Richmond dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1884-1903, 1888-07-01


head OF tho bed Is little gas bracket
armed with q shade so adjustable that
the rag OF light can bo managed without
difficulty at ones own pleasure. This |
consider an absolute luxury. Mics Nor
ris is herself a voracious reader and covers
nearly all branches OF literature.
Her house, like that of every famous
woman, is full OF tric-G-5rac and curtos
picked up in Europe or America, but the
pets are the moss noticeable feature
about her establishment. There are
birds from many lands, though they are
kept out OF sight and hearing in room
mt the top OF the house, where no stranger
can intrude to Brighten these feathersd
captiyes. The American cardinal, the
brown mocking-bird, the thrushes, the
bullGnches, all make up chorus,
and the tiny strawberry-birds, these
odd, small Asiatics, vith their
fine piping voices, add to it a
perfect shower OF silver sounds that is
like the mechanical tinkle of q music
box. The English skylark, mute aud
wild in his captivity, beats against his
prison bars. OF ina corner the gentle
love birds whisper together perpetually,
and the Brazilian pasoquets make queer
faces. The Chinese robin-gorgeous
little pagan exile, with red bill and
fame-tipped wings-brought by some
Pacific sailor half around the world, re-
peats his foreign tongue in soft entreaty.
The japanese nightingale, in fawn-col-
ored vest and necklace of purple, sits all
day dumb, then utters bis minor note
with the long drawn vibrations OF bell,
as the sun goes down, and drops again
into silence forlorn little stranger in q
strange land, still chanting his vesper-
song
These birds are 80 shut Off that they
are seldom heard, but all through the
house from some unseen region near ut
hand, the doves, the ring-doves in their
cages down below, mourn, and mourn,
and mourn. A chant for the dead IS
payer than dance music compared to
their strange and steady lament Some.
times it seems as if one OF them, past all
endurance. suddenly broke into flood
OF tears that is more pathetic than the
death-song of the swan. Even Our Lady
Of Grief could have given expression to
no such anguish when she cried "Ae
tend all we that pass by, and see II there
be any sorrow like unto my SORROW.
THE DOGS.
There are other inmates OF the house
almost as important as the family-the
DOGS. Some OF them are not much
larger than your hand. Mona, York
shire terrier. las a most beautiful suit OF
gold and silver hair that drSgs on the
ground like a lady's train. Lasca is n
little southerner, back-and-tan, the
very smallest specimen OF the canine
race ever saw. She is a Spanish Next
can, and so high bred that she shivers
with the cold even in midsummer, and
is always dressed in little embroidered
coat that covers her all over.
From the house one cannot see the
stable. except portion of the root
towering above tie tree-tops. There
the pigeons walk with red feet shining
like coral in the sun, and there the
weather.vane whirls with the wind as it
sweeps up and down the river valley.
/ am like Professor Swing, who once
told me he wanted his horse TO be as do
mestic as bis COWS or bis chickens--a
slow, responsible old beast of matured
Years Well. Miss Morris's animals pos
sess none of these peculiar qualities.
They are all handsome to the eye, and
swift, as l know to the cost Of my ner-
vous system. Duby-short for Dubious,
so called on account Of his suspicious
great black horse, Intimi-
dating to the unwary. Dimple Is ike
mouse, so satin fine IS her coat, and
there are Max and Bonibel and Prince,
all driving horses, single or in span, and
Creole, her own particular mount.
And what magnificent rides one can
take along the Hudson on summer
dav 1t is almost the only part Of our
immense country where there are homes.
When those Englishmen, who can 80
easily rouse cur ire by their caustic criti-
cism, came over here and said of us
sneeringly-"1he Americans are only a
lot of middle-class shop-Seepers, living
in tenement or boarding-houses, VINO do
not even know enough to have a
home they were not altogether astray.