Reporter and farmer. [volume] (Webster, Day County, Dakota [S.D.]) 188?-1946, 1896-02-20

Love and Marriage Are nol for you.
have companions among their equals;
the inmates of orphan asylumS are
herded together in great numbers; The
c~loisetered nuns form large commune
ties among themselves: even the con
Wet prisoners work together in great
gangs. In Il word. the most wretched
i'm this world were. i'm many respects.
happier than Alma Elverton,th young
and beautiful heiress-apparent or
Ederiawn. TOrg Castle. and the Bar.
ony Of Elverton: for they at least en-
joyed human sympathy and a compan-
lonship. while she had no frlend-not
one-not q single creature of her
ind 10 speak with.
II is true there were laborers on
estate and servants in the house; bG>
in them2
And there was her mother, retired
within the citadel Of her own mysteri-
Gus and selfish sorrows; but what COM
partnership could Alma tiud in her?
All young girls. as they develop into
womanhood, yearn from their secret
souls for a more perfect sympathy
than they usually meet from their W
family circles. This is the real cause
Of romantic schoolgirl friendships.
and, alas! too frequently of other less
harmless attachments
In large and busy households of
many sisters and brothers. this aspira-
ton is very much modified and rem
dered quite endurable. But the more
lonely and idle the life OF a young
girl is doomed TO be. the more intense
is this secret yearning for sympathy.
And il she happens TO he OF Il poetic
temperament also, the longing Of her
heart becomes the monomania CT her
mind.
Alma. with no one TO with,
no work to do, and no visits to receive
or TO pay became an aspiring dreamer
or beautiful dreams, Impossible to be
realized in this world of stern realities:
for love. still love- was the burden
of those dreams. And even rs II taxes
a feast to satisfy the hangry, 50 Il
would have required The Thole
circle of human love-father's,
mothers, sisters, brothers. friends.
and lover's-to have satisfied the
craving of Alma's starving heart. And
she had none not one atom of love. TO
http that Htiil HUH ptIASlEIE.
What do physicians mean by an
atrophy of the heart? We all know
simply starvation for want Of food. Is
what an atrophy of the stomach is
not an atrophy OF the heart also star
walton for the lack of love? He who
said. Feed my lambs.' said also.
Love m another" And perhaps as
many are perishing i'm this world for
lack of love as for the want of food.
Alma's was an extreme case of this
sort Of starvation. And small as her
experience was she had seen, heard
and read enough 10 discover that her
W. life was very different from all
other lives around her. At church.
every Sunday, she saw happy family
parties gathered together in their fam
lily pews. After the service. in the
churchyard. she saw friends and
neighbors greeting each other with
affection and delight. She knew that.
as the granddaughter of the cele-
brated Baron Elverton. and as the
heiress apparent of his titles and es-
tates, she was entitled 10 fully as
much consideration as any other Young
lady in the county. Why did she not
ttNNiFN ~.
From casual words and chance al
lusions rather than from any detailed
narrative or voluntary communica-
ton from the servants. Alma had
cleaned as much of the domestic his
tory as was known to the servants
themselves. And she dreamed. won
dered and ~speculated upon the subject
of the mystery that %enveloped her fam.
lily.
Her father! What was 1t that. on
the night before her birth. had driven
him in an agony Of horror from his
home forever:
Her mother! What was Ii that. from
the hour of Alma's birth, had frozen
that beautiful and ardent woman into
the cold. hard statue that she now
seemed?
Herself. What was IL that set her
apart, lonely and unloved, from all the
human race?
Alma could have loved her mother
and been happy In her mothers love,
but the cold and repellant atmosphere
that surrounded the lady chilled and
repulsed the maiden.