Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1889-09-04
ilEART ECHOES.

ilEART ECHOES.
| Written for the SPECTATOR
MINT SPRING, VA August, 1889.
To the Authoress of "Heart Echoes:'
Mrs. Mary Lewis--Virgipian, by Prof.
Edgar Tydoph de Duphane, author of Ma
belle France 'qui vive r'' ''God bless old
Dixie p' etc.
1 see thee weep and thine are honest tears,
A patriots for his country. Thou art sad
At thought of her forlorn and abject state
From which no power of thine can raise her up
-Cowper's Task
while nations have their heroes, they
have also their heroines and noble woman!
| What is more inspiring, more sacred, more
noble than the sodg. the tear. the prayer of
a woman for her afflicted Country? What
the stories of a Hector and Achilles were
once to me in my childhood, what the
knighthood of "Ma belle France" was o:.cr
to me in my youth, such is to me now The
struggling patriotism of great South in
America" the chimes of noble women's
prayers and songs for sour old sweet
Dixie?" Yea, "Glorious in the dustr'
What triumphant shout of bravery, truest
nobility, patriotism and defiance comes
forth out off those few words Such is the
spirit of old Dixie Conquered but not
fallen ~
Nothing but a true Southern heart could
sing thus; nothing but noble soul in a
loyal breast could dictate such words! Mad
anne: Although total stranger in these
parts, Frenchman by birth, l love the
South and her people as my own. and ad-
mire aud honor you amongst her most
Ill i
Spartians their Thermopyles, the Romans
Thaddens, America Washington, but the
South, old Dixie, has more than this: ga
beautiful fourleave clover will live in the
pages of her history for ever:
Lee, Jackson, Stuart, Mary Lewis"
"A oeto tyrants and my country's friend"
-Stak's. Jul. Caesar.
What Jackson, Lee and Stuart accom-
plished iu the field of battle, Mary Lewis
accomplished with the pen of the poetess.
1t was the speech of Demosthenes, the
readiness of the Carthagien women, the love
of the Spartians for their country, the
bravour of q maiden of Orleans, that in
spired the warriors hearts and made them
heroes and heroines, but Mary Lewis has
even surpassed them! Not only has she
inspired the Southern soldier in the field,
and created heroes but she has also with
thoughts sublime ornamented the grave of
the fallen.
I'm dying, dearest father, now
Imsy not live to bless
Thy lonely, thy declining years
With joy and happiness.
But dearest father, do not grieve
I've given my life to save
From such sacrilegious hands
My own loved mothers grave.
Homer, that most magnificent of his
torical scriptors, in his Goth book, in his
description of the battling Gods, is SUBJ
lime; we gaze with him upon the bloody
field of battle; we hear the shouts of the
fighting, the groans of the dying and
wounded inmidst the raging elements of
heaven and hell and we ''tremble." But
now from this place of horror and darkness
we pass TO the battlefield of Williamsburg
and there we listen to the dying soldier
boy, resting in the arms of his fellow SOL
disr and father, singing his dying song,
speaking his farewell to his beloved ones
and his country. The elements are in
peace, we tremble not but with the poor
heart broken father 1--WE weep"
"Ah, my Dixie, weep!r
:What moving charms fair Beauties form
invest.
When with divinest disposition blest!"
-Mountdin Muse.
With my love for all sublime and noble /
can not help but admire the noble and won
derous beauty of the thought which the
poetess expresses in these lines. What q
languageI What spirit! Reading these
words ono fancies the cartbagien heroes and
heroines, giving their all for the sacred
cause of their lives and fortunes.
"Mymother taught me "how to dier'
"Yes, now L can hear the urgent prayer
of that mother!" "Great God of arms!
Guide my boyl Teach him how to live
and die for bis country" 1 can see that
heroic mother, as she places the helmet
on her ouly boys noble brow! I can hear
the fond farewell! I can hear her nightly
prayersl
Like the breaking beams of the morning
sun around the gilden statue of the Pallas
Athehe dancing in thousands of colours in
the sea at her feet, so this mothers prayer
and blessing will throw it's beams iu the
young proud warriors heart and shouting
defiance to the cruel enemies of his country
and cause, his mothers love and patriotic
| live and die Southernerr'
lie dies; his noble heart does beat no
more but his soul ia living! Above yon
azure sky, by his mothers side and in the
heart of the noble Mary Lewis he is living,
the soul of Hero, immortal!
Thy spirit shall forever live! shall live
Forever in the land where life is bliss!"
(Boone's adventures)
Such seems to have been the inspiration
of the poetess when she amidst the roar of
the cannon and tumult of war gave testi-
monial of her glorious countrymen and wo-
men. No wonder that the South loves her
and admires her The patriotic daughter
of great Dixieland, her name is spoken
by young and old, by friends and stran-
gers
"Her deeds shall live in history's deathless
fires!
"Her charms, by great Aurelian drawn,
"Shall shine unchanged till times last
glimpse is gone!
'Stringing Granger.
In Illinois, as in many other states, there
is law which provides that railroad
company cannot be made to pay more than
So, 900 killing person, though there.Is no
| limit to the amount for which a company
may be sued for merely manning person
One day Senator Henry H. Evans, who likes
| joke better than he does meal, was tel
| ling one of his rural constituents about this
law as they were riding together from Au.
rora to Chicago.
"Waal," said the granger, finally, SITS a
durn sight cheaper, then, fur'em to kill a
man than to cut off an arm or a leg"
''Of course it is" said the senator, and
then lowering his voice to a whisper, he said