The Sunday herald and weekly national intelligencer., 1890-06-01
ANACOSTIA.

Mr.. James s. Reagan is still in Ashevlle.
He is improving slowly,
Among those who attended the Lee statue
unveilipg at Richmond from this place were j.
G. Lee, of the First Maryland Confederate Bat
talon: j. II. Shannon, of the Washington Ar
tillery, New Orleans; William p Bryan, j. c.
Leonard, and j. Adam Bede.
There is woe in Anacostia. The suices of
her soul are flushed with tears. An elegiac air
vibrates her cardiac strings. One of the fairest
buds in all the rose gardens of her society has
blanched and wilted and withered nigh unto
death. The laugh that rung in swelling
cadences from her ancestral halls far
across the maaria-freighted marshes of
All the fair girls once hamboyant ma
ture is changed. She has become morose,
mysterious, hateful of society, and longs only
for the innermost recesses Of her own apart
ments, where for hours and days she dwells
alone, nursing some strange, eerie mood. To
questions of loving and alarmed friends she an
swered that there was nothing amiss. But her
pale cheek, her feverish eye and her generally
spirituelle appearance belied her words. Her
parents grew alarmed, her friends became anx-
ious Doctors even called, but could discover
no symptoms of disease. They questioned and
cross questioned her in vain. She was not ILL.,;
she felt no pain; that was all they could get
from her. The parents began to think a spell
the doctors, who were completely puzzled by
the case, suggested that the pining maiden be
closely watched. This was done and led to a
singular discovery. 1t was that at frequent in
tervals the girl received letters and newspapers
from an unknown source. 1t soon became evil
dent that she watched for these missives with
much eagerness. When they came she
seized them impatiently and hastened with
heightened color and accelerated footsteps to
her own room. There she tore them open and
1avOnra6 their Then
she would be overcome with increased weak
ness and sink lower into the state of strange
ennui which so puzzled all about her. The
doctors came quickly to the conclusion that
there was connection between these mystic
rious missives and the young girls illness.
They resolved that the letters and papers must
be intercepted. That day letter came. The
parents seized it and tore it open. What ter
| rible mystery were they about to light upon
Did the ill-omened envelope contain subtitle
poison that was slowly destroying their fair
girl? No, it contained nothing of the sort
1t contained only sheet of cheap note paper on
which was scrawled some bad, balting, idotic
rhyme from Bennng's bard! This was the
poison which was undermining the constitution
| of their daughter. This was the habit which
had changed the nature of the girl. She had
somehow, in some moment of weakness, ac
quired the vice of reading these maunderne
effusons. Their author had learned of it and
had deluged her with them. The result was
! inevitable. They had undermined her health
and were slowly but surely hurrying her to ar
early grave. When approached on the subject
the poor girl confessed that such was the fact
Then the parents sought the bard and threat
ened to expose and prosecute him, but finally
| let him off on account of his age, and with the
understanding that he should write no more
Since then the girl has begun to recover, and
all Anacostia is filled with the hope that thu
roses will soon return to her cheeks, and hel
gay laughter be heard again along the Easter
Branch. And if the poor girls sad experience
| hnot ynf
voice of Benning's bard she has not suffered il
vain. IPsE.