Shenandoah herald. [volume] (Woodstock, Va.) 1865-1974, 1888-11-09
FATHER AND DAUGHTER.
From the PhlladeIphIa Press.

There are few lovelier relations
in life than that existing between
a father and bis daughter, when
that relation has been developed
to its best extent by tenderness
and honor and affection on one
side, and by veneration that
amounts almost TO alteration on the
other, the veneration called forth
by perfect faith IN the virtue and
nobility OF its object. The trust
in her father which "a young girl
teels and all uncOnsclOusly exhibits
Is something as hattering to his
pride as II Is delightful to his emo
tions. But the father who accepts
il perforce, yet knows that he does
not deserye it, If he is any sort OF a
man, is more to be pItied than 10
be enyied. And the young glrl
who receives her fathers intense
affection as something purer and
holier than other mortal flesh, and
who is unworthy OF that emotion,
is one almost beneath pity. A man
conscious of the love that he has
called forth from a pure and gentle
being feels obliged to live up to the
opinion which that gentle beng
holds of him, so far as it may be in
his power the child is, in a way,
his guardian angel, and often,
when he is tenn pied, he hears the
rustling of that angels wings.
How much, then, 1t behooves the
young angel to attend to her angel
hood and to be all that her father
deems her; to break no faith, to
keep the 'aw, even the unwrItten
law to be as much to herself as to
him a congregation OF loveliness
only Just short Of the virtues of st.
Agnes herself. For the daughter
has her fathers faith in her in
trust, and to betray that trust
would be to commit sort of sacri-
lege.
To each one of these two people,
comments Harper'S Bazaar, the
love and faith of the other put all
the world in an optimistic rosy
glow ; the world is full of noble
men to this girl who believes in
her father, is full of good women
to the man who finds his young
daughter so excellent; and anyone
who knows the sadness of life and
it's outlook to those who take the
pessimistic view of life, Of human
nature and the universe, will appre-
ciate the blessing that these two
people confer upon each other by
their mere existence. A father
may be without many things, with.
out money, or rank, or fame, or
other of his hearts desires, but if
he has a daughter who satisfies his
soul, he has that the want ofwhich
makes some famous Pnd lofty mil
lionalre poor. And the girl has an
adoring father can dispense with
fine toilets, with lovers and flowers,
gay parties and many of the joys of
youth her father is all in all, a
stay to lean upon, companion to
take pie asure in, all but a god to
look up to.
There is something infinitely
touching in the care which a
daughter feels Of a father who re.
lies on her, aud in that fathers de-
pendence on that care too-the
slender little weskling in whom
such strength is boarded, the reed
that no gales break. And although
all the world loves a lover, yet the
majority of that portion OF it who
are fathers, and who have brought
up daughters, will be found to sym
pathIze with the father who hesl-
tates to deliver up bis daughter to
the first lover who crosses his path
aDd who does not say to him:
"Your money or your life," but
"Your daughter and your life"
For of all hard things it seems to
the loving father the hardest there
is to surrender 10 another's keep
lug this child in whom his heart is
locked, and to whose rearing he
has given so much of himself, not
in the least knowing that with
whatever strength daughter MAJ
love her husband and be one with
him, her father can no more lose
his place in her affection than a
star can iOrsake ITS orbit in the fir
mamanf