Wichita eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1886-1890, 1888-07-15
Starving to Death for Love.

Ouida says that woman has the heart Of
dog, meaning by that, l suppose, that the
more she is beaten tho more she loves the
hand that beats her. But it is not true. Tho
strongest love OF the strongest of US can be
bent and broken like a lily by indifference or
neglect. The man who holds his heart proud
and high, too often takes the love of a woman
for granted. Having once won it, he feels
too sure that he can keep it without any
trouble, at least without any extra trouble.
''Ive got her now he says to himself 'She
belongs to me as much as my horse does;
will see that she is well fed, well stabbed, well
groomed and well shod, and what more could
q reasonable woman desire" and he picks up
the little mote he laid at her feet before he
Sgot her. and which he was pleased to call
his heart, and holding it up proud and high
he turns the key and leaves her. But some
women are not reasonable, they don't pre-
tend to be reasonable, and sometimes when
the man who has ''got her" is posing his
heart high up in the cool regions of self COM
placency and waiting for the unreasonable
woman to climb for it, she simply doesn't do
it. Sometimes she just quietly begins to pack
the ice around her own heart until it freezes
even sitter and colder than his; and some
times she beats her hot, impetuous, Sighted
heart against the bars of her prison until she
finds her way out to sunshine and to freedom.
But, alas that | must confess it, she more
often starves to death from love hunger
within her prison walls.
Men may laugh of it, but there are such
deaths, and women die there daily and are
shrouded and cofiined and buried without
the worlds ever knowing that there is even
SO much as faint bruise ON their tender,
loving, patient hearts. 1t is the men who
hold their hearts proud and high" who kill
women in this noiseless, stealthy way.
1t is strange fact that cold, reticent, I'M
demonstrative men who hold their hearts
proud and high, and who weigh out in homo-
opathic doses the words of affection they
give to q woman lest they should give her
the hundredth part of a grain too many,
have often the power to awaken the passion
ate alteration of the most intense and loving
est women of us all. She thrills with bliss at
the lghtest touch of his hand and turns pale
with emotion at the very sound of his voice
or his step. When he smiles on her she goes
right up to heaven, and when he frowns she
drops down to earth with a sickening thud
She would climb the highest peak with bare
and bleeding feet just for one soft look from
SOlu clISS A,Ic hpu41 dIhiS
deep through the burning sands of desert
to win enc word of love from his cold dumb
lips. She would throw herself between him
and death and gladly die on his cold bosom
for the sake of one warm and tender kiss;
and she would lay her prettiest tea gown on
the altar of self sacrifice as burnt Offering
if he would only call her darling" just one
time.
But even the most intense, constant and
lovingest woman of Us all cannot go on
climbing high mountains, wading through
thousands and sacrificing her best tea gowns
forever. She is human, and she will faint
and die on the way. leaving her broken heart
as warning TO others who stake all on love
and lose; or she will get tired of striving
for the love that is held out of her reach,
and will comfort herself with some tenderer
heart that loves her and is not too proud TO
tell her so.-Pearl Rivers in New Orleans
pirayIlna