The Hartford herald. [volume] (Hartford, Ky.) 1875-1926, 1889-01-09


ing anything in tropical and equatorial
life. In every streak of beauty, every
ray Of glory, every note of music, they
see soul animating and directing all.
From their tree-like natures, they shake
off fruit-mellow, juicy, fit for any pal
ate. And alasl how many parents fail
TO understand the riches stored away in
some of their children. II there is life
unspeakably sad, often shrouded in ON
nous gloom, pierced with thorns and
distracted by many care, 1t is life
clamoring for refnements, for culture,
for the development Of gifts, and yet
denied all by mammon-loving parents,
preferring hogs to genius, and potatoes
10 sentiment and taste. Such was irma's
life. Her parents we're rich in this
worlds goods, but insufierably poor in
brain and soul. They represented out
ward prosperity, but inward poverty;
lean and lank as a hungry wolf crossing
field of ice at midnight.
Fondly rs she had caressed her ideals,
richly rs she had decorated the empty
heaven with picture-painting, ioyfully
as she looked forward to emancipation
from cramped surrounding, and anxious
ly rs. she had pressed her pale face
against the bars OF such a narrow life
looking for the rosy dawn of broader
life, she grew pessimistic, and in an
hour Of solitude, she murmured and
asked, sis there no opening for me to
enter the green fields of life, hear sera-
phic strains of music, be greeted with
the songs of birds, and feel the warm and
sunny air of love shifting my temples
gentle as a wind of softest influence? Is
this life which l have pictured in the
gallery of my imagination destined to
fade away into infinite azure or infinite
mist, and the royal road leading to
golden heights mere illusion, splen-
did fancy OF feverish mind? In my
hours of reverie ideals resembling stars
havebroken through clouds and beamed
with softmysterious light, and is there
norealm where these ideals glittering
like consultations on the sea of immep-
sity will become realities? 1t cannot be
that this is all of life, that no new ex-
periences are in reserve for me" IL was
not long after this soliloquy that Irma
repaired to church one Sunday night,
and listened to sermon Of great power.
The affluent imagery, the beautiful met
aphors, the lofty sentiments clad in q
luminous vesture, together with flow
ing river Of sympathy, aroused her be-
ing and re-kindled the waning fire Of her
heart. The audience drank in the
sermon and as the speaker grew intense
and imprisoned while depicting the
glory of a second Eden where love i'm
mortal blooms, and of hearts never
again chilled by the damps of a sensu-
Gus life, or gloomed by unhappy en-
vironments, Trans eyes flashed, her
form dilated, and for a moment or two
she seemed ecstatic under the afflatus
With rare pathos and touching elo-
quence, the speaker described the strug-
giles of soul trying to burst all letters.
The vine reaching toward the light in
its cellar home, the violet buried among
the tangled grasses, yet striving to lift
up its cup Of blue TO catch the dew and
light; the eagle, majestic monarch Of
the clouds, beating its life away in an
iron cage, were some of the figures used.
All these were in keeping with Irma's
experience, and when he sketched the
condition OF soul affrighted and be-
clouded by the grim visage of despair,
its wild and frantic moments chased by
Harpies and ghosts over arid plains,
through inky abysms, she held her
breath to listen. Then he drew another
picture, relieving the gloom Of the 9th
er. His voice changed, his form was
animated, the eyes revealed something
new as they grew lustrous, and in clarion
tones expressive of triumph and jubila-
ton he exclaimed, there isno room for
despair. Black as may be the heavens,
the stars may seem as dead sentinels,
the moon entombed in grave of clouds
and all mantled with desolation, yet q
voice thunders from the skies come mp
higher" This kindled the fire Of re-
solve in the breast Of Irma, and from
that hour she had new experience. But
atlas how ephemerall Beautiful but
brief. Like the morning cloud, and
early dew, il soon passed away. The
life given TO picture-painting and ideal
izing grew dim beneath the clouds. She
never succeeded in changing and modi-
flying her surroundings. A sad illustra-
ton of a vine-like nature, though beau
tiful and lovely, yet lacking self-reli-
ance, indomitable will and unquench-
able resolve and how many lives are