Fort Worth weekly gazette. [volume] (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1889-08-15
In THE NIGHT SEASON.
written e1presslr for rhe Gazetts


10 which merry dancers kept time?
Heard the softer monotone of the waves
as they came and went upon the beach?
Seen the glinmering lights of earth and
the bright gemmlng of the heavens,
scarce knowing sight or sound in the
dreamy visions that haunted brain and
bewildered sense?
Ihen you have been in sympathy with
me, but lest you be beguiled into pictur-
ing an ideal wholly unlike the original,
let me Introduce my unromantic self.
10 begin. l am thlrty-three: yes, 1
suppose 1 must say blase, and vet that
night, when embarrassing breezes
kissed me, when the gentle
Ianguor of the summer air stole
over me, there was bovish
tenderness, had almost said innocence,
nesting In my heart that brought to mind
other days, sweet memories, dreams that
had had no fulfilIment, but dreams that
never made manhood worse.
Not long before had been one of the
merry dancers, I had mingled in that
throng: the yoluptuous music, fair
women, odors of flowers and Araby 5
perfumes, cleaning lights, rich viands
ana seductive wines, had all mingled in
5ethean cup that not only drowned
memory Of sorrow, but caught the senses
ins2 delicious whirl of rare intoxicatlon.
.Blase ! said l was, but in this hour I
forgot the role and flung myself in happy
abandon into the mad round.
Laugh, reader, if you can, when 1 tell
you that when l was in the very
art of folly, when as the divine
strains of Strauss waltz Tavished my
ear, when | only knew that fair cheek
was close to mine, that in my arms !
held as much of female loveliness as
could be clothed in radiant human form,
then softer than music strain, sweeter
than whispered love note, pure as
angel s call from O. er the battlements of
heaven heard voice, nay, twas so.
Papa.
My partner in the dance saw the
chagrined expression.
What is it Roy? Are you i'll? Come
into the conservatory and we will rest. -
Papa IL saw the little boy, I saw
his out-stretched arms, saw the tangled
curls, and the little white robe in which
he knelt to say his evening prayer. (For
his mother had ideas of devotion J
As l stared into that which to my
companion was vacancy, she grew
alarmed
Roy. let me call some one; surely
you are i'll. -
Her agitation, for felt her trembling,
recalled me. I brushed my hand across
my forehead, and. spoke as firmly as l
could.
"No, no, I will take you
to your party and ask
then that you excuse ,,ane.
Indeed 1 believe 1 had a passing faint
ness; L Will gNto my room, and in the
.porning we"If have our,ride. ''..,.s'~
And how in qui6tude I had been
thinking strange thoughts. The moon
just rising through the clouds cast wierd
shadows on sea and shore, the music Of
she waters was lullaby, and the luxury
of a good cigar all acted as calments to
a distracted mind.
l had spent many years in Germany
and there had grown metaphvsical ordi-
narily I would have dissected the brain
action III my case with the GOODNESS of a
practiced surgeon who removes the quiv-
ering limb; but tonight this was impos-
sible; memory held me in iron clasp, the
call was retrospective ana look over the
past l must, whether 1 would or not.
Twelve months ago l with my own
hands had lain little curly head upon
its last bed, and in bitterness of spirit
had placed in the keeping of her who
called herself my wife, and was my
boy mother, the key that closed
the door of the house that shut him in.
Then / turned from her and became a
wanderer, seeking forgetfulness in pleas
ure s maddest form, lightly testing at
heart histories, keeping no faith, treas
uring no love save for fond mother who
would still lay her hand upon my head
and say 81 Poor Roy; that was the one
tender memory.
1t was during the last years of my stay
IN Germany that l met fair young
countrywoman She had spent nine
years in a conventual school, and was
now having holiday on the continent
before entering social life in America.
Satiated with the coquetries of the fair
erslavers that haunted drawing rooms
and bathrooms, tired of the glare and the
tinseI, her purity and freshness won my
admiration, and I gained consent to wed
her before the bloom had been touched,
or the dew brushed from the petals.
Yes, like some unlearned gardener, 1
transported the delicate plant to a worn
soil, and dared to dream that its fresh
ness would be perennial-doting idiot
that I was!
A short time sufficed to dispel all
TO her SIMPLE nature my ways
were ways of wickedness, my thoughts
were abhorrent, my opinions heterodOX,
and | soon found though her touch was
velvety and her tone soft there was be-
meath ali spirit as uncompromising as
death.
We had no vulgar qlarrels, and now
looking at it as a dead past I make no
charges; she was my wife and the mother
of my boy, what she endured for me |
can never know, she never complained;
she was of that stuff which makes
martyrs, but thank God l had enough
of manliness to spare her further
sacrifice.
The 10y in his helplessness bound .us
for two years and then he went home, a
spirit too pure for such parental
guardianship. The last link broken, by
common consent we fell apart, and thus
closed the history.
Tonight, the voice had called;
< papa /" came clear TO my ear. Was it
true our dngles 40 always Behold His
face, and these little ones come to earth
stained souls to warn and to save?
know not, l know not.
Like the guilty Macbeth, I start, there
10 I hoE