Omaha daily bee., 1891-12-28
A NEW We iR'S STORY.

Mary Kyle Dallas in New York
Ledger: How merry New Years day
used to be in the long ago, when every
one kept open house from early morning
until midnight; when your %acquaint-
ances came down upon you in armies, on
foot or in sleighs, if there happened to be
snow upon the ground; when anyone you
had ever been introduced to might call
upon you; when old beaux ~reappeared
and recreant friends had only to smile
and hold out, Il hand to be forgiven;
when the ladies received the gentlemen
in full dress, or something very like it,
at high noon; when your butcher, baker
and candlestickmaker might drop in
with no other claim on your hospitality
han the fact that you dealt with hem
when, in fact, every man you knew was
sure to call.
but she who could exhibit 200 cards
the gentlemen always brought their
cards-was very happy.
How well | remember dressing in my
first long dress, and sailing up and down
before the glass to make sure that the
train swept gracefully behind me. Ned
Palmer had said he would be sure to call
on me-, and | was as happy rs a girl can
be. He did come, of course, and he
whispered sweet words in my ear as he
eat the sweet cake he was young
fifteen minutes-an unprecedented
length for q New Year
call-aud the rest of the day / was
happy in consequence; though. for the
matter of that, ! was always happy in
those days. Looking back, L fancy that
the skies We're bluer and the grass
greener when | was sixteen; that the
moon oitener shpne, and that no one had
so little trouble; but | suppose that is all
fancy, and it was only that | saw the
world through rose-colored glasses, as
most people do in their teeus-and, then,
there is nothing that can ever come to
one in this wicked world half so delight
full as being a pretty yonng girl with II
handsome young lover who believes you
the only perfect thing in the world.
Talk of wealth and fame and honors
and dignities, and all those things
that usually come with gray hair and
crowsfeet. Bah! | snap my fingers at
them! One kiss, such as one and twenty
gives to sixteen, is worth them all; and
IL queen in her power n pride might
envy a peasant girl walking through the
clover with an arm about her waist and
q whisper in her ear. After all, there
is not much to tell of that joyous time
that began for me, except that Ned and
| loved ZACH other; that he put a ring
upon my finger, and that we vowed to
be true to each other forever and for
ever: never TO chauge-never, never,
never, while we lived! We were quite
sure we would die on the same day, and
in heaven we would go about hand in
hand, listening to the music and the
voices of the angels crying forever:
Love! Love! Love!
We we're so sure of everything-he
and |; happy youth always is. Another
New Years day, and our wedding was
close at hand; and we were as fond of
each other as ever. But | think we
were too happy. | fancy Satan be-
grudged Us perfect and sinless bliss;
for that very day a word was said, a
thing done-it does not matter what
n tri1e, n nothing; and yet it grew to II
great thing in my mind and his. We
had u quarrel, n little lovers tiff, it
seemed. | wept; he was like ice in his
great dignity. And some one who
wished to part us took advantage OF the
fact. All! how could any one wish to
make two young souls suffer so? And
Mt that time there was trouble in the
land.
the war was Ger"
saws the rude rhyme that keeps the
time in mind.
There was a chance for any one who
was in despair to fling his life away. |
said the bitter word he could not bear.
| took his ring from my finger and
tossed it to him as though it were IA
thing that had no value in my eyes; and
he left mo in wrath. The next day they
told me he had enlisted, and | heard
them speak of his patriotism as great.
and praise him for casting away pros
country. But II knew that patrito.
ism did not move him; that he
would never have left me for
the sake of any other thing, and
that he had simply gone to seek
death because he believed that | no
longer loved him, But did-oh, l did!
And
''To be wroth with one we love o.
Doth work like madness on tho brain"
Well, / was not the only unhappy one
in my little world. Women wept as
they never wept before in those four
years, all over the country, from Maine
to Georgia, The boys in blue and the
boys in gray, alike, were loved and
grieved for. Widows there were, orphans
everywhere, and girls whose lovers
might never return to them. Can all
the good that any war can do atone for
all the misery il causes? Oh, for the
time when there shall be no battles
fought-no lives sacrificed either TO
kings or causes. IL will come, for mind
is at the helm everywhere, and the
days OF g~unpowder are fast following
the days OF the sword out OF existence.
But, alas! alas. for the woe that l re-