Western sentinel. [volume] (Winston [i.e. Winston-Salem], N.C.) 1856-1886, 1886-03-04
CASSIOPEA'S CHAIR |
IT'S MISSING, BUT COEXISTENT
STAR.
Whatever Disappeared from Heaven
or Earth is an Emblematic and Per-
sistent Pointer Toward Immortality.
BY EDWARD PAYSON HALL.

or Earth is an Emblematic and Per-
sfstent Pointer Toward Immortality. |
BY EDWARD PAYsoN HALL.
For The Sentinel.
| Noted above other consultations of
the heavens is Cassiopea's Chair, from
the fact that the most brilliant MEM
Der of the tall-seated and high-backed
family arose, flashed, blazed, diminish
ed and finished its visit to the field of
human research all within the brief
space of eighteen months. 1t was the
passing wonder of the year 1872, and
alarmed all the astronomers of the
age. Suddenly appearing, it excelled
even the dazzling planet Jupiter in
magnitude and brightness. But its
speedy and mysterious disappearance
completely non-plussed the scientific
gazers. Toward its exit it waned in
lustre and became smaller by degrees,
thus giving pale and pathetic warning
of its final farewell to the realms on
which mortal eyes are permitted to
rest.
Yet how common are such advents
and exits in the galxy of human gen.
ius! 1t was, bnt few months since
that T. G. Gastob, brilliant young
lawyor of South Carolina, who had
been gradually failing, beth mentally
and physically took his own life-a
not unfrequently multiplied example
of man upon whom the. moment
public admiration became intently fix
ed, a melancholy and mysterious de-
sease laid shocking and sudden claim.
Alas my dear SENTINEL readers,
have you not often seen, in the years
of this nineteenth century, many
strange stars making bright entrance
on the intellectual and social frma-
ment of the English-speaking nations,
and then fading away forever! =!
Among the poetical celebrities, admir-
ed and passed over to the vale of for
getfulness in few short months per-
haps, are you old enough to remember
Alexander Smith, the objective point
of critical spy-glasses in AS; A. More
head, the gifted and short-lived young
North Carolina writer of that sterling
little poem, "The Hills of Dan - H.
S. Ellenwood, of this State, the author
of "The Marriage of the Sun and
Moon" w. w. Holden and his Mil
tonic poem on "The Death of John c..
Calhoun Frank |. Wilson, silver
tongued as the leaping waters of the
"Swannanoa' he describes; Mrs. w.
S J. Clarke and her address to the Old
1 North State;" James b. Sheppard,
] the author of Caroline - s. w.
} Whiting, the author of the poem
: "Alamance;" William Castor, the
l author of the song, "The Old North
. State" Mrs. Frances D. Gage, Cor
s "Aunt Fanny" as we used to call
t herr whose name was a household
/ werd in the West, for a time peer
less, charming old" "GraceGreenwood y
insane but dazzling Willis Gaylord
= Clark g. w. Cutter and his ''Song
l of Steam; )" Mrs. Osgood, Arthur Tap
: pan, Cotton, Rice, Gaffney and hun
e dred or two others? Did you know,
/ or if you did, have you forgotten the
y ephemeral and genial humorists
S major Jack Downing" Davy Crock
Il EFT. Judge Halliburton, ("Sam Slick, y
r J dge Hall, of Georgia, Hamilton c.
JONES, C''Cousin Sally Diilard,' '') and
the seldom named :aroo.lors O. such
}. character and dialect as is portrayed
in the "Arkansaw Doctor" "Sut Low
: engood" and the "Harp with a Thous
and Strings" ?" Who remembers, only
e as curious fossil, that dear old time
l. romance, by the living, but half forgot
e Gas Mtarateur,) Rev. c. II. Wiley
n story full of the revolutionary spirit
q pathos and imagery-his maiden anc
n once much-praised "Alamance ?
20 Many of the most promising youns
IS professional men of forty years ag'
: are now known only by dim vision
q of their tombstones in some lionel.
"a spot And oh Where are the grea
~ majority of the countless militar.
70 chleftains, North and South, whose
+. fame. extended not beyond few dar
i. ing act. and rapid promotions, in tn
g days of our Civil War? The sworC
" ~ cleaned transitorily and became re
If solved into plough-share-the art o
n. war was submerged beneath the mum
ia erous arts of peace.
"a Yea, and coming nearer home, ma.
Ie l gently inquire, where are the bright
to est and fairest scions of your own fam
~ lilies, and your dearest and earlies
es friends? Where is the girl you love-
ut best, the boy you adored, or the wifi
10 or the child in whom your whole Sou
i. was wrapped, as in a fragile shell mad
a to be shattered-the cream and tn
Ie essence of your friendships cups-th
M freshest, balmiest, choicest flowers Q
m 90 your love-gardens? They came an
=. then vanished into distant realms, lik
Of Of the missing star of Cassiopea's Chair
J ad The literary, professional and mil
~. ~ tary stars, eclipsed by the shadows 0
n throng of new and often superior me
~ melted almost into thin air, scarcely e1
ID citing mournful remark. But ho'
bo about those who have sat on your lap
'e- M around your firesides and in you
,ss "chairs
90 l forbear 1t is painful. l. be
leave to close with one remark. Ho,
horrible, how inendurable, would tn
thought of the disappearance {
is these dear ones be, if it were indee
ute foreuers No Ingersoll doctrine fo
"a me. Give me the creed my methe
at. taught me, my inward consciousness
70. of its truth and the good. old Bibl
ed No one should boast goodness; but h
ut that dares to try to remove our be-
th hopes, though an orator and a geniu
is the most cruel of all men.