The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1895-04-25
PLEA FOR NERVOUS WOMEN.
Amber Says There Arc Heroes and Then
There Are Others.

AmDcT says Incro ARC heroes ana linen
There Are Others.
There are more heroes than those
who die on battlefields; more martyrs
than those the worlds memory en-
balms; more saints than those whose
names are told on rosaries. What
courage does the soldier need who
marches into battle with the song of
bugles and nations cheers to over
flow his excited brain with delirious
daring compared to that required of
feeble woman to put to rout the legion
cares that daily besiege her way; to
control sudden temper, the offspring of
shattered nerves, and to hold herself
steadfast and sweet through days that
are like armed men in their onslaught
upon peace. There is an exalted en-
thusiasm that carries the martyr to his
doom, but in the prosaic lot of many
women what enthusiasm can elothe
the barren life with anything worthy
the crown and the palm that lie beyond
the martyrs suffering? The sanity
lives that cast the whiteness of their
bloom in secluded cloisters, apart from
the worlds allurements, folded from
its temptations as lambs are folded
from the preying wolf and the bitter
storm, leave fair and lovely records, it
is true, of tender ministrations and
sweet self-abnegation; OF prayers as
pure as snow that falls on monntai,,
peaks, or stars that wing their way
above them; but why should it be 9TH
erwise? Should not lilies spring in
sheltered gardens and roses Chamber
over the tre]lis that loving hands pre-
pare? But when you find the lily
blooming on the dusty highway and
the rose budding above the homely hut
of poverty, then take notice of its
beauty, for angels might honor it and
God Himself consent to wear it next
His heart.
When see healthy men and women
condemniug the nervous weakness of
some poor woman made querulous by
battles hotter than Gettysburg or
Waterloo, | fancy ! see lot of black
smith hammers sitting in judgment
upon the vlbratory instincts Of
watch spring. Care and trouble that
would pass over your heads as the
winds pass over mountain pines, only
bending the topmost boughs little,
while the roots take hold in the
strength of the hills, would sweep the
delicate mechanism of other natures
into chaos.
What does your f1esh-and-blood Hebe
know of nerves? Her blood is elixir,
her sinews are strung cords, and all
her goings out and comings in are at
tuned to the motion of buoyant life.
She is q splendid physical develop
ment, master mechanism that runs
as smoothly as feather drawn through
oil. OF course she carries electric
cheer wherever she goes. She is never
out of sorts-why should she be?
A harp kept always in tune gives forth
no discords. She is never despondent,
cast down, lost in the shad ows-why
should she be? An eagle in the face of
the sun is far above all shadows, out
of range of hunters with their
cowardly ambush and deadly aim
For her to be bonny and blithe
and sweet forever is delightful
to be sure, yet of no especial credit,
to either her heart or her disposition.
But take the woman who has hosts of
babies and shattered vitality, who
was made frail and delicate creature
at the first, and by chance and circum-
stance has been gradually reduced I'M
til her body is little more than an
astral vase that holds the flower of life,
and let her be sunshiny and cheerful
one-fourth of her time, and the other
three-fourths querulous and fearful,
and as blue as indigo, tell you that
poor little miserable one-fourth re-
deems the whole, and makes her life
surprise, | think, to the angels who
keep watch over and know her battling
limitations. She shall pass through
life with no song of deliverance, no
need of glory, such as conquerors
know; she shall be found fault with
and despised by souls that cannot I'M
derstand her any more than they I'M
derstand why the mimosa shrinks at
breath, or the harp responds to the
touch of the troubadour wind. She
shall lie down in death at last as upon
a couch of perfect peace, meekly won
dering, perhaps, or timidly question
ing the welcome her spent and weary
soul shall receive from the Master.
Her shattered body shall be laid away
with tears and soon forgotten, but oh!
l love to think of the surprise that
awaits the dear heart there! She shall
find that every prayer for strength,
every yearning for enduring grace,
every heart-throb and tear has been
remembered by the heart of infinite
love. She shall find the music, and the
brightness, and the peace earth failed
to bestow, garnered there like golden
sheaves in an autumn of plenty. She
shall at last be understood and enter
into the sympathy of that great COM
pany who, like her, have come up
through tribulation unto the perfect
peace, the unclouded joy of Heaven.
For He knoweth," He remem-
bereth," "He careth for us."-Amber,
in Chicago Times-Heralc
WATERCRESS INTERLUDE.