Rock Island daily Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1886-1893, 1892-08-04
WOUNDS THAT LIVE.
HEEN MEMORY BRINGS TO MIND
MANY A PAINFUL EVENT.

A TrihinS Reminder Often Serves to
ans Story of a Thrilling Experience in
Her Early Life-A Days Sorrow.
One may forget a circumstance, or may
seerra TO forget il. but the emotion Il
arouses IL il be = sincere emotion, never Is
really forgotten. Let ike circumstance,
or even the story Of one, meet one after
years without number, and presto,-the
old emotion il quick, and keen and awake;
time has nos dulIed il: made of imperisha-
bic stuff. IL asserts TO our startled senses
it's immortality.
Mental wounds says Macdonald, ARE
like physical. in this. that bad weat her re-
wives the old ache The truth Of that,
and Of the fact that one never really for
gets, came home to me oddly. when l
CHANGED in the newspapers upon the tragic
story of the Yale boy who met his death
through the Jest of a society initiation
The allusion 20 the grief of the comrade
who was in all innocence Yet responsible
for the terrible happening brought sud
denly across my consciousness, with a rush
as of a tidal wave, an almost insupport-
able comprehension OF what that grief
must be, and with il the memory Of a hap
pening 50 long past that, had anything but
analogous circumstances suggested II, i
should have smiled as AT childhood trag-
edy, seen a. comedy down the vista of
years.
But the mere thought of the soul cloud.
under the like OF which had once stood,
brought back that long ago hour, and the
pain Of it-and 10. there was no yesterday,
and no forgetting and re outgrowing. l
stood child, in such an hour OF wrench
ing, horizonless agony as only child can
know.
IN thess DAYS OF kindergartens, where
earliest infancy learns games OF aesthetic
charm and subtly corresPondential mean
ing, doubt If well regulated children ever
"play Indian But TO play Indian" was
our one recreation that age could not
wither nor custom stale Our gorgeousiy
comprehensive notions of the noble red
man were derived in impartial measure
from Cooper's novels, and from lurid liter
AZURE of the Jibbenainosay order. with va
riations supplied by our own ardent youth
| full imaginarions One neyer-to- be-forgot-
ten twilight we had pat the Indian, so 70
speak. through all his known PAGES,
| smoked the (svveet fern pipe Of peace, and
executed war dances Of weird and original
| steps conducted a buffalo hunt, in which
| the long suffering Newfoundland from
over the way officiated buffalo. and
| finally were inspired with the beautiful
| idea OF playing at saTages attacking an
| eInigrant train.
! was the heroic wife and mother of the
/ ernigrant train Armed with a lath picked
! UP from an unfinished building. joyously
| awaited the onslaught OF the bowling
| leader of the tribe-a little boy from the
| next street We rushed at each other -
/ the old mist Is before my eyes, the old
| dumb. clutching horror at my heart
hear the shriu cry of fright and pain;
| see the boy, gone terribly white all in a
| second. pressing both hands to his face
I. - 1. I -.
| the fingers; / see him stagger back against
| his comrades, who slowly lead him away.
/ see my playmates, with the utter. in
| stinctive heartIessness Of chIldhood-I vii
| Tot dwell upon that phrase, but agains'
/ all corners will defend it,-shrink slowly
back from my vicinity looking at me with
| curious eyes, As in whispering groups they
! move off down the street.
And ! am alone As for all my life for
! see l shall be alone. The boy l have
| wounded will die. There viii never NOR,
| be light IN the sunshine nor flavor in food
| Not one of the long. long dreams Of thing:
| to he will ever come true Never for on;
| hour awake or asleep, viii that stone pas.
| from the heart | shall live to be old-olC
| and all the days of all the years shall
| walk alone and they viii point at me a:
| the chiId-the girl-the woman-who killed
| her friend.
1t was a slight wound in the fieshy par
| of the cheek, and in week it was healed
| But my heart-quickiy Gghtened, 1t il
| true of the immediate agony-did not hea
in week. In a quarter century of week:
it has not 81 fully healed but that baf
weather-though it be but that Of sympa
thetic comprehension-stirs in the old sea
something of the old sting and ache!
1t would be indeed IAN irony on the par
of Providence this terrible gift of unfor
getting. were it not, like all our life's laws
compensatory. bringing alive for us a:
many memories Of joy as memories of pain
All that we ever knew of pain lives still
and warns US to earn for ourselves as littl
pain as may be. All that we ever knew
of JOY lives still, and to comprehend tina
is to hold promise of heaven.-Doroth.
Lundt in Boston Commonwealth.