The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1897-04-25

years, then, to day when Time first
had significance for me. An ungen-
erous moment that of my birth, be-
slowing and depriving in the same in
slant. For that brief space which gave
me breath robbed my mother of the
feeble spark Of life which had burnt
but diTnly within her since she had
been left, a poor, unfortunate little
wife, an eXpectant mother scarcely out
of her bridehoOd, to do battle with a
world which held her fittingly punished
for a supreme act Of folly and weak
ness.
In the speech Of that little hamlet
which composed her universe she had
made fool Of herself" by marrying
foreigner, a gay, unprincipled, at
tractive young Frenchman, a light
opera tenor, who had been sent into
temporary residence in Sheraton, in
order that the dry, pure air of the
place might benefit and restore an
over-taXed voice.
Rumor has it she was a village
beauty. Gossip (and alas! I fear this
time the crone's voice is that of truth
as WelD insists he was a rogue and
rascal. At all events, not many
months succeeded her honeymoon be-
fore the poor ''fooP' awoke to the dis
covery that. to all intents and pur-
poses, though death had no part in
her bereavement, she was a widow.
L
eXpatrtatton from that land of b.
hernia which was so congeniaI to his
temperament, after a twelVe-month'S
dreary StagnatiOn in one of the worlds
kitchen gardens, in one of those dull
villages where the fairest blooms are
but those of vegetables: where the at
mOsphere, mental moral and physi-
cial, is adapted solely to the cultiva-
ton Of useful crops; where brightness
and sunshine are rather feared than
courted. lest they injure, by their too
great potency, springing plants and
tender groWths- an unsuccessful
attempt to enliven this depressing
monotony by a legitimately sentiment
tai episode, my father, divesting him
self Of marital obligations as easily
as he had assumed them, took an es-
sentially Gallo leave of Sheraton, and
Of the pretty kornblume which he had
so carelessly torn from its safely -es-
tablished roots.
If I speak f1ippantly Of my fathers
conduct, it is not that do not repro
bate 1t heartily. 1 hold him coward.
G. scoundrel, worse than thief and
brigand to have deliberately and of
set purpose acquired q treasure of in
estimable value, a thing Of immortal
worth, only to drop it lightly from his
Indifferent hold into the mire of I'M
awaiting regret and woe when he had
made an exhaustive examination of its
exquisite and lovely intricacies. I have
no words harsh enough to condemn
properly the man who cheats and be-
trays a woman. be she wife or mis-
tress. And yet-and yet, in treating of
my fathers baseness, I, Pauline
Carette, must needs take heed Of that
Divine command, so vitality qualified:
Let him that is without sin among
you cast the first stone"
And so my hand falls powerless, i'm
in T
the assault, am far from sinless, am
guilty indeed, even in fashion like unto
that would condemn. 1t is a fearful,
| most sad and miserable thing, for
| child to discover in itself those paren-
tai traits which it most abhors; to
| seek In its own character the repro
| auction Of the admirable features of
| the one parent, only to behold the de-
| testable lineaments of the other
| would have moulded myself after nv
mothers image-Nature fashioned me
! more largely after that of my father.
! By temperament 1 am so akin to him
| that even while I pity and deprecate
! my mothers wrong and anguish, I can
in measure sympathise with and I'M
| derstand the motives that directed the
dastardly conduct which occasioned it.
For have 1 not likewise been con-
strained, coerced, hampered, fretted
! beyond the limits of my endurance bv
| the narrow, uuIl ana Qreary life Of
Sheraton village? Have I not sought
conscientiously, and with real ardor,
carrots and cabbages? Have 1 not
| tried earnestly to cultivate the belief
| that vegetable blooms are real flowers
and that their oft-times delicate beau
| ty indicates refinement and sensibility
within the plant, only to be disappoint-
ed as ! have watched the fair promise
Of higher things fade away, and the
fruit develop into a mere article of
utility, fit alone for the consumption
Of Doors and ciodhoppers,
Her husbands desertion left nv
| mother stranded. She had no money, no
| family, no resources. and but one avail