The weekly register. [volume] (Point Pleasant, Va. [W. Va.]) 1862-1909, 1894-03-07
POINT PIEAsANT MASON COUNTY WEST GNTA WEDNESDAY, Ma
The P rama As Painted BY Col. r.
G. IngersolI.


6. Ingers0lI.
Bor 1l love and hope, of ecstacy
and P Of agony and fear, of tears
and 10 lowered with the wealth of
two a Cd hearts, held in happy
arms. lh lips upon LIES driffed
front, ne-veined and fair, where
perfee peace finds perfect form;
rocked by willing feet and moved
to sha shores of sleep by siren
mothe singing soft and low; looking
with tonder's wide and startled
eyes common things of life and
day, taught by want and contact
with t1e things that touch the dimp-
led heah of babes. lured by lighta and
fames and charmed by coior's won
droua obes learning the use of
hand nd feet, and By the life of
mimi begniled to utter speech.
rsIeass prIsoned thoughts from
Graded and curious marks on soiIed
and tattered leaves, puzzling the
brain with crooked numbers and
their tangled worth; and SO through
years of alienation day and night
until the captive grows familiar
with the chains and walls and limi.
tations of life. And time runs on
in sun and shadow, until one of all
the world wooed and won, and all
the lore of love istaught and learned
again. Again home is built with
the fair chamber wherein faint
dreams like cool and shady wales,
divide the billowed hours of love.
Again the miracle of birth, the pain
and joy, the kiss of welcome and
the cradle song drowning the drow-
sy prattle of a babe. And then the
sense of obligation and of wrong;
pity for those who toll and weep;
tears for the imprisoned and
despised; love for the generous dead,
and in the heart the rapture of
high resolve. And then ambition
with its lust of pelf and place and
power, longing to put upon its
breast distinctions 8 worthless badge.
The keener thoughts of men and
eyes that see behind the smiling
mask of craft, fattered no more by
the obsequious cringe of gain and
greed, knowing the uselessness of
boarded gold, of honor bought from
those who charged the usury of
selfrespect; of power that only
bends coward's knee and forces
from the lips of fear the lies of
praise. Knowing at last the un-
studied gestures of esteem; the rev.
lerent eyes made rich with honest
thought. and holding high above
all other things-high as Hopes
great throbbing star above the
darkness of the dead-the love Of
wife and child and friend.
Then locks of gray and glowing
love of fother days and half remem-
bered things; then holding withered
hands of those who first held his,
while over dim and loving eyes,
death softly presses down the lids of
rest.
And so locking in marriage vows
his children's hands and crossing
others on the breast of peace, with
daughters babes upon his knees,
the white hair mingling with the
gold, he Journeys on from day to
day to that horizon where the
dusk is waiting for the night. Sit
ting by the holy hearth of home, as
the last embers change from red to
gray, he falls asleep within the arms
of her he worshiped and adorned,
feeling upon his palIid lips loves
last and holiest kiss.
For life is to me station
Wherein apart a traveller stands
One absent long from home and nation
In other lands.
And /, as one who stands and listens
Amid the twilight chill and gloom
To hear in the approaching distance
The train for home.