The Irish standard., 1890-12-20

4
There was another, long before tht
days Ut Antony, in whose veins 1OWee
the blood Of Nimrod and Snmiramis
descended from a race Of kings wht
knew no pred decessors;" Of a civilization
which looms dimlV UP to us through .
! deep mist Of years, majestic and mvs
terions; Of time when the storied
hills OF Greece and Italy were rOamed
bY savages and the Eternal City had
not begun to exist. Sardanapalus, The
last King Of the AssYrians, was shorn
by tho shears OF Dslllah. What q mag
n,hcent heritage was his. A line OF
imperial ancestry reaching thirteen
4 centuries into the past: the stately ci
vilizatiOn Of Ninaveh and this inteliec.
tual empire Of tne world. Stray frag-
nlents only of his tragic history have
come down to US His death gives us
4 a hint OF his life. He had been shared
bv the Ionic eyes of MYrrah and
Would not yield
Even for the sake Of all that ever stirred
1 a monarch INTO hCClOu, 10 IOrDE
/ A trifiing reyel.
i All the glory OF his ancestry was for
/ gotteia for the velvet caress Of the pink
hand OF his slave. When all had seen
lost hs rifiel the palace OF Its treasures
and in tho court built funeral pyre of
his richest fErnituro aud after ''drain-
| ing Que drsught to the ia aaory Of many
q joyous banquet past" burned himself
with his concubinos. So diod Sardana.
palns aud with hlm 1900 years OF
empire.
Greece has contributed victim. The
/ son Of Jupiter aud AIcmena while still
! an infant with his naked hands sGrangl
4 ed the serpents sent bv Juno 20 destroy
i him. Clad in the robe OF Minerva and
the golden brsastplate of Vulcan. armed
with the sword of Mercury aud the bow
Of Apollo and holding the reins over
the horses OF Neptune, he swept
| through the world liks a whirlw ind.
4 EyerYbodY knows. how easily be- dis
1 posed of the Nemean lion, the Lerasa an
hydra. the golden horned stag, the
wild boar. the centaurs and all the rest
OF the nulsances OF those DAYS, But
the classic profile and bare arms of Ioie,
daughter of Eurytus, were too much for
Hercules, and his wife, to prevent any
serious complications, sent the hero a
rope which consumed his flesh, and he
Sailed away from a troubled world in a
thunder cloud.
A melancholy example which Mr.
Parnell might have remembered is
found in the case Of Louis XIV. Louis
| Is reported to have had q faithful wife,
plain but good. and he himself is spoken
Of as having been unusually decent"
till he came to all age when he should
have been ashamed TO be ANYTHING else.
But alas, there was a POmpadOur, and
poor foolish Louis, IN spite of the war.
like blood Of his father and the circum
spectlOn with which he should have
carried himself as the head OF family,
allowed himself to be captured by her
wiles. What vivin sketches the keen
satirists of the time have drawn of the
enervated monarch in mis- Pare aux
Cerfs surrounded by bevy of beautiful
girls who had been stolen from their
homes for his delectatiOn. History has
no more unique picture than that of the
dissipated old monarch teaching these
girls to read and write, praying with
them and generally concerning himself
for their spiritual welfare.
MultiGudes OF ladies, we are told, were
candidates for positions in this Partisan
harem. and the history Of the govern
ment at this period is little more than a
history or the changes of the Kings
mistresses. What pair of shears were
those of Pompadour. From harmless
mediocrity the monarch degenerated
into an object of ridicule for gods and
men. Then down came disasters upon
hls devoted head. Wolfe captured
Quebec; the victorious Give banished
the eagles of France from India; Hawke
demoralized and scattered the navy, and
Voltaire and Rousseau laughed out of
existence all respect for church Or
state. and paved the way for the bloody
revolution. st. Louis Globe Democrat.
Two or three urchinS were runnlng
down q long and very steep flight of
steps, when the foremost stumbled and
fell headlong twenty or thirty feet, and
was only stopped near the bottom bv
doubling backward around the newell
post. It looked as though his back wa, !,
broken, and that he was dead small
hoy, but he gathered himself ND, thrust
his hands anxiouslv in his trousers
pockets and calculated:
by gosh. / b'le've lost cent.
He wondering if that Williams has
been accepted )Are both your rings
Ihe1rlooms2 She (conc ceaIlng the hand)
One has been in the family since the
/ time of Alfred, but the other is newer