The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1889-04-04
TWAS BUT A FADED FLOWER.
But a Maiden Lady Kept it in Pill Box
for Over Forty Years.
From the San Francisco Chronicle.


From the San Francisco Chronicle.
Yes, sentiment and association and all
that sort of thing play big part in our
lives suppose. She takes rose out of her
corsage and gives it to you and you keep it
laid away long after it has withered away
into dry dust, until you forget what it is
and where you got it. And then you don't
like to destroy it because, although you
can't for the life of you remember who gave
it to you, you know it is associated with
something that soothes your vanity. That
is why it cuts n fellow when the young
woman asks him for her presents back
1t is not that he cares for them or for her
particularly, but it seems to leave him
nothing to console himself with. 1t not
only cuts off the whole business, it pulls it
up by the roots and leaves a kind Of hole
in his life he can't I'll up. AS long as he
keels TIE sleeve buttons and the lock of
hair and things he has something to hold on,
some evidence that once upon a time he
really had some hold upon her; but those
gone, he is without proof of anything; she
has taken back everything, spiritual and
material, she ever gave him. But every
body passes through that stage of emotion
when he or she keeps things for their asso-
ciation-howers, notes, any little tokens
that may have dropped in course of pleas
ant hours.
have seen stacks of dried flowers; have
glanced casually in parlor at odd things
that, not being there for ornament, and
not being there for use, one knew in
stlnctively were keepsakes, and asked no
questions She hands you her favorte poet
out of the library, and you look through it.
A faded leaf drops out. You stcop to pick
it up. She bushes and says. mo matter"
| but she smoothes it out accidentally, and
when you aren't looking she puts it back
between the leaves exactly where it was
before. always look at the poem when a
little event like that happens, ana it is al
most invariably something sweet and ten
der, applicable to little love situation.
know he has read it to her or she to him on
| some occasion, and it has been in a garden
or out of doors: And perhaps the little
| leaf hoated on the breeze and fell between
| the pages, or he gave it to her to mark the
place.
have seen many dainty things that we're
| doubtless mementos, but the maiden lady
of 60 comes to the front and wins the prize
without question. 1t was little paper
box of old, old fashion, glazed. 1t had had
| pills in 1T once, l fancy. 1t Ii oked very
drug storey Of the past, before they had
1000 different kinds of tooth powder, each
the very best, and 200, 900 kinds of face
powder, all Recommended by the best known
| prima donnas. 1t belonged to the DAYS
when they put on expensive perfume bottles
the kind of labels they put now on castor
oil. In this little box was mixture of bits
of brown leaf and dust. She had kept it,
she said for forty years.
"What is its' | asked.
"a memento."
Eyes; but is it a flower or a leafF'
'It's leaf
"a lelf~ The color is peculiar"
sits a leaf-you won't tell Anybody, will
| yous L was very much in love with a
young man in those days, and one night, the
first night he ever kissed me, he laid down
his cigar-cigars were looked upon as great
| luxuries then in our part of the country
he laid down his cigar on the fence and
went away without it. Next morning !
found it there. 1t had been raining and it
was all wet, but | took it and put it away,
and-well-I don't know how it came here
but here it is, and even now / am young
when | look at it, and l dom I
feel like throwing it in the fire"