc are exceptions To all rnles
there are poetic natures cvery,vhors
laough everywhere rare Gesualdo was
.he exception Ia Marca and It's neighbor.
Mood, anu evening aitor evening saw him
IN tho summer weather stroll.
ing through The fields his bre
wary in his hand. but his
heart with the dancing fire.nies. tho ouIy.
erng poplar leaves, the tail ureeu caup
the little silNcry nsh darting over the
white stones Of the shallow rivcr.wntcrs
lie could not have told why he loved 10
watch these things; he thought II was be.
cause they reminded him of Bocca d' Arno
aud the sand beach and the caucbrakes
( nut ne did love them, and they filled him
WIN that vague emotion, hall pleasure.
hall pain, known.
His supper over, he went into his
church; a little red-brickcd, white-wasbed
passage connected IL with his parlor. The
church was small, and dark. and old; il
had an 0lta1pcco said 70 bc old, and Inv a
ScneSe master aud Of some value,
I put Gesualdo knew nothing of these mat
/ lerS; Raphael might have hung there
and he would have been none the wiser;
| ne loved the church, ugly and simple as il
/ was, as a mother loves a plain child or a
/ dull Que because II is hers; aud now and
then he preached strange, passionate, pa
/ ihetic sermons in il, which none of his
people understood and which ho barely
understood himself He had sweet,
/ lult i0r-reaching voice, with an accent OF
singular melancholy in IT,, and as his
mystical, romantic, involved phrases
/ passed far over the heads of his hearers
4 Ike flight OF birds llying high up against
the clouds, the pa,hos and music in his
tones stirred their heart, yagrcly lie
] was certainly, they thought, man
/ whom the saints loved Candida, sit
/ ting near the altar with her head bowed.
and her hands feeling her rosary, would
think rs she heard the unintcligibr elo-
| quencc Dear Lord, all that power of
! words, AL that skill of the tongue, and he
would put his shirt on bottom upwards,
were it not for me.n
There was no Office in his church thnt
evening, but he fingered about IT, touch.
ing this thing and the other with tender
fingers. There was always sweet scent
in the little place. its door usually stood
open 10 the fields amidst which it was
planted, and the smell of the incense
which century after century had been
burned in it, blended with the fragrance
from primroseS, or dogroscs, or new
moWn hay, or crushed ripe grapes which
according TO the season, came in It from
without, Candida kept II very clean and
the scorpions and spiders were left so
little peace there byhcr cvcT-actvc broom
that they betoCk them elsewhere, dear as
the wooden benches and the crannicc
stones had been 10 them for ages
Since he had come TO Marca nothing o
any Kind had happened in IL. There had
been some marriages, a great many
births, not few burialS; but that wa,
all The people who came to confession
at Faster confessed very common sins
they had stolen this or that, cheated here
there, and everywhere; got drunk auC
QuarrelUd, nothing more: he would civ,
them clean bins of spiritual health, ant
= bid them 20 in peace and sin no more
quite sure, as they were sure themselves
that they would have the scllsame sins t.
tell off next time they came there.
Everybody in Marca thought grea
, deal of their religion, that is they trustee
to it in helpless but confident klnC
of way as fetish, which, being dul!
and carefully propitiatcd, won't,
,, make things all right for then
after death They would not have MISE,
r "a mass to save their lives; that they dole,
: through II, and cracked nuts or took
, suck at their pipes when they woke, di,
not affect their awcd and unchangeabl
, belief in its miraculous aud Saving
! powers. II they had been asked wha
= they believed or why they believed, the.
would have scratched their heads and Eel
= puzzled. Their minds dwclt in u twilight
m which nothing had any distinct form
, The cleareSt idea ever presented to then
, was that of the Madonna; they thought o
, her as of some universal mother wh'
g wanted TO do them good IN present an'
:, future If they only observed her ccrcmo
;, malls: lust rs in the ages gone by upoi
these same hilSides, the Latin pcasan
. had thought of the great Dcmcter.
4 Gcsualdo himself, despite all the doc
= trine which had been instllled into MN Il
, his noyltiate, did not know much NOR
!. than they; he repeated the words OF hi
i Offices without any distinct notion of nj
J. that they meant; he had vague feelln!
that all self-denial aud sell'sacritce wcr
thrice blessed aud he tried his best t
# save mis- own soul and tile souls OF others
( but there he ceased to think; outside o
4 that speculation lay, and speculation wa
Il a thrice damnablc offcnSc. Yet he, benz
Il Imaginative and intelligent in a humble
Il and dog like way, was at times inhnitel!
* distressed to see how little efec
/ this religion which he taught and whicl
il they protested had upon the lives OF al
pcopie. His own life was altogethc
# guided by 1t. Why could not theirs b
:. the same why did they 20 ON al
a through the year swearing, cursins
d drinking, quarreling, lying, steoling
y he conld not but perceive that they cam
: TO him to confess their pcccadilloes ohl
n that they might pursue them more com
nletely at their ease. He conld not MATTE
t..-lg .l,,t bis CONSIDERATIONS i'll MArcu