Macon beacon. [volume] (Macon, Miss.) 1859-1995, 1889-10-26

of his suffering all these years, whlleI
to think-yes, let me so now if it is
not too late"
They took a cab and were driven rap
idly away from the noisome sums H.
to which they had penetrated for the
first time.
Joyce's history was sad enough. She
had run away from home in her early
girlhood and made a marriage with an
actor, which broke her parents hearts
Taking to the life of a strolling
player herself she found the baby soon
born to the young couple a practical
difficulty. which could only be solved
one way; by parting from it as soon as
possible.
The little creature was accordingly
coutided to the care of a woman al
whose country lodgings Joyce and her
husband had stayed during one OF their
provincial engagements with Il touring
company of actors.
The actress, like many others in the
same position, stiled her mothers
love with the ambition which %(unfor-
tunately for her, perhaps) met with
remarkable success
She and her husband accepted an
Australian engagement for three years,
and left England.
A year later news arrived from the
baby's foster-mother reporting It's
death, A year later still found Joyce
a widow at twenty, alone in the world.
On her return to England she made
a marked success, and from that time
mounted steadily until she reached the
summit of her youthful ambition, Lon
don went mad over the beautiful
woman. who could move to tears or
laughter with such unerring power
and infinite charm.
Her marriage with q ~well-known
author, and her unsullied reputation,
cave her an entrance into the great
world that talent only does not al
ways give. There We're few women IN
London, perhaps, whose lot seemed
more brilliantly enyiable than hers
this day when the flaming posters an
nounced her ''benefit" at the Eleusis
Theater in the part which vas the
browning glory of all her repertory.
Yet, as she drove through the noisy
streets with Esley, the face that thou
sands loved was convulsed with re-
morseful pain for the sake OF a little
newspaper boy dying in the ward OF a
hospital, in the savage wilderness
men proudly call 1.-The great metrop-
oils"
A ragged boy brushed against Esley
and his companion as they assembled
the stone staircase of the hospital.
as that you, lad?"
1t was Turtle, indeed, but he burst
away from the Colonel's hand, with
something between a sob and Il curse,
and rushed down the stairs with
heavy. uncertain steps.
Dock was lying with his arms at his
sides, and his brown eyes shut.
What they see, NJ man can say, for
the ready tongue is silent and reveals
nothing, and the sweet mouth is
sealed past all %conjuring into speech
or any answering smile.
The hands on the coverlet are sc
thin that if you held them up to the
sunlight you might almost see through
them; but for all, they are held
against a woman's breast, they remain
as cold as ice, and the warmth of pas
sionate love comes to them all toe
late.
They and the busy little brain have
done their share Of work in this
world; their ceaseless toll and actlvl-
ty meet as deep reward OF rest as eve
the careworn statesman under his
Abbey monument. His joys and fear;
and hopes are over; love has said its
last word to the child that never knew
a mothers kiss, till now it comes-toC
late.
His world has been outside the ker
of the woman. who can only touch
what was a moment ago the habltatlor
of the spirit, once part OF her own,
+ now gone beyond her reach forever.
, Nothing can touch him further.
., 1t was the actress last night upoI
=, the stage-her triumph and her ever
!, lasting farewell to all pos sible tri
umphs yet to come.
q She never revealed the reason. |
was a woman's expiration for lonl
! years of wrong.
So Dock was after all a person O
greater importance in this worlds his
A tory than he ever dreamed OF in tn
days when he sat at his newspape
stall-Belprayia,